“Who would want to hurt him? He was one of the good guys. Did a lot of work with charities. Supported his friends and colleagues. Loved his wife and kids.” 

Jayson Flyntt melted millions of hearts whenever he gazed directly into the camera as the star of a long-running American soap opera; now he’s in Vancouver’s “Hollywood North” to make a science fiction movie he believes will revive his waning fortunes. When his body is discovered in puzzling circumstances at a filming location on Cait Morgan’s university campus, it’s believed he’s been the victim of a tragic accident. But Cait’s instincts tell her that not everything is quite as it seems – and not just because of the illusions being conjured around her by the production’s crew.  

When Cait grabs the unique opportunity to peer behind the silver screen, she discovers that some people within the dead actor’s closest circle not only have their own – sometimes disconcerting – agendas but might even benefit by the star’s death. And when she and her retired-cop husband, Bud, focus more sharply on the dead man’s past, some unexpected local connections develop. Stumped by inexplicable clues, Cait whittles down too many suspects to...none. So she has to take some uncharacteristic steps, because she’s determined to reveal the full picture. 

Making our usually confident Welsh Canadian criminal psychologist feel like a fish out of water on her home turf, this sixteenth Cait Morgan Mystery tests her with an investigation that challenges the techniques she’s leaned upon in the past, and even leads her to question some of her most deeply held beliefs.

Join us Tuesday June 23rd from 7-9pm for an evening of readings by local authors at The ACT Maple Ridge. The lobby is not available this month and we will likely be in the gallery or the studio theatre. Please look for signs!

Playbill:

Author of the traditional, globetrotting Cait Morgan Mysteries, and the cozy WISE Enquiries Agency Mysteries set in Wales, Cathy Ace was born and raised in Wales and migrated to Canada. She's a past Chair of Crime Writers of Canada, and is a Bony Blithe, IPPY, IBA, and Editor’s Choice CrimeFictionLover Award winner. Her 30th novel will be published on July 13th this year.
Cathy will read a cozy crime fiction excerpt from Criminally Comical - Wales's WISE Women crack cases and smiles.

A writer since she could hold a pen (or crayon as the case may be), Ronda Payne is a full-time copywriter, freelancer and storyteller. She joyfully lives in Maple Ridge in yet another renovation project home with her husband and their pets.
Ronda will be reading a personal essay about realizing, then going through, depression titled "The Pills that Saved Me."

Jack Emberly is a local author and columnist - Along the Fraser.
Jack will read excerpts from “Goodbye Chums”, his short story of hope and empathy in a grade three classroom. The story was longlisted in the 2022 CBC Short Story competition.

Margarita Escobar is a bilingual writer who thinks in Spanish, writes in English, and hopes that the story finds its way to readers, regardless of language.
From her short story collection Under a Weeping Willow, Margarita will read an excerpt from the story “Time Never Forgets.”

BREAK

Annette LeBox is an award-winning poet, novelist and children's writer. Two of her picture books have won the BC Book prize for Illustrated Literature. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a certificate from S.F.U.'s The Writer's Studio.
Annette will be reading her lyrical picture book, Mother Aspen: A Story of How Forests Cooperate and Communicate.

Lynn Easton writes from unceded Katzie territory in Maple Ridge, BC. Her writing has appeared in a wide variety of periodicals, anthologies and literary magazines including The Fiddlehead, The Malahat Review, The Globe and Mail, and most recently Beyond Blue (Caitlin Press), and Better Next Year (Tidewater Press) both published in 2025.
Lynn will read from her creative nonfiction ‘hermit crab' piece titled Missing Purse Alert.

Mark McClure is an Appalachian-born author living in British Columbia, with his wife Jennifer and their two children Jacob and Emma. His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary journals, including The Threepenny Review, and his novels, Coming to Scratch and The Courier are forthcoming Fall/Winter 2027.
Mark will read an excerpt from a first person POV short story titled “An Honest Man”.

