To Track a Traitor

To Track a Traitor

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

With events spanning both world wars, the tenth installment in the Lane Winslow mystery—which first began with the bestselling adventure A Killer in King's Cove—series is a transatlantic tale of sibling rivalry, infidelity, and espionage.It's an early morning in May when Lane is pulled from a deep sleep by a concerning phone call from Scotland—her grandfather has had a heart attack. Lane hastily makes plans to fly overseas, and a dejected Inspector Darling prepares himself for a stint of bachelorhood. But before he can begin to dwell on it the Nelson Police learn that Ben Arden, a local cad, has gone out for a late-night boat ride and not returned, which immediately sets the town rumour mill churning.In Scotland Lane finds her grandfather on the mend but her estranged sister Diana caught up in stressful—and mysterious—circumstances of her own. As Lane follows the thread leading from South Africa to Aberdeen to the...
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A Deceptive Devotion

A Deceptive Devotion

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

A wedding is on the horizon for Lane Winslow and Inspector Darling. As one of the few Russian speakers in her community, Lane is obliged to act as translator and hostess for Countess Orlova, an elderly Russian woman who has tracked her missing brother to the Nelson area. Nelson PD investigates, but then the murder of a lone hunter in the hills above King's Cove takes top priority.Darling works the case with a Constable Oxley—a newcomer to the area, assigned in Constable Ames' temporary absence—and a British agent contacts Lane to warn her to be on the lookout for a fleeing Russian defector. Bound by the Wartime Secrets Act, Lane is conflicted about keeping the information from Darling, especially when it begins to put a strain on their relationship.Fans of Maisie Dobbs and the Kopp Sisters will delight in this rousing adventure of intrigue and espionage.
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A Match Made for Murder

A Match Made for Murder

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

“An intriguing mix of character, plot, time, and place. Highly recommended.” —Ian Hamilton, author of the bestselling Ava Lee novels Lane and Darling’s Arizona honeymoon is interrupted by gunshots in the newest instalment in a series Kirkus Reviews calls “relentlessly exciting.” It’s November, and Lane and Darling have escaped the chilly autumn in the Kootenays for a honeymoon at the posh and romantic Santa Cruz Inn in sunny Tucson, Arizona. But despite her very best intentions to relax, soon after their arrival Lane’s plans to spend the holiday poolside with a good mystery are interrupted by gunfire. One of the hotel’s wealthy guests has been shot point blank and Lane is second on the scene. Though Lane and Darling attempt to distance themselves from the investigation, the longer they stay at the Santa Cruz Inn, the deeper they are drawn into a web of suspects and bystanders, and a collection of seemingly perfect marriages fraught with jealousy and violence. The situation threatens first their honeymoon and then their lives when Lane puts herself directly in the sights of local criminals who will stop at nothing to get what they want. Back in Nelson, Sergeant Ames has been left in charge of the department during Darling’s absence. As he investigates a case of vandalism at the Van Eyck garage, it seems to lead directly to the death of the suspected vandal himself. Working with Constable Terrell, the new recruit, to piece together what happened in this strange and unsettling murder, Ames finds his romantic interest in mechanic Tina Van Eyck creates complications that are more than awkward; they could be deadly. Fans of Maisie Dobbs and the Kopp sisters will delight in the latest Lane Winslow, a study of matrimony and mirage in the American Southwest.
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A Sorrowful Sanctuary

A Sorrowful Sanctuary

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

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?Darling and Ames are quick to pick up the case, but leads are few until Angela's young son finds an unsettling clue on the beach—a bright red swastika lapel pin—that points to the National Unity Party of Canada. When the anonymous man succumbs to his injuries, Darling and Lane are thrown headlong into a murder investigation with ties to the old country.Fans of Maisie Dobbs, Bess Crawford, and the ever-popular Kopp Sisters will be enchanted by Lane Winslow, a clever, no-nonsense sleuth...
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Framed in Fire

Framed in Fire

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

An April 2022 Loan Stars Top 10Shortlisted for the BC and Yukon Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice AwardA shallow grave, a missing person, and near-fatal arson keep Lane, Darling, and the Nelson police on high alert in the latest mystery in this Globe and Mail bestselling series. It's early spring 1948 and Lane arrives in New Denver to find that her friend, Peter Barisoff, is not at home. Instead, in a nearby meadow, she encounters Tom, an Indigenous man in search of his ancestral lands. Lane is intrigued. Unfortunately, once Peter returns home, the day takes a gloomy turn when the trio uncovers human remains next to Peter's garden, and Lane must tell her husband, Inspector Darling, that she's inadvertently stumbled into his professional domain—again.Back in Nelson, the Vitalis, Lane and Darling's favourite restaurateurs, are victims of arson. Constable Terrell's investigation suggests prejudice as a motive,...
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Lightning Strikes the Silence

