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Hilary MacLeod

A Canadian fishing village is obsessed with the one that got away . . . but is someone getting away with murder?
 
 For the first time in thirty years, all the signs have returned to the waters off The Shores—signs of a presumed-gone and possibly legendary giant cod. Ninety-year-old Abel Mack once almost landed it, but a photograph is the only evidence the big one ever existed.
 
 Now, at all costs, two powerful men with competing interests are after the biggest cod. They are closing in on The Shores—but the fisherman is missing. At the best of times, Abel is there one minute, gone the next. His best friends and family are not sure they would recognize him if they found him.
 
 Is he dead, by foul play or misadventure, or dead of exposure, as Mountie Jane Jamieson suspects? Or is he alive and sure to return, as his wife Gus Mack insists? Does the never-at-home Abel even exist outside Gus’s memory or imagination, Hy McAllister wonders…or has he been kidnapped for what he knows about the codfish?
 
 “A natural storyteller, superbly equipped both by her character and experience to fashion stories of the lives of everyday people who make their living from the sea.” —Ottawa Review of Books

The Acorn Press

The Shores Mysteries

Cod Only Knows

Is this little fishing village about to experience a crime wave? “A well-written mystery, with some spookiness and plenty of fun.” —The Guardian
 
 The tiny Canadian fishing village known as The Shores is celebrating its bicentennial. But the event takes a dark turn when a skull tossed up on the beach sparks a murder investigation.
 
 Meanwhile, a woman named Vera Gloom moves into the village with her three ex-husbands. Are they one big happy family? Amateur sleuth Hyacinth McAllister has her doubts, and things get even more interesting when Vera starts working on husband number four. Hy has to convince Mountie Jane Jamieson that these people are more than just a little dysfunctional—before it’s too late . . .

Bodies and Sole

Red herrings are everywhere in this coastal-village mystery by an author praised for her “droll humor” (Montreal Gazette).
 
 Herrings are falling from the sky over The Shores—an unusual phenomenon anywhere, but especially so in this case. A newcomer, Anton Paradis, has set up a restaurant that specializes in dangerous dining, cooking up food that can kill to tantalize the palates of wealthy clients. It’s a recipe for trouble. Someone’s bound to get hurt. Someone does. But oddly, the victim dies laughing . . .
 
 Mountie Jane Jamieson suspects it’s no accident. But could there really be another murder in this tiny Canadian fishing village? All the while, a wind turbine slices its blades over the cape, menacing the villagers with its eerie presence. It seems like death is in the wind as well as on the dinner plate . . .
 
 Praise for Hilary MacLeod’s Mind Over Mussels:
 
 “MacLeod is clever with colorful characters, and when she goes for the frequent laughs, she usually hits the target.” —Toronto Star

Something Fishy

A family of outsiders arrives in a tiny Canadian fishing village, and murder soon follows, in this witty, fast-paced mystery.
 
 It’s Christmas at The Shores. There’s no snow yet, but there are so many outdoor lights that the tiny coastal village can be seen from space. Apart from Ian Simmons’ place (and he was from away), there was only one house that wasn’t lit up. It had been dark for years. That was about to change. Wild Rose Cottage was about to come to life, and death, once again. 
 
 Meanwhile, the villagers wished for snow to complete the Christmas portrait. When it came, they would regret it. With the snow comes the body of newcomer Fitz Fitzpatrick, a former acrobat turned bully and drunk. Mountie Jane Jamieson has seen murder here before, but none where she’d rather not catch the killer. She has to decide whether Fitz fell during a flip—or was pushed, so that his chain became tangled in a tree limb. Either is possible. But though Jamieson’s doing a lot of questioning, no one’s talking . . .
 
 “A natural storyteller, superbly equipped both by her character and experience to fashion stories of the lives of everyday people who make their living from the sea.” —Ottawa Review of Books

All Is Clam

A Canadian Mountie and an amateur sleuth race to solve a seaside mystery before a hurricane hits in this witty mystery from “a natural storyteller” (Ottawa Review of Books).
 
 Hyacinth “Hy” McAllister trips over a body on the beach in her tiny Canadian fishing village one day—and tumbles head first into a murder case. Lance Lord, dressed up like Jimi Hendrix, has had his head split open with an axe. As Hurricane Angus storms up the coast, Hy and Mountie Jane Jamieson vie against the elements to uncover the killer in a village where almost everyone has something to hide . . .
 
 “A lot of fun.” —The Star Phoenix
 
 “MacLeod is clever with colorful characters, and when she goes for the frequent laughs, she usually hits the target.” —Toronto Star
 
 “A terrific writer with a sly wit.” —Anne Emery, Arthur Ellis Award-winning author of the Collins-Burke Mysteries

Mind Over Mussels

Folks in a fishing village squabble over seafood, and the net result may be murder: “A terrific writer with a sly wit.” —Anne Emery, Arthur Ellis Award-winning author of the Collins-Burke Mysteries
 
 Hyacinth “Hy” McAllister lives at The Shores, a remote Canadian fishing village, and lobster season has arrived. But the founder of the Lobster Liberation Legion has also arrived, and the lobster-rights activists are springing the shellfish from their traps. The locals are not happy—and the situation is about to boil over . . .
 
 “[An] amusing comic mystery.” —The Globe and Mail
 
 “MacLeod’s droll humor helps propel her story.” —The Montreal Gazette
 
 “Once Revenge of the Lobster Lover gets its claws into you, you won’t put it down . . . This novel is full of colorful characters, creepy crustaceans, and complex criminality. It’s suspenseful, yet often laugh-out-loud funny.” —Mary Jane Maffini, Arthur Ellis Award-winning author of the Charlotte Adams series