This is our last lobby night of the season before we break for the summer. We are returning in September!

There is no charge for this event. Beginner to experienced writers! There are door prizes (donations of door prizes always gratefully accepted).

This is an adult event, but mature older teenagers with an interest in writing are welcome. No young children, please. No charge to attend.

The ACT Maple Ridge opens the bar/concession for us. Please support them, as they support us. Cash sales only.

‘We were all very ordinary girls, until that day. Then nothing was ever ordinary again.’ 

The women of the WISE Enquiries Agency are asked to look into a tragic death that happened back in 1984: four girls visited a small Welsh mining village awash with outsiders, due to the memorial service being held in honor of its most famous son, but only three came back. With Carol leading the investigation, ably supported by Annie, they admit they’re a bit stumped, until the possibility of a promising lead arises from an unexpected quarter. But discovering if a murder was committed decades ago – and, if so, by whom – might be the least of their worries, on this occasion. 

Meanwhile, Christine is finding herself challenged by her role as a new mother – yet still manages to get stuck into unravelling an even more historic puzzle dating back to Elizabethan times, and Mavis is somewhat incapacitated – meaning she falls prey to dowager duchess Althea’s machinations involving a member of her staff. 

With the reopening of the Old School as an artisans’ hub in the village of Anwen-by-Wye on the horizon, as well as the prospect of a Mothering Sunday celebration that Althea’s determined no one will ever forget, it’s all go for everyone – which means that a favor Annie has promised she’ll do for Marjorie Pritchard runs the risk of being put on the back burner...not something Marjorie is pleased about. 

This is the thirteenth book in this beloved series set in Wales, and – once again – our softly-poached private eyes find themselves facing a variety of cases, involving varying degrees of jeopardy...though all with the potential to prove life-changing.

‘SO WHAT DO YOU THINK – IS SHE PANICKING, OR IS IT REALLY POISON?’

It’s January in the picturesque Welsh village of Anwen-by-Wye, where temperatures plummet as Annie Parker and Carol Hill find themselves working for a woman who seems perilously close to death’s door...and holding some worrying views about why that might be. They’re tackling the delicate case alone because Christine Wilson-Smythe is trapped in London until her baby is born, where she battles boredom by burrowing into the woes of a couple of wine snobs. Meanwhile, Mavis MacDonald has accompanied dowager duchess Althea Twyst to the family’s Scottish pile, where time with offspring is supposed to be the focus, until a very significant person from Mavis’s past appears with an alarming problem she feels compelled to investigate...leading to a situation that threatens Althea’s elaborate – and not entirely welcome – plans for Burns Night.

Despite the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency being scattered around the UK, they still manage to act as a strong team, especially when a plea from Henry, Duke of Chellingworth, gets them to stand as one: his wife’s chum, Val Jenkins – once best known as TV’s Curious Cook – has convinced the duchess that a healthy eating plan is needed by everyone residing at the Hall. When Henry realizes this includes himself, he takes action to try to save his favorite foods and, as a side-effect, his wife’s good friend.

Join us for readings from three of our fabulous members (just in time for gift-giving, too!) Cathy Ace reads from THE CORPSE WITH THE AMBER NECK, number 15 in her Cait Morgan Mystery series. Therese Greenwood, winner of this year's Crime Writers of Canada Best Short Story award, will reader her winning entry, "Hatcheck Bingo". Finally, PD Workman will read from her latest novel. What a program! We'll see you there. (Yes, there will be prizes!)

(You have to preregister in Zoom, then Zoom will send you a link to join the actual event. Sisters in Crime never sends junk mail to attendees, so your email addresses will not be abused... I promise!) NOTE: Date and time is Pacific/Vancouver timing. https://sistersincrime-org.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Fxl-U3-aQ1Slot1jXerWKw#/registration

Now available as a digital book, in paperback or as a hardcover, this second edition of the seventh Cait Morgan Mystery has been completely updated, and has a fresh new look. Full details here: https://www.cathyace.com/cait-morgan-mysteries

“A woman was being strangled, Bud. That’s what I saw. How could I misinterpret that?”

