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Ted Wood

The first novel featuring “the most savvy cop currently in the genre” is a story of terror and suspense in a small Canadian town (Library Journal).
 
 After his life was destroyed because of his efforts to prevent a rape, Reid Bennett relocated to Murphy’s Harbor, a quaint little town in Canada. But it may not be the quiet place it seems.
 
 A corpse and a scared woman are each found on different sides of the lake. Then, another corpse. Reid, with his German shepherd, Sam, by his side, must go above and beyond the call of duty to get to the bottom of this mystery. The only way he can solve it—and remain alive—is to stretch the traditional definition of a police officer . . .
 
 This is the first mystery starring Reid Bennett, “a series character worth watching for” (Los Angeles Times).

Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller

The Reid Bennett Mysteries

Dead in the Water

Police chief Reid Bennett—“the most savvy cop currently in the genre”—and his dog track cold-hearted kidnappers in a Canadian crime thriller (Library Journal).

 Reid Bennett, the newest addition to the Murphy’s Harbour, Ontario, police department, has embarked on his second case. During the Ice Festival, there is a sudden blackout and the Queen of the Ice Festival disappears; in fact she has been kidnapped! Members of a feminist anti‑pageant group are suspected, but Reid suspects something fishy. He must expose the organizer of the kidnapping—and try not to get himself killed.

Murder on Ice

“A series character worth watching for,” small-town Canadian police chief Reid Bennett and his dog tackle big city crime (Los Angeles Times).

 Reid Bennett hits the mean streets of Toronto again. Because of his expertise, he (and his German shepherd, Sam, of course) is asked to bring in the vermin that has been bludgeoning nighttime security guards. And he makes the collar as advertised. So the police department asks him to stay on the case and find out who has been ordering these beatings. Reid has got to get down to business and sift through the long list of suspects. But he gets a little too involved . . . the culprits start looking for him, or at least he thinks they are. Reid must get to the bottom of this case quickly, before he becomes the next victim.

Live Bait

A killer mines the wilds of Canada for victims. On the case: police chief Reid Bennett, “one of the most interesting series whodunit heroes of the decade” (Chicago Sun-Times).

 When gold is found in the mountains of Canada, it brings a rush of prospectors, pilots, and men looking to get rich quick. It also brings a slew of dead bodies. That is when Reid Bennett, the lone cop of tiny Murphy’s Harbour, gets called in to help. The dead body of geologist Jim Prudhomme is found mauled beyond recognition by a bear. Or is it? Bear attacks are more than rare in these parts, and the tracks do not add up. Is it murder instead? Things get complicated as witnesses cry foul and more bodies pile up, including the reappearance of someone already dead. Thankfully, Reid has the help of the local police chief out for one last big case. He is also joined by a beautiful motel keeper and by his faithful dog Sam. But with gold on the line, the danger might come too fast and furious for our four heroes.

Fool's Gold

A double murder in a Canadian fishing village pits a rogue cop against a motorcycle gang in a mystery with “a hero as canny as he is strong” (Publishers Weekly).

 Reid Bennett and his dog Sam serve as the police force for not‑so‑quaint Murphy’s Harbor, Ontario. They have yet another perilous but important task. There are some pretty nasty bikers disrupting the façade of serenity of Murphy’s Harbor, and Reid must find a way to make them take a hike without “disrespecting their civil rights.” Reid really just wants to kill them, but he knows that he must act with discretion in order to keep hidden a secret from his past. Then, to complicate matters, a young boy named Kennie Spenser is reported missing. Reid has to find the boy, who may have been kidnapped for his camera, and restore order to Murphy’s Harbor. All in a day’s work!

Corkscrew

This gripping crime thriller pits “the most savvy cop currently in the genre” and his police dog against a band of mercenaries (Library Journal).

 Reid Bennett, police chief of tiny Murphy’s Harbour in Canada, is looking forward to a month’s vacation. He plans to spend time with his girlfriend, Freda, and he might even get to go fishing with his dog, Sam. But then Norma Michaels, the wife of a rich businessman, turns up with a $25,000 offer: Find her twenty‑year‑old son, Jason. He has run off with some mercenaries to train for overseas service and she is afraid she has lost him forever. Even though he is of age, she wants him found, and she will pay handsomely.

