A Rudley Mystery Series

Trevor and Margaret Rudley have had their share of misfortunes at The Pleasant Inn, the cherished Ontario cottage-country hotel they've owned for twenty-five years. There have been boating accidents, accidental poisonings, and then there was that unfortunate ski-lift incident. But this year their hopes are high for the summer season. However, barely a week goes by before their hopes are dashed. There's a dead body making a nuisance of itself in the wine cellar, and it's nobody the Rudleys know. The Pleasant Inn guests, a wealthy and eccentric lot, are dying for distraction, and one of them, Miss Miller, sets out to solve the case of the deceased, relying on wild speculation, huge leaps of logic, and the assistance of her great admirer, Edward Simpson, who is too smitten to dissuade her from her adventure in detection. Challenging her in the race to resolution is the disciplined Detective Brisbois, whose deep-rooted insecurities about his style and status are aroused by the hotel guests' careless assumption of privilege. When Brisbois stumbles into peril of his own, the intrepid Miss Miller is the only one left who can solve the crime.

Autumn returns to Ontario cottage country. Leaves redden. Pumpkins ripen. And Trevor and Margaret Rudley, proprietors of the Pleasant Inn, expect nothing more than a little Halloween high jinks to punctuate the mellow ambiance of their much-loved hostelry. However, the frost is barely on the pumpkin when Gerald, an old female-impersonator friend of the Pleasant's esteemed cook Gregoire, turns up, dragging his very frightened friend Adolph behind. They've witnessed a drug deal in progress in Montreal and they're on the lam, hoping to blend into the Pleasant's pleasant rhythms until the heat is off. Alas, they hope in vain. The pumpkins in the patch suffer more violence than frost this autumn. And so do other living things. As the bodies pile up, the intrepid Elizabeth Miller, lately returned from a round-the-world adventure, jumps into the homicidal fray, fully armed with her peculiar intuition, her maddening charm, and her devoted swain, Edward Simpson, who proves a useful fellow behind the wheel of a car. Detective Michel Brisbois, in the past bested by Miss Miller in rooting out unpleasantness at the Pleasant, finds himself racing -- quite literally -- to keep up with his amateur challenger. But, in this second volume of the Rudley mysteries, when the chips are down -- as they inevitably are -- it's the laziest creature on earth who ends up saving the day for the good and kindly -- and rather eccentric -- folk of Ontario's most peculiar country hotel. Autumn is a wonderful time at the Pleasant. The air is crisp. The food is fabulous. Rudley provokes the guests and Margaret provokes Rudley. A glorious Halloween party is planned. Could someone spoil it? You'd want to murder anyone who did!

Another summer, and The Pleasant Inn is filled to capacity. This season is especially exciting, as perennial guests Miss Miller and her long-time admirer Mr. Simpson have chosen to marry at the Inn. The guests and staff are clamouring to be involved, particularly Bonnie Lawrence, a young wife adrift while her husband is off fishing. Margaret and Trevor Rudley are delighted to host the wedding, and barring Mrs. Lawrence's obsessive interfering, everything is set to go off without a hitch. But when a neighbour is found dead in the woods behind the inn, the possibility of a joyous occasions starts looking distinctly less likely. Rudley barely tolerates the presence of the police, who are once again on site interviewing the guests as possible suspects. Detective Michel Brisbois is back, heading up the case, and even though she's prenuptially preoccupied, Miss Miller refuses to be left out from solving yet another murder at The Pleasant... much to her own peril.

Margaret Rudley has finally persuaded her husband Trevor to take a vacation, a week-long canoeing expedition in Northern Ontario. Rudley hates the idea of leaving the Pleasant, the beautiful old country inn they've run for over a quarter of a century, but he is reluctant to deny her a cherished dream. They set off, accompanied by long-time guests Elizabeth Miller, Edward Simpson, Norman and Geraldine Phipps-Walker, and a pair of neophytes, Vern Peters and Eric Turnbull. They leave the Pleasant and a few regular guests, including the Sawchucks and their incorrigible eight-year-old grandchildren, Ned and Nora, in the capable hands of Melba Millotte. But contrary to their hopes, it is chaos at the Pleasant. A serial murderer is on the lam in cottage country. Ned and Nora disappear and a ransom note is received by the local paper. The laundryman's truck is stolen. Tiffany encounters an intruder in the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning. Detectives Brisbois and Creighton are on the scene to investigate these various crimes, including the appearance of a dead body in a ditch a few miles from the Pleasant and a guest of the inn with some strange habits. While intrigue swirls around the Pleasant, the canoeists continue downriver, oblivious to the threat that lurks around the next bend. When Gil the guide and Vern Peters disappear, the lives of the group are in peril. Miss Miller and Norman must come through to save the day, but can they?

Everyone at the Pleasant Inn is looking forward to a very merry Christmas. Oh, irascible proprietor Trevor Rudley has his usual complaints about Mrs. Blount's non-traditional floral arrangements. And he's sure he won't like housekeeper Tiffany's new beau, Dan Thornton, a writer, of all things. But it's Christmas. Surely nothing catastrophic could happen. Bad things do happen, of course. The snow starts falling and doesn't seem to want to stop. Margaret Rudley runs over a man lying in the road during a whiteout. Walter Sawchuck almost chokes when someone doctors his Mrs. Dash. And those disturbing little Santas begin to appear, each one representing a gruesome event in the Pleasant's past. Then a dead body is found hanged in the coach house. As the snow continues to fall, paranoia at the Pleasant mounts.

Confirmed bachelor and professional art authenticator Leonard Anderson, long the protégé of aged and wealthy Luella Pryce, is so in love with her early Cartwright paintings that he cannot wait to receive them—as he has been led to believe—in her will. He removes them for cleaning, has them copied, returns the forgeries to Luella and keeps the originals. Then Luella drops a bomb: she tells Leonard she plans to donate her collection to the local gallery on the Caribbean island of St. Napoli on her death. Fearing exposure, as Luella is in poor health, yet spurning any notion of switching the paintings back, Leonard conspires with his wicked nephew Tibor to destroy the fakes by burning down Luella’s house while she is away at a gala. But Luella never makes it to the gala. Asleep in her bathtub, she burns along with her house. Authorities blame her careless smoking for the conflagration. When Leonard suffers disastrous financial losses in the Asian market, Tibor, who has his own needs for quick cash, presses him to sell the Cartwrights in the shady underworld of art acquisition. To get his nephew off his back, Leonard conspires to once again have copies made of the originals. But Cerise, the daughter of an old paramour and a con artist in her own right, catches him in the act. Not above a little blackmail despite her affection for him, she sells her silence for a very expensive necklace. Leonard, meanwhile, sets up a sting to lead Tibor to believe the original Cartwrights are fakes. The transaction with the buyer will take place at the Pleasant Inn, in eastern Ontario, which is run by the irascible Trevor Rudley and his long-suffering wife Margaret.