It’s April in Paris, and Cait Morgan’s just completed a stint as a visiting professor of criminal psychology at the Sorbonne. Her husband, retired homicide detective Bud Anderson, has joined her, but – when Cait witnesses what she believes is a murder – their plans to revel in the French capital’s art and architecture, history and food have to take a back seat. Encountering an unexpected ally from Cait’s past, the couple helps the Parisian police to unravel a knotty case, that’s woven around an enigmatic woman who created a world-renowned fashion house. Cait employs her unique skill set to pick apart the personal histories of the idiosyncratic people whose careers have been dedicated to creating beautiful garments…revealing a complex tapestry of lies and deceit. When Cait finally stitches together the truth, she exposes ugly secrets that have the power to leave lives in tatters…and even cut them short.

In this fifteenth Cait Morgan Mystery, our favorite Welsh Canadian criminal psychologist and her stalwart husband are as dedicated to delivering justice as ever, but run up against a tightly bound set of characters who operate within the hothouse world of haute couture…where what lies beneath the surface is not everything its glamorous image suggests.

Now available as a digital book, in paperback or as a hardcover, this second edition of the sixth Cait Morgan Mystery has been completely updated, and has a fresh new look. Full details here: https://www.cathyace.com/cait-morgan-mysteries

Now available as a digital book, in paperback or as a hardcover, this second edition of the fifth Cait Morgan Mystery has been completely updated, and has a fresh new look. Full details here: https://www.cathyace.com/cait-morgan-mysteries

‘A FORTUNE TELLER SUFFERING A SERIES OF ACCIDENTS? THAT CAN’T BE GOOD FOR THEIR BUSINESS...’

A fortune teller claims she’s being targeted by someone who’s out to harm her and retains the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency to gather evidence she can take to the police. But, when a body is discovered, Carol, Christine, Mavis, and Annie must scramble to rescue their agency’s professional reputation...and it becomes clear that their client kept critical information from them.

Meanwhile, Dowager Duchess Althea Twyst has invited an old friend from her youthful days on the stage to produce a pantomime at the village hall. With the lives of everyone in Anwen-by-Wye turned upside down by rehearsals, a series of thefts goes unnoticed for some time...until the WISE women put two and two together.

Also, with Christmas on the horizon, the Duke and Duchess of Chellingworth are looking forward to welcoming their extended family to enjoy the local celebrations. However, they find themselves quite unprepared for the bewildering situation that arises when Lady Clementine and her husband arrive.

Join the women of the WISE Enquiries Agency, and the residents of the bucolic Welsh village of Anwen-by-Wye, as they get embroiled in yet more puzzling cases...as well as a chaotic Festive Season.

Criminologist and foodie Cait Morgan was looking forward to her dream vacation in Mexico with her boyfriend Bud Anderson. She wasn’t anticipating a fresh corpse on the floor of a local florist’s shop, and she definitely wasn’t expecting Bud to become the prime suspect.

With Bud’s freedom, and maybe even his life, at stake, Cait has to fight the clock to work out which member of the small community living in the seemingly idyllic municipality of Punta de las Rocas might have killed the locally respected florist, and why. Needing to investigate under the watchful gaze of the local police, Cait has to keep her relationship with Bud a secret, and she soon discovers she’s not the only one with something to hide. Peeling back layers of deceit to reveal even more puzzles, Cait struggles with a creeping sense of unreality, desperate to save Bud . . . and, ultimately, herself.

In the third book in the beloved Cait Morgan Mysteries, The Corpse with the Emerald Thumb, travel to the idyllic Mexican countryside as Cait Morgan works against the clock to clear her wrongly accused partner of murder.