Eric Wright’s popular detective, Charlie Salter, is introduced in this collection of the first three books in the well-loved mystery series: The Night the Gods Smiled, Smoke Detector, and Death in the Old Country. Self-righteous and outspoken, Salter has gotten himself shunted to routine duties from what he considers the "real" police work of investigation. However, circumstances give him the chance to redeem himself, and his intelligence and sensitivity guide him through the cases that follow. Interwoven in the detective work, Charlie’s wry humour and perception and his personal relationships and family life add extra dividends and enjoyment for the reader.

Best known as a writer of award-winning detective fiction, including the Charlie Salter mysteries, Eric Wright has also written a comic novel (Moodies Tale) and Always Give a Penny to a Blind Man, his 1999 memoir which was nominated for the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. (The first chapter of that memoir first appeared in The New Yorker.) Eric helped to set up and was the first director of the publishing program at Ryerson University. He lives in Toronto.

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Take this omnibus to the beach. You will not be disappointed!

Independently Reviewed, Summer 2004