Lightning Strikes the Silence

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

Beginning with a bang, the latest mystery in the series Publishers Weekly calls "highly entertaining" is a study in bygone promises and lingering prejudice.A warm June afternoon in King's Cove is interrupted by an explosion. Following the sound, Lane goes to investigate. Up a steep path she discovers a secluded cabin and, hiding nearby, a young Japanese girl injured and mute, but very much alive.At the Nelson Police Station, Inspector Darling and Sergeant Ames, following up on a report of a nighttime heist at the local jeweller's, discover the jeweller himself dead in his office, apparently bludgeoned, and a live wire hanging off the back of the building.As Lane attempts to speed the search for the girl's family with her own lines of inquiry, Darling and his team dig deeper into a local connection between the jeweller and a fellow businessman that leads across the pond to Cornwall and north to a mining interest on the McKenzie River....
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A Lethal Lesson

A Lethal Lesson

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

Lane Winslow trades crime solving for substitute teaching in the eighth installment of this mystery series that Kirkus Reviews calls "riveting".Back home in the Kootenays after her Arizona honeymoon, Lane offers her assistance when neither the outgoing teacher, Rose, nor her replacement, Wendy, show up at the local schoolhouse one blizzardy Monday in December. But when she finds the teachers' cottage ransacked with Rose unconscious and bleeding, and Wendy missing, Lane delivers Rose to the hospital in Nelson and turns the case over to her exasperated husband, Inspector Darling, and his capable colleagues, Sergeant Ames and Constable Terrell.Never one to leave a post unmanned, Lane enlists as substitute teacher for the final two weeks before the Christmas holidays, during which time she discovers a threatening note in the teachers' desk and a revolver in the supply cupboard. But these clues only convolute the case further. Who has been...
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A Season for Spies

A Season for Spies

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

"In the midst of the London Blitz, a spy is born and so is a star. Lane Winslow, an unlikely but resilient heroine, is someone to follow and someone to root for, and this is only the beginning of her story." —J. A. Jance, New York Times bestselling author In A Season for Spies, the page-turning prequel to the mystery series Publishers Weekly calls "highly entertaining," Lane Winslow embarks on her first spy mission in wartime England, while her grandparents' quiet Christmas in Scotland is interrupted by a mysterious guest. In wartime England, Lane Winslow has been pulled out of her studies at Oxford and spends her days in London translating for the war office. Things are grim, and it looks like no one is going home for Christmas—that is, not until Lane's commanding officer orders her to drop everything to do just that. He's loathe to send a woman, but a very important agent needs an escort into...
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A Killer in King's Cove

A Killer in King's Cove

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

A smart and enchanting postwar mystery that will appeal to fans of the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear.It is 1946, and war-weary young ex-intelligence officer Lane Winslow leaves London to look for a fresh start. When she finds herself happily settled into a sleepy hamlet in the interior of British Columbia surrounded by a suitably eclectic cast of small-town characters she feels like she may finally be able to put her past to rest.But then a body is discovered, the victim of murder, and although she works alongside the town's inspectors Darling and Ames to discover who might have possibly have motivation to kill, she unknowingly casts doubt on herself. As the investigation reveals facts that she has desperately tried to keep a secret, it threatens to pull her into a vortex of even greater losses than the ones she has already endured.A clever postwar mystery that will appeal to fans the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear or the Bess Crawford...
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Death in a Darkening Mist

Death in a Darkening Mist

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

The second instalment in the Lane Winslow mystery series; for fans of the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series.On a snowy day in December 1946, Lane Winslow—a former British intelligence agent who's escaped to the rural Canadian community of King's Cove in pursuit of a tranquil life—is introduced to the local hot springs. While there she overhears nearby patrons speaking Russian. When one of those patrons is found dead in the change room, Lane's linguistic and intelligence experience is of immeasurable value to the local police force in solving the murder.The investigation points to the Soviet Union, where Stalin's purges are eliminating enemies, and the reach of Stalin's agent snakes all the way into a harmless Doukhobor community. Winslow's complicated relationship with the local police inspector, Darling, is intensified by the perils of the case—and by the discovery of her own father's death during the war.The case comes to a frantic and...
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An Old, Cold Grave

An Old, Cold Grave

Iona Whishaw

Mystery / Historical / Historical Fiction

The third book in the popular Lane Winslow mystery series by an author the Globe and Mail has called a "writer to watch."It's early spring of 1947 in idyllic King's Cove, and the Hughes ladies, mère et filles, are gardening and sorting through the jars of food that have been put up for the winter. But while cleaning up after the roof of their root cellar has caved in slightly, they are horrified to discover a small skeletal hand embedded in the mess. Panicked, they call Lane Winslow, the ex-British secret service agent, and, not without some misgivings about the state of their tense relationship, Lane calls Inspector Darling.Before long the police crew discover the body of a young child buried almost 40 years before. Who is the child, and why has it not been buried in the local cemetery? Inspector Darling, already busy dealing with a teenage girl who has gone on a destructive rampage at a local mill, asks Lane for help in unearthing the...
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