Read more
"It's a steamy summer Ottawa day when Cate is called out to the nitrate facility to investigate an apparent suicide. The eerie building is filled with deteriorating nitrate film that could literally spontaneously combust. When Cate's life is threatened by a stray spark, she suspects that the suicide might be murder. Despite pressure from the police to pronounce on cause quickly, Cate is bloody-minded enough to keep investigating. Whether she's looking for answers because of her dedication to justice, or as a distraction from the grief she feels over her brother's recent death, her inquiries plunge her into a world of military secrets, contentious Indigenous protests and a seventy-year-old mystery with deadly implications"--
About the author
Amy Tector was born and raised in the rolling hills of Quebec’s Eastern Townships. She has worked in archives for the past twenty years and has found some pretty amazing things, including lost letters, mysterious notes, and even a whale’s ear. Amy spent many years as an expat, living in Brussels and in The Hague, where she worked for the International Criminal Tribunal for War Crimes in Yugoslavia. She lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her daughter, dog, and husband.
Summary
More than ten years after The Foulest Things, murder and mayhem return to Ottawa in the highly-anticipated next installment of Amy Tector’s acclaimed Dominion Archives Mystery series.
It’s a stormy summer day when Ottawa coroner Dr. Cate Spencer is called to the scene of an alleged suicide. Inside a narrow vault in the Dominion Archives’ nitrate film storage facility—kept separate from the rest of the collection due to its dangerous combustibility—officers pressure Cate to rule the death a suicide. When parts of the scene don’t add up and a deliberately set spark threatens her life, Cate suspects that this death might be a murder.
Cate’s tough façade masks a deep compassion for the victims she examines. Whether she’s looking for answers because of her dedication to justice or to distract herself from anguish over her brother’s recent death, her inquiries plunge her into a world of military secrets, contentious Indigenous protests, and a seventy-year-old mystery with deadly implications. Will Cate manage to pull herself away from her scotch and grief to expose an explosive historic secret and solve a murder the police doubt even exists?
