Winner, Crime Writers of Canada Award Of Excellence―Best Crime Novel Set in Canada 2025



Hugh Mercer has come to a small town in Ontario, far away from his broken career, broken marriage, and broken life in New York. He's expecting to take advantage of what he's sure will be a peaceful place in the middle of winter to begin to make some sense of the situations he's left behind. Before he has a chance to settle into his rented farmhouse, a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes a startling prediction: Elizabeth Goode, a local, is about to disappear under bizarre circumstances and her life is at risk. Mercer needs further information, but as quickly as she appeared, the stranger is gone.



Within a few days, Elizabeth Goode does indeed vanish from a café in town and all the witnesses have different accounts of the event. Her life now depends on the skills Mercer honed in the New York Police Department as a homicide detective and the down-to-earth abilities of local police officer Alice Morrow. Together they work to solve the mystery of the disappearance and get to Elizabeth before she is murdered; but they, too, are troubled by their own need for forgiveness, their desire for justice, and their passion for each other.