 The mercenaries call themselves Freedom for Hire, and their leader is a cashiered sergeant from the British paratroopers who now styles himself Colonel George Dunphy. He was court‑martialed for brutality, forced out of the service, and stands ready to brutalize a bunch of young men while stealing their pay. Since people like Dunphy annoy Reid, he decides to take the job—despite the minor risk of a few ex‑SAS men with automatic weapons—but he is more worried that the boy will not want to come home when he is found. There are lots of questions to be answered when he and his German shepherd head north on the hunt for a few good (or maybe bad) men.

When the Killing Starts

An undercover assignment puts Canadian police chief Reid Bennett’s dog, love, and life on the line. “A series character worth watching for” (Los Angeles Times).

 Police Chief Reid Bennett has always filled his days crimping the plans of criminals, sweating it out knowing danger and intrigue are what fuels his passions. But this time Reid is taking some time off. With his new wife Freda and Sam, his always-present German Shepherd, Reid is heading north through the Canadian wilderness on his honeymoon. Unable to just let his job go completely, Reid unwisely takes an assignment on his way north to investigate police corruption in the dour mining town of Elliot. Apparently Reid has more experience with police corruption than with marriage and lets his honeymoon slide into an ever-widening abyss of rural politics and small town backstabbing. Maybe it's all for the best because Elliot is no place for a honeymoon. A classic dying western outpost complete with chronic bar fights and instant justice, Elliot revolves around cops taking kickbacks from hotel managers who, in turn, are making a fortune from roving prostitutes serving the local miners every payday. When one hotel manager turns up murdered, the cauldron seems ready to boil over. With the only man willing to talk dead, Reid and Sam go undercover mining the depths of deception in order to bring down the house. Every institution stands to be overturned and Freda learns that marriage may be one of them. Can she make a life out of watching her new husband thrown willingly into harm's way? Can Reid and Sam get out of trouble?

 "Danger, full-bodied characters, and enough detail about police work and survival techniques to complement Bennett's role as the most savvy cop currently in the genre." —Library Journal

On the Inside

Dirty money draws Canadian police chief Reid Bennett and his dog south of the border, where they come up against racism, the mob—and murder.

 Canadian police chief Reid Bennett is back with his faithful dog Sam by his side. This time, the case takes them across the border to Chambers, Vermont, where an old buddy needs Reid’s help. Doug Ford, a black policeman in the all‑white town, has been charged with murdering the attractive bookkeeper of a local ski resort. Only Reid believes Doug’s story that he and the woman were working together to investigate an entrenched money laundering conspiracy. But as new bodies pile up and the mafia rears its ugly head, things start to fall in line with Doug’s story. Can Reid untangle the mystery before more blood gets shed? He will have to act fast—an unseen hand seems willing to stop at nothing to keep its secrets safe.

Snowjob

Chief Reid Bennett and his “super-sleuth” dog tackle the crimes of Murphy’s Harbor in this “fairly sturdy, small-town tale, with quiet appeal” (Kirkus Reviews).

 In tiny Murphy’s Harbour, where Reid Bennett serves as the one‑man police force, questions and dead bodies tend to pile up all at once. The morning starts with Reid chasing off a gang of threatening teens with a baseball bat. Minutes later, Reid learns that a bank robber might be headed his way looking for vengeance. But the day does not really start rolling until Reid finds a dead woman in the trunk of a waterlogged car. What follows is a fast‑paced thriller involving rich lawyers, a questionable movie producer, and quite a few shifting identities. Everyone seems to be circling everyone else in a complicated orbit of sex and money. Can all these events be tied together?

Flashback

A crime spree ends in murder for Canadian police chief Reid Bennett, “one of the most interesting series whodunit heroes of the decade” (Chicago Sun-Times).

 There is no rest tonight for Reid Bennett, police chief of tiny Murphy’s Harbor in Canada. Not if he keeps getting phone calls, that is. The first comes in from Amy Wilson. She’s been brutally attacked on her arrival home from play rehearsal. The second has Reid breaking up a fight at a bar called Murphy’s Arms. But the third call, about a dead body, is when things get complicated. The body belongs to one of the night’s bar brawlers, an American tourist now stabbed to death in the road. It seems like there is an obvious murder suspect until another body shows up in the lake.

 Are these murders and the attack somehow intertwined? Reid must wade carefully through the evidence and the witnesses, all the while juggling pressure from a hostile city council and unwelcome reporters. Add in the town play, bear baiters, and American evangelicals, and Reid has his hands more than full. Thankfully, he has got his dog Sam by his side.