Murder in Muskoka

Liam D. Dwyer

Muskoka Dockside Reader, 2004

ISBN 9780973620803

Paperback, 192 pages, $14.95

This page-turning whodunit has corpses and clues scattered in familiar places all around Muskoka. The venues are so clock perfect a reader may intermittently set down Liam Dwyer’s Murder in Muskoka just to check over the shoulder for approaching danger or scan the lake for floating cadavers before resuming the thrilling pace with police detective Ian Murdock as he races fate along Muskoka roadways, through towns, morgue and airport, and across scenic waterways.

A homicide investigator with the OPP, Murdch is Dwyer’s lead character for whom unexplained murders and complicated mysteries are as much standard fare as his punishing ways of living, steady diet of Tim’s donuts, and tormenting personal losses.

Murder in Muskoka inaugurated in 2004 a series of Ian Murdock novels in which Dwyer, born in 1923, spins most up-to-date tales of intrigue. In the sequels, Muskoka settings for high crimes -- from kiddy-porn rings linked to the powerful and mighty, terrorists training in wilderness settings, and drug syndicates with international trafficking -- are matched by the latest in high-tech police work, sophisticated electronic surveillance, and advanced forensic science. Dwyer wisely stirs in a lot of old fashioned detective savvy, police department politics, competitive rivalries, and tormented loves.

The follow-on “Murdock in Muskoka” titles in the series: Gold & Greed (2205); Muskoka Cross & Double Cross (2006); Muskoka Death & Diamonds (2007); Muskoka Bound & Betrayed (2008); and more to come.

Liam Dwyer spins compelling dramas, aided by the sure editorial pen of Brad Hammond, who contributes to the books and, on the most recent, shares credit as author. Hammond is also publisher, through his Muskoka Dockside Reader house. Among retailers doing a brisk business with the popular series is the author’s son Jim Dwyer at Scott’s of Muskoka Bookstore in Bracebridge. If these arrangements all seem tightly knit, just wait till you crack open one of these novels to see how snugly interwoven a thrilling plot can really be. And best of all, the action is right next door.