Clean Chills Christmas Is Coming November 12

Thirteen talented writers have come together to make books that will give you the chills this holiday season! Introducing the Clean Chills Christmas short story series, coming November 12.

This holiday, add a little #CleanChills to your festivities with the Clean Chills Christmas short story series. Featuring 13 authors, you’ll find a mix of Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense books from light-hearted and feel-good (GREEN covers) to gritty, twisty, or dark (RED covers).

All the short stories are priced at $0.99 so you can easily collect them all! Preorder them today and they’ll be delivered to your devices on November 12.

My Clean Chills Story: It’s Not Christmas

My book in this series is It’s Not Christmas, a Zachary Goldman holiday prequel.

A private investigator. A missing foster teen. An alarming note.

Zachary Goldman planned to shut his office for the holidays and muscle through Christmas the best he could. But a call comes in about a missing girl, and the case hits too close to home for him to refuse.

Melinda is a foster teen with a history of running. The police are not treating her disappearance as urgent. But when Zachary finds a chilling message tied to her last day, he doesn’t believe she is just off with friends.

As the hours slip away and Christmas draws closer, Zachary follows the small clues everyone else is ready to dismiss. The more he learns about Melinda’s life, the more certain he becomes that this is not just another runaway case.

If he is right, waiting until morning could be fatal.

Perfect for Readers Who Love:

• dark holiday mysteries
• private investigator fiction
• emotionally layered suspense
• winter atmosphere and high personal stakes

It’s Not Christmas is a gritty Zachary Goldman mystery about grief, danger, and the stubborn determination to bring someone home alive. Be sure to check out all 13 short stories in the Clean Chills Christmas series!

Join our reading party!

On December 1, we will be starting a reading party to read through the series! Join us on the Clean Chills & Thrills Facebook group!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Clean Chills Christmas series?

Clean Chills Christmas brings together 13 short Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense stories for the holiday season.

When will the Clean Chills Christmas stories be delivered?

The stories are available to preorder for $0.99 each and will be delivered to readers’ devices on November 12, 2026.

How do the green and red covers differ?

Green covers signal lighter, feel-good chills. Red covers signal grittier, twistier, or darker suspense.

What is It’s Not Christmas about?

In this Zachary Goldman holiday prequel, a private investigator searches for a missing foster teen after an alarming note makes it clear that she may be in danger.

The post These 13 Christmas Short Stories Come With a Warning: Chills Ahead first appeared on pdworkman.com.

New Release
Series: The Prolific Author #2
Genres: Instructional


Paperback Price: $ 16.95 USD

Free eBook Paperback

Have you been putting off starting your new book? Now is a great time to start!

Write Your Book in a Year

Note on format choices:

The spiral-bound version of this book is only available through Lulu. If you click Paperback on this page, choose it in my store, or find it in the store at Lulu, you will get the spiral bound version. If you find it on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., you will get the perfect bound paperback version.

The electronic version of this book is available for free. It is a printable pdf file. There is no epub format because it wouldn’t make sense for this project.

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A 52-week writing planner for setting goals, tracking progress, and finishing your first draft

Finish Your First Draft—One Week at a Time

Writing a book takes more than inspiration. It takes a plan you can return to.

Write Your Book in a Year is a 52-week writing planner for authors who want to set realistic goals, track their progress, and finish a first draft without forcing themselves into someone else’s routine.

Built around four 13-week quarters, this undated planner helps you work from a big-picture goal to practical weekly sessions. Use it whether you are starting with an idea, returning to a stalled manuscript, or trying to make consistent progress on a book already underway.

Inside, you can:

• Define what “first draft complete” means for your project
• Map your year and identify busy periods before they derail you
• Set minimum, target, and stretch goals
• Plan weekly writing sessions and next steps
• Record words, time, scenes, research, and other meaningful progress
• Review each quarter and adjust your plan
• Use a Reboot worksheet whenever life changes the schedule

This planner does not require daily writing, fixed dates, or perfect consistency. It gives you a structure you can adapt to your own writing process and return to whenever you need it.

Whether you have already started your book or have been putting it off, you can open up Write Your Book in a Year and start now.

