Northern Ontario realtor Belle Palmer is showing the lakefront mansion of a prominent businesswoman when she discovers the lady strangled in her bathtub. Could this third break-and-enter death reveal a serial killer at large in the Nickel Capital? The womans only child, a precocious twelve-year-old, comes to stay with Belles neighbours and wins her heart and theirs. Then after an argument, the boy disappears, riding off into the cold September night on his bicycle. Racing against time as fall temperatures plummet, Belle hooks up with a bumbling PI and joins the search. Belle must flee into the bush, where she has every chance of becoming lost and disoriented, chased by murderers who will stop at nothing to protect a multi-million-dollar criminal empire.

Lou Allin sings two national anthems, having born in Toronto but raised in Ohio. She recently relocated to Sooke, British Columbia. After obtaining a Ph.D. in English Renaissance literature and discovering that she retained Canadian citizenship, Lou headed north, ending up at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, where she taught literature, writing and public speaking for twenty-three years. Northern Winters Are Murder, her first Belle Palmer mystery, was released in the fall of 2000. It was followed by Blackflies Are Murder, which was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award in the category of Best Novel. Bush Poodles Are Murder, Murder, Eh, and Memories are Murder concluded the series. While discovering the delights of the outdoors in her new home on Vancouver Island, Lou has created a new west coast mystery series, the first of which, And on the Surface Die, was released in the fall of 2008. It features young RCMP corporal Holly Martin, whose adventures continue in She Felt No Pain.

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