Canada's premier author of historical mystery fiction returns with a
brand new and highly anticipated Murdoch Mystery, with an older and
wiser Detective Murdoch.
It is November 1917. The Great War is grinding on, chewing up young men
by the thousands. Initially, in the loyal Dominion of Canada, people are
mostly eager to support the Motherland and fight for the Empire. Men
perceived as slackers or cowards are shunned. But the carnage is
horrendous and with enforced conscription, the enthusiasm for war is
dimming.
William Murdoch is a widower, a senior detective who, thanks to the new
temperance laws, spends his time tracking down bootleggers and tipplers;
most unsatisfying. His wife, Amy, died giving birth to their second
child, a girl who lived only a few hours more. Murdoch, racked by grief,
withdrew from four-year-old, Jack. This he regrets and would dearly love
to make up for his negligence.
As we enter the story, Jack, now twenty-one, has returned from France
after being wounded and gassed at the Battle of Passchendaele. It is
soon apparent that he is deeply troubled but he's not confiding in his
father. He does, however, seem to be bound by shared secrets to another
wounded former soldier, Percy McKinnon.
Murdoch suddenly has much more serious crimes than rum-running on his
hands. The night after Jack and McKinnon arrive home, a young man is
found stabbed to death in the impoverished area of Toronto known as the
Ward. Soon after, Murdoch has to deal with a tragic suicide, also a
young man. Two more murders follow in quick succession. The only common
denominator is that all of the men were exempted from conscription.
Increasingly worried that Jack knows more than he is letting on, Murdoch
must solve these crimes before more innocents lose their lives. It is a
solution that will give him only sorrow.