The post Write Your Book in a Year first appeared on pdworkman.com.

]]> https://pdworkman.com/write-your-book-in-a-year/feed/ 0 49563 https://pdworkman.com/game-night-ghosts-and-bones-three-new-parks-pat-mysteries/ https://pdworkman.com/game-night-ghosts-and-bones-three-new-parks-pat-mysteries/#respond Fri, 16 Oct 2026 05:30:00 +0000 https://pdworkman.com/?p=49325 Three new Parks Pat Mysteries take Margie Patenaude from a Calgary soccer game to a pump house and the riverbanks of Griffith Woods. Choose your next case.

The post Game Night, Ghosts, and Bones: Three New Parks Pat Mysteries first appeared on pdworkman.com.

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Game Night, Ghosts, and Bones

Three New Parks Pat Mysteries

Margie Patenaude has three new cases on her hands: Silence on the Turf, Ghosts in the Ground, and Bones of the Elbow are the latest additions to my Parks Pat Mysteries. If you enjoy quick-read police procedurals, Canadian settings, and a detective with a life beyond the case, come spend some time with Margie.

You might want to let one of her colleague handle the directions.

Buy All Three Now

A soccer game, a pump house, and a riverbank

These books take us to different corners of Calgary, with three very different investigations. You can read each mystery on its own, or follow the series in order to spend more time with Margie and her family.

Silence on the Turf

The game is over. The investigation is just beginning.

Margie is at Shouldice Park with her daughter, Christina, to watch a high school soccer game. For once, she gets to be a spectator. At least, that is the plan.

When a young player is found unresponsive in the parking lot after the game, Margie’s evening changes completely. Now she has a death to investigate, a community full of opinions, and the difficult job of figuring out what happened beyond the field.

If you like a mystery where an ordinary family outing turns into something much more complicated, start here.

Explore Silence on the Turf

Ghosts in the Ground

A death in the pump house. A neighborhood with a past.

A corporate executive is found dead inside a groundwater pump house in the Beaver Dam Flats/Refinery Park area. It is an unusual place to find a body, and Margie and Detective Gagnon have plenty of questions.

The surrounding community has questions of its own. Contamination, lost homes, and old grievances form the backdrop to a new death. Sorting out what people remember is one thing. Sorting out what those memories mean for this case is another.

There are no supernatural detectives here. The ghosts are the things people have lived through—and have not left behind.

Explore Ghosts in the Ground

Bones of the Elbow

Human bones. Fragile ground. A case that needs a careful hand.

Human remains are discovered beside the Elbow River in Griffith Woods. Margie and Detective Cruz need to find out who has been found and how those bones came to be there.

They also need to protect a fragile site, handle cultural concerns with care, and work through the attention the discovery attracts. People are already asking questions before Margie has answers.

If you enjoy watching a detective piece together a case while everyone else wants an immediate explanation, this is the one for you.

Explore Bones of the Elbow

Which case will you choose?

A game-night death, a pump-house mystery, or bones beside the river?

Silence on the Turf

Ghosts in the Ground

Bones of the Elbow

New to Parks Pat?

Detective Margie Patenaude is a Métis homicide investigator in Calgary. Her colleagues call her “Parks Pat” because bodies found in the city’s parks keep coming her way. That nickname does not mean she is a wilderness expert. Finding the right road can be a challenge all its own.

At home, she is raising Christina. At work, she is dealing with people on some of the worst days of their lives. There is room in these stories for the investigation, the family, and the people who cannot simply move on when a case is closed.

What to start the series at the beginning?

STARTER PACK

Need to catch up on the series? Get books 13-15

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Huge value! Pick up the previous books in the series in one collections

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to read the first fifteen books?
No. Each book has its own mystery. Reading in order lets you follow Margie’s family life and recurring relationships as well.

Are these ghost stories?
No. Ghosts in the Ground is a police procedural. The title points to the weight of the past, rather than a supernatural investigation.

Are the settings real?
These mysteries use real Calgary settings, including Shouldice Park, the Beaver Dam Flats/Refinery Park area, and Griffith Woods. The cases and characters are fiction.

