Bookstore owner Kate Rowan can no longer read murder mysteries. Pitching fictional homicides to customers is one thing, but after getting her heart broken by a real killer, Kate can’t crack the spine on a cozy, let alone a noir.
Security expert Gary Fenris is haunted by his conscience. Leaving Kate after she learned he took a life to avenge a previous lost love, Gary knows that protecting others from danger — and protecting Kate from himself — is his best shot at atonement.
But when Kate’s great-aunt is found holding a bloody knife at a crime scene, on a property guarded by Fenris Securities, the only way Kate and Gary can solve the case is by working together. Their sleuthing sends them on a high stakes treasure hunt across London, from the safe deposit boxes in Selfridges department store to the Reading Rooms of the British Library. Back in forced proximity with her killer ex, Kate can’t help but wonder if, this time, she can convince Gary to turn the page on murder.
- Kate, a Canadian bookstore owner living in England, takes on the role of amateur sleuth again when her Aunt Roselyn becomes prime suspect to a crime — just as more details about Roselyn’s involvement in a tragic suicide decades ago come to light.
- To solve this whodunnit, Kate must team up with Gary, a security expert who’s also haunted by guilt, grief, and loss after murdering his deceased love’s killer.
- Known for her Charley Scott Mysteries, Westermann has been praised for her ability to write “an artfully crafted mystery full of charm, wit, and page-turning suspense” by Daryl Wood Gerber, nationally bestselling author of the Fairy Garden Mysteries.
- A former Arthur Ellis judge, a member of International Thriller Writers (ITW) and Crime Writers of Canada (CWC), and an avid presenter on mystery storytelling at schools, libraries, and book clubs, Westermann is a master at combining the heartbreak of murder with the joy of feel-good romance.
Bookstore owner Kate Rowan has given up on crime fiction after falling for a killer. But when she finds her great-aunt holding a bloody knife at a murder scene, Kate reluctantly teams up with security expert Gary, the man who broke her heart, to find out whodunnit.
