The Solitary Friend — Gail Bowen

“The Solitary Friend is a standout story in a standout series.” — Jennifer Brewin, artistic director of Globe Theatre Regina Crime Writers Grand Master Award winner and the “queen of Canadian crime fiction” (Winnipeg Free Press) returns with the 23rd, and penultimate, installment in the Joanne Kilbourn series. Amateur sleuth Joanne Shreve finds herself caught in the middle when her friend Vera Wang, the owner of a discreet escort service, The Right Woman, calls in a favour. Howard Dowhanuik, another long-time friend of Joanne’s and the former premier of Saskatchewan, has been a loyal client for years. That is until he started badgering Vera’s employees, trying to discourage them from performing their “meaningless” work. Given his recent verbal attacks against any and all opponents on his podcast, Joanne knows his erratic behavior must be part of a larger issue. Can Joanne talk Howard down and make him see sense before he goes too far? To complicate matters, scandalous photos with threatening demands begin targeting Joanne’s friends. With her loved ones’ happiness — and possibly their very lives — at stake, she ust race to find the source of the mysterious messages before they make good on their menacing ultimatum.