National Network for Equitable Library Service

The White Ribbon Man is a murder mystery set in Toronto. A woman's body is found in the basement toilet of a downtown Toronto church. It is an Anglican church that welcomes homeless people for coffee and soup and has a congregation composed largely of social activists. The discovery challenges a community that sees itself as a compassionate one and causes people who once were comfortable with each other to become suspicious instead.

Intrigued by the unlikely invitation from a detective in Vienna to prove she murdered her lover, Harry Lindstrom finds himself in a strained alliance with a woman who seems to have stepped out of a painting by Klimt. His chaotic pursuit to unravel her story leads him home to Toronto, then back to Vienna, Salzburg, and salt mines near the ancient village of Hallstadtt, where stories from the past and present merge with horrific finality. Lindstrom's Progress is the second in a trilogy, between Lindstrom Alone and Lindstrom Unbound.

Detective Superintendent MacNeice is returning from a pilgrimage to his wife's grave when he's called to a crime scene of singular and disturbing beauty. A young woman in evening dress lies gracefully posed on the floor of a pristine summer cottage so that the finger of one hand regularly interrupts the needle arm of a phonograph playing Schubert's Piano Trio. The only visible mark on her is the bruise under her chin, which MacNeice recognizes: it is the mark that distinguishes dedicated violinists, the same mark that once graced his wife.

Glasgow, 1969. In the grip of the worst winter for years, the city is brought to its knees by a killer whose name fills the streets with fear: The Quaker. He's taken his next victim - the third woman from the same nightclub - and dumped her in the street like rubbish. The police are left chasing a ghost, with no new leads and no hope of catching their prey. After six months, DI Duncan McCormack, a talented young detective from the Highlands, is ordered to join the investigation - with a view to shutting it down for good.

On a cold morning in early spring, the body of a young woman is found trapped in the ice of Dundurn Bay. The next day at dawn, a homeless man discovers an unconscious school teacher in a public park. Gagged and bound with duct tape, the man is rigged to an elaborate bomb that's been set to blow if anyone attempts to free him.

Two bodies have been found in the master bedroom of a mansion in Dundurn's old-money neighbourhood under the mountain. Howard Terry and his son Matthew have both been shot twice in the chest. Under Matthew's body is a doll with blood red cotton wadding spilling out of its head. Nearby, a female mannequin in a nightshirt lies on its back with two bullet holes in the chest. On the other side of town, a body is discovered below the Devil's Punch Bowl waterfall. Leaning against an enormous rock is a man in a cotton nightshirt wearing a papier mâché donkey's head. Two rounds in the chest.

As a local biker war rages - seven shrink-wrapped corpses have been found buried on a farm just outside of Dundurn - an ambitious waterfront project meant to revive the dying industrial city is underway. Dredging is nearly complete when six more bodies turn up at the bottom of the lake. With the body count rising, the situation in Dundurn escalates as a serial killer begins targeting the city's successful young women of colour.

The fourth book in what the Globe and Mail has proclaimed "a terrific series" by "a writer to watch." Summer descends over the picturesque King's Cove as Darling and Lane's mutual affection blossoms. But their respite from solving crime is cut short when a British government official arrives in Nelson to compel Darling to return to England for questioning about the death of a rear gunner under his command in 1943. In Darling's absence, Ames oversees the investigation into the suspicious death of a local elderly woman and uncovers a painful betrayal inflicted forty years earlier.

In the fifth book of the series that the Globe and Mail calls "terrific," Lane Winslow investigates the murder of an unidentified man she found adrift in a boat near King's Cove. Lane Winslow is enjoying a perfect, sunny day at the lake when she spots a gravely injured young man drifting in a sinking rowboat. Hypothermic, bleeding, and soaked in icy, bloody water, he is unable to speak, leaving Lane at a loss. What series of events brought him to this grisly fate?

It's 1908, and 16-year-old Charlotte O'Dell is forced to move away from her great Aunt Ginny in Victoria, and live and work at the St. Alice Hotel in order to make enough money to finish school. Her unruly red hair instantly makes her a new friend in Lizzie, though her equally fiery temperament doesn't go over quite as well with her boss, Mrs. Bannerman. It does, however, give her the opportunity to get to know the rest of the staff, and the guests, at the St. Alice.