Summer along Canada's Sunshine Coast is murderously hot in this moody mystery thriller-the basis for the Fox TV and Hulu series Murder in a Small Town. RCMP Sergeant Karl Alberg is attempting to escape the heat with his girlfriend Cassandra when they discover a body on the beach, fresh from a fatal plunge into the icy, all-too-appealing waves. As Alberg knows from his days as a big-city cop, heat can make people do strange things-such as the recent act of vandalism at a local petting zoo. But was there something more to this untimely death? Meanwhile, Alberg's personal life also threatens to boil over. Not only is his daughter visiting, but his ex-wife is getting married again. Weaving these provocative strands through a Pacific Northwest heatwave, acclaimed author L.R. Wright once again delivers an atmospheric mystery with "a most appealing protagonist-akin to P. D. James's Dalgleish and Ruth Rendell's Wexford, but with a quintessentially Canadian voice" ( Publishers Weekly ).