The Paradise Cafe Mysteries, Books 1-3
Maureen Jennings, the acclaimed author behind Murdoch Mysteries, brings her usual attention to historical detail in the Paradise Café Mysteries featuring Private Investigator Charlotte Frayne and set in Depression-era Toronto.
INCLUDES A SNEAK PEEK AT BOOK #4, MARCH ROARS.
Heat Wave
Charlotte Frayne, junior associate in a two-person investigation firm, looks into a hate-letter delivered to her boss, Theodore Gilmore. On the same day, Hilliard Taylor, a First World War veteran who, together with three other former prisoners-of-war, operates the Paradise Café, seeks the firm’s assistance in uncovering what he believes is the systemic embezzlement of the Café.
November Rain
Left in charge of the firm after Mr. Gilmore travels to Europe in the fall of 1936 on a mysterious trip, Charlotte Frayne is hired to investigate the untimely death of a disfigured and injured veteran of the Great War. The police have ruled the death a suicide, but the soldier’s mother believes something larger was at play. On the same day, Charlotte is also hired to infiltrate a small womenswear manufacturer to uncover communist agitators the owner believes to be responsible for the labour unrest at his company.
Cold Snap
P.I. Charlotte Frayne is pulled into a dangerous international plot when her boss provides shelter to a relative fleeing from Germany and who’s privy to information that could change the future his country. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s estranged mother reappears, wanting her help to find a child she gave up at birth twenty years ago.