YOU LIGHT UP MY DEATH by Mary Jane Maffini
You Light Up My Death is the latest in the Camilla MacPhee Mystery Series by award-winning author Mary Jane Maffini.
“Maffini is a relaxed, accomplished, and wickedly funny writer.” –The Montreal Gazette
Ottawa lawyer and victims’ advocate Camilla MacPhee has finally agreed to elope to Cape Breton with her long-time partner, Sergeant Ray Deveau. She has given her bossy sisters and her interfering office assistant Alvin Ferguson the slip, and she’s on her way. High time and happy ending, you might think. Well, not exactly. For one thing, Camilla and Ray need to deliver Gussie, the odiferous dog, to Alvin’s family in Sydney, and for another, Mrs. Parnell’s little calico cat is also along for the 1,642-kilometre ride. Then there are all those boring trees in New Brunswick. Somewhere on the way, Ray’s attitude has changed, and Camilla finds herself abandoned in Sydney with a dog and a cat but without a vehicle, luggage, wallet, or her fiancé.
Ray has vanished.
When Ray’s brand-new car turns up an hour away with the keys still in it, and his phone is found on the street, Camilla stifles her anger and begins a desperate search. People are dying. Will Ray be one of them? Camilla must be content with the spectacular Cabot Trail, its rocky slopes, steep cliffs, and hairpin turns, plus a collection of eccentric relatives, friends, locals, and far too many oatcakes, as she plows through a storm to stop a savage killer blowing off thirty years of pent-up rage.
Oh and, um, bring your rain gear.
About the Author:
Lapsed librarian and former co-owner of Prime Crime Mystery Bookstore in Ottawa, Mary Jane Maffini is the author of twenty mysteries in three and a half series. MJ was born in Sydney, Nova Scotia, and holds a BA (Hons) and an MLS from Dalhousie. Apparently, she made a fair amount of noise in her years as a professional librarian.
The seven Camilla MacPhee mysteries are set in Ottawa, with occasional side trips to Cape Breton, and feature the lawyer and crotchety investigator, her peculiar family, quirky friends, and the world’s worst office assistant, Alvin Ferguson, plus some random and inconvenient pets.
The two Fiona Silk capers, focusing on a failed romance writer and very reluctant sleuth, take place in a quaint village in West Quebec.
MJ’s Charlotte Adams professional organizer mysteries have recently been optioned for television. The series has been reissued by Beyond the Page Publishing in 2021 and a sixth Charlotte book, Death Plans a Perfect Trip, arrived in 2022.
She is a charter member of The Ladies Killing Circle and has stories in all seven of the group’s anthologies.
As Victoria Abbott, she collaborated on the five book collector mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime) with her daughter, Victoria. Book Four, The Marsh Madness, won the 2015 Bony Blithe for mysteries that make us smile.
In addition to the Crime Writers of Canada’s Derrick Murdoch Award, MJ holds three Crime Writers of Canada awards for crime shorts and an Agatha award (Malice Domestic) for best short story. The Busy Woman’s Guide to Murder (Charlotte Adams mystery # 5) won the 2012 Romantic Times award for Amateur Sleuth.
MJ lives and plots in Manotick, Ontario with a pair of miniature dachshunds at her feet. Her husband sleeps with one eye open.
http://www.maryjanemaffini.com/