Are these long novels?
They are quick-read mystery novellas, suited to readers who want a complete case in a shorter book.

The post Game Night, Ghosts, and Bones: Three New Parks Pat Mysteries first appeared on pdworkman.com.

]]> https://pdworkman.com/game-night-ghosts-and-bones-three-new-parks-pat-mysteries/feed/ 0 49325 https://pdworkman.com/rumour-and-evidence-police-procedurals/ https://pdworkman.com/rumour-and-evidence-police-procedurals/#respond Sun, 11 Oct 2026 04:52:23 +0000 https://pdworkman.com/?p=49460 Why do police procedural mysteries with twists work so well? Detective Margie Patenaude must sort rumour, loyalty, and confident theories from evidence.

The post Everyone Has a Theory: Rumour and Evidence in Police Procedurals first appeared on pdworkman.com.

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Everyone Has a Theory

Rumour and Evidence in Police Procedurals

The best police procedural mysteries with twists begin before the detective arrives. The moment something terrible happens, people begin making sense of it.

The crowd makes its own story

In Silence on the Turf, a youth-sports setting gives the case a ready-made community. Parents, coaches, players, and spectators all have relationships, loyalties, and points of view. They may know one another well. Everyone has an opinion and are happy to share it far and wide. They know what happened. Or they think they do.

That is rich ground for a police procedural. Margie is not working with one simple account. She is sorting through fragments: people who saw only one moment, people protecting a friend, people embarrassed by what they missed, and people who are very sure they know the answer.

The pressure is not only to solve the case. It is to resist solving it too quickly.

Twists should come from what the detective did not know yet

Readers who enjoy police procedural mysteries with twists do not want a random surprise dropped into the final chapter. The best twist changes how you see the evidence that was already there.

A detective may learn that a witness had a reason to leave something out. A timeline may look different after one fact is checked. The person everyone suspected may have been hiding something important, but not the thing the community assumed.

Margie looks, listens, and tests the facts. The answer may surprise her, but it should never feel as though it came from a different book.

Public scrutiny can make the noise louder

Rumour is not limited to packed sidelines. It can grow whenever a case draws strong feelings and public attention.

In Bones of the Elbow, the discovery of human remains in Griffith Woods brings more than one idea about what the case means and what should happen next. Margie has to work carefully with evidence and with people who may be speaking from fear, history, grief, or a desire to protect the land.

The detective’s job is not to win an argument. It is to investigate the evidence. That can be frustrating for people who want a fast answer. It is also the only way to reach an answer that will hold.

Why we love watching the facts win

There is a quiet satisfaction in watching a detective work. Margie does not need the loudest theory. She needs a timeline that makes sense, evidence that can be checked, and questions that lead somewhere. Every time she asks someone to go back to the beginning, she gives the reader a chance to look again too.

That is the promise of a police procedural mystery: the truth may be hidden, but it is not unreachable. The detective will keep working until the facts say more than the rumours.

You can begin reading the series with Out with the Sunset, or step into the pressure of Silence on the Turf or Bones of the Elbow. You can find more Parks Pat reading ideas in the Police Procedural Mysteries hub.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between rumour and evidence in a police procedural?

Rumour can point a detective toward a useful lead, but evidence is what can be checked: witness accounts, timing, records, and physical facts that support a conclusion.

What makes a twist fair in a police procedural mystery?

A fair twist changes how readers see information already in the story. The detective earns the new direction by asking better questions and checking what does not fit.

The post Everyone Has a Theory: Rumour and Evidence in Police Procedurals first appeared on pdworkman.com.

Calgary Parks

Great Police Procedural Settings

A park seems like a peaceful place to set a mystery. People go there to walk the dog, watch their kids play, meet friends, or get away from the noise of the city for an hour.

That is exactly why parks are so useful in a police procedural. A park is public, but it is never simple. People pass through. Some know the place well. Some are only there once. A crowded field can give a detective plenty of witnesses, but not necessarily reliable ones. A quiet trail can leave behind very little except a question: who was there, and why?

In the Parks Pat Mysteries, Calgary’s green spaces are part of the case. Detective Margie Patenaude has to read the people in a place as carefully as she reads the evidence.

