“This is the second book in the Paradise Café series featuring private investigator Charlotte Frayne and it’s even better than the first. Jennings has made the jump from Victorian Toronto to the Depression era with ease and, once again, proves that Canadian history is far from dull.” — The Globe and Mail
Charlotte’s boss at T. Gilmore and Associates takes off on a mysterious trip to Europe, leaving Charlotte in charge of the detective agency. Mrs. Jessop hires the newly promoted Private Investigator to inquire into the untimely death of her son, a veteran injured in the Great War. The police ruled it a suicide, but Mrs. Jessop doesn’t agree and wants Charlotte to find out what really happened.
Then Charlotte is hired to infiltrate a small women’s wear manufacturer to uncover communist agitators. When the factory supervisor is murdered on the job just as Charlotte starts to look into it, she gets seconded to the police to help find out what happened.
The November clouds darken and Charlotte is left to struggle to solve two mysteries at the same time — until they intersect. Add an aging grandfather, an absent boyfriend, and a mad scheme to mount a controversial play at the Paradise Café and Charlotte has her hands full.
Maureen Jennings is best known for the Detective Murdoch books, which have been adapted into the long-running television series, Murdoch Mysteries. This has now aired in over one hundred and forty territories. She is also the author of the Tom Tyler series, the Christine Morris series, and the Paradise Café series. This, the most recent work, features her latest protagonist, Charlotte Frayne. Her books have been translated into many other languages, including Polish, Korean, French, German, Italian, and Czech. Jennings was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from Heritage Toronto in 1998 and the Grant Allen Award for ongoing contribution to the genre in 2011. She was awarded the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada’s Grand Master Award and has received eight nominations, for best novel and best short story of the year. Jennings was born in the UK and now lives in Toronto with her husband, photographer Iden Ford, and her dog, Murdoch.
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