““Military secrets, explosive artifacts, and hard liquor make the perfect combination in this captivating mystery.” ”
March 2023
Speak For The Dead
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?
““[A] strong sequel to 2022’s The Foulest Things . . . Tector smoothly balances her lead’s struggles with alcohol in the wake of her brother’s death with developments in this well-crafted mystery. Temperance Brennan fans will be pleased.” ”
““Richly drawn characters, delicious twist and turns, and a propulsive plot that will keep you turning pages . . . Speak for the Dead is the must-read second installment in Tector’s engaging Dominion Archives Mystery series.”
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