Dockerty police chief Orwell Brennan has his hands full. The town’s mayor keeps trying to use him for re-election while her slick, out-of-town challenger is smearing him every chance he gets. Meanwhile, Brennan’s middle daughter is getting married soon, his youngest is starting to notice boys, his wife has him on a diet, and someone keeps stealing his favorite cookies. Things take an ironic turn for the worse when a Toronto police officer, who was in town to investigate a local murder, is killed in his hotel room. The victim was about to interview the eccentric local dance teacher?a former Russian ballet star who has dark secrets in her past, some unsavory associates, and a slippery way with the truth. One of Brennan’s officers teams up with the dead cop’s ex-partner, and the two uncover a ring of shady pawnbrokers, crooked cops, and Russian thugs, all of whom are after one thing: the Sacred Ember, a very rare ruby once owned by the Tsarina herself.

Marc Strange is a writer and actor. He was co-creator of The Beachcombers (with L.S. Strange) and between 1972 and 1990 wrote, directed, and/or story-edited over seventy episodes. Strange is the author of Follow Me Down (ECW Press, 2010), Sucker Punch (Dundurn, 2007), which was shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel and Body Blows (Dundurn, 2009), winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original. He lives in Toronto.

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