March Roars

March roars in and Charlotte Frayne, P.I., receives a letter requesting her services to prevent “a grave miscarriage of justice.”

The sender, Miss Olivia Brodie, is an elderly resident in the Toronto House of Industry (the Poor House) who claims she witnessed two men on a nearby street, behaving in a suspicious manner. After learning that two Black teenagers have been charged with burglary on that same street, she is convinced the men she saw are the true culprits.

Separately, Charlotte is hired by a Mrs. Emmeline Larkin, a woman from the opposite end of society’s hierarchy, who says she is missing some precious jewelry. She fears the thief may be a member of her own social circle, possibly from the influential women’s club to which she belongs.

Investigating what seems at first like disparate cases takes Charlotte back to events from Toronto’s history, and she discovers a time when there was, indeed, grave injustice.

AUTHOR

Maureen Jennings

Maureen Jennings was born in the UK and now lives in Toronto. Best known for the Detective Murdoch books, which have been adapted into the long-running television series, Murdoch Mysteries; she is also the author of the Tom Tyler and Christine Morris books. Her books have been translated into other languages, including Polish, Korean, French, German, Italian, and Czech. Murdoch Mysteries has been aired in many countries, including the UK, the US, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Czech, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, Ukraine, and the Baltics. Jennings was awarded a Certificate of Commendation from Heritage Toronto in 1998 and the Grant Allen Award for ongoing contribution to the genre in 2011. She has received a total of eight nominations from the Crime Writers of Canada, for best novel and best short story of the year. Jennings lives in Toronto with her husband, photographer Iden Ford, and her dog, Murdoch.