Let Darkness Bury the Dead: 8 (Murdoch Mysteries) - Softcover

Jennings, Maureen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0771050585 ISBN 13: 9780771050589

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 2017

Synopsis

Canada's premier author of historical mystery fiction returns with a brand new and highly anticipated Murdoch Mystery, with an older and wiser Detective Murdoch.

It is November 1917. The Great War is grinding on, chewing up young men by the thousands. Initially, in the loyal Dominion of Canada, people are mostly eager to support the Motherland and fight for the Empire. Men perceived as slackers or cowards are shunned. But the carnage is horrendous and with enforced conscription, the enthusiasm for war is dimming.
William Murdoch is a widower, a senior detective who, thanks to the new temperance laws, spends his time tracking down bootleggers and tipplers; most unsatisfying. His wife, Amy, died giving birth to their second child, a girl who lived only a few hours more. Murdoch, racked by grief, withdrew from four-year-old, Jack. This he regrets and would dearly love to make up for his negligence.
As we enter the story, Jack, now twenty-one, has returned from France after being wounded and gassed at the Battle of Passchendaele. It is soon apparent that he is deeply troubled but he's not confiding in his father. He does, however, seem to be bound by shared secrets to another wounded former soldier, Percy McKinnon.
Murdoch suddenly has much more serious crimes than rum-running on his hands. The night after Jack and McKinnon arrive home, a young man is found stabbed to death in the impoverished area of Toronto known as the Ward. Soon after, Murdoch has to deal with a tragic suicide, also a young man. Two more murders follow in quick succession. The only common denominator is that all of the men were exempted from conscription.
Increasingly worried that Jack knows more than he is letting on, Murdoch must solve these crimes before more innocents lose their lives. It is a solution that will give him only sorrow.

About this title

Review

Praise for Maureen Jennings and A Journeyman to Grief
- "Jennings's best to date. . . . The excellent plot takes us into the unknown (to most readers, I think) history of the small black community in 19th-century Toronto. How they came there, how they lived, is as engrossing as the mystery . . . of the abducted bride." --Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
- "Jennings is a master at drawing out her characters." --Victoria Times-Colonist
- "A surprisingly tender tale of slavery, addiction, violence and revenge served ice-cold." --Kirkus Reviews
- "Within a few pages . . . we are firmly and happily ensconced in the late-19th-century world Jennings has created. . . . First-time readers can enjoy this as a standalone novel, and we will have the additional pleasure of knowing there are six more Detective Murdoch novels waiting to be read." --Quill & Quire

About the Author

Born in England, MAUREEN JENNINGS emigrated to Canada as a teenager. The first Detective Murdoch Mystery was published in 1997. Six more followed, all to enthusiastic reviews. In 2003, Shaftesbury Films adapted three of the novels into movies of the week, and four years later the Murdoch Mysteries TV series was created; it is now shown around the world, including in the UK, the United States (as The Artful Detective), and much of Europe, as well as on Canada's national broadcast network, CBC TV. The Detective Inspector Tom Tyler series, set in World War II-era England, got off to a spectacular start with 2011's Season of Darkness, followed by Beware This Boy (2012), No Known Grave (2014), and Dead Ground in Between (2016). Maureen lives in Toronto with her husband and their two dogs, Varley and Murdoch. The author lives in Toronto, ON.

About this edition

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0771050585
• ISBN 13: 9780771050589
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352