A Touch of Panic (Karl Alberg, 6)

Businessman Gordon Murphy has something of a Midas touch…in everything but love. Now he's set his sights on Cassandra Mitchell, even though she's happily sharing a bed and breakfast with Sergeant Karl Alberg of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Meanwhile, Alberg has some actual policing problems to contend with – a stolen coin collection, a hapless would-be burglar, local worthies hollering about the state of one citizen's front yard. It all sounds charming, cozy, Cabot Cove….but this is Wright we're talking about, the novelist who beat Ruth Rendell at her own game and always saw the dark roots under the roses. Alberg may have left the Toronto police force in the belief that small-town crimes would be cuddlier, but Wright took great care in pointing out just how wrong he was.