A city park has its own rhythm

A good police procedural setting needs more than a pretty view. It needs depth. Who uses the place? When is it busy? Where do people park? Which paths connect to the road, the river, or the next neighbourhood? What happens when the weather turns and everyone goes home at once?

Calgary has established parks and green spaces in all kinds of terrain and all sorts of neighbourhoods—parks beside rivers, parks full of teams and families, parks that still feel close to the foothills, and parks with long histories. There are hills, pathways, parking lots, dog walkers, joggers, strollers, picnics, conservation officers, and volunteers.

That gives a mystery writer a lot to work with. It gives a detective even more.

Shouldice Park: busy, public, and full of witnesses

In Silence on the Turf, Margie is at Shouldice Park when a youth-sports evening turns into a homicide investigation.

Shouldice is the kind of place where something can happen in plain sight and still be hard to piece together. There are games, people arriving late, people leaving early, parents watching from the sidelines, and a lot of movement. Everyone may have seen one small part of the evening. The hard part is learning which parts belong together.

That is a great fit for a police procedural mystery. Margie cannot solve the case by guessing which person looks most suspicious. She has to compare accounts, test the timeline, and work out what people actually noticed. The setting raises the pressure because the people closest to the case are already part of a tight community.

You can visit the real setting in this guide to Shouldice Park.

Beaver Dam Flats: the land remembers

Ghosts in the Ground takes Margie to Beaver Dam Flats and nearby Refinery Park. Here, the feeling is different. The river is close. The landscape carries both natural beauty and signs of what came before. A case in a place like this has room for memory, history, and people who do not agree about what should be forgotten.

In a police procedural, a setting can create questions before any witnesses speak up. What used to be here? Who still comes here? Which old facts are still useful, and which have become stories people tell because they want them to be true?

Margie has to keep the investigation grounded. The past matters, but it does not solve a present-day murder by itself. She needs records, interviews, physical evidence, and a clear sense of what the land can and cannot tell her.

Read more about the setting in Beaver Dam Flats and Refinery Park.

Griffith Woods: quiet is not the same as empty

In Bones of the Elbow, human remains are found in Griffith Woods. The woods and nearby Elbow River create another kind of investigation. A quiet place can feel private, but trails bring people through. The land itself needs care. The ecosystem is fragile, and public interest can make a difficult scene even harder to manage.

This is where a police procedural can slow down in the right way. Margie and her team have to protect the scene, learn what belongs there and what does not, and handle competing views with care. The mystery comes from patient, methodical work, not a wild leap.

Griffith Woods gives the case texture: trees, paths, equestrian trails, and protected areas. You can explore the park through the Griffith Woods Park guide.

Parks make the city feel personal

Calgary is a big city, but its parks make it feel intimate. The people who use a place regularly know its shortcuts, its routines, and the faces that belong there. They also know when something feels off.

That makes a park mystery personal. A homicide does not happen in an abstract location. It happens somewhere people run, play, work, and gather. The shock ripples outward.

This is part of what gives the Parks Pat Mysteries Canadian police procedurals a strong sense of place. Margie is a homicide detective, a mother, and a Métis woman working in Calgary. Her cases are about evidence, but they are also about people trying to hold onto the places that matter to them.

You can start with Out with the Sunset to meet Margie at the beginning of the series, or choose the case that calls to you. Each is a stand alone mystery. You can also find more reading paths in the Police Procedural Mysteries hub.

Frequently asked questions

Which Calgary parks appear in the newest Parks Pat Mysteries?

Silence on the Turf is set at Shouldice Park, Ghosts in the Ground draws on Beaver Dam Flats and Refinery Park, and Bones of the Elbow takes readers to Griffith Woods near the Elbow River.

Can I read the Calgary park mysteries as standalones?

Yes. Each Parks Pat book has a complete police procedural case. Readers who want to start at the beginning can begin with Out with the Sunset.

The post Why Calgary Parks Make Such Good Police Procedural Settings first appeared on pdworkman.com.

Evidence, People,

And the Questions That Matter in Police Procedurals

A police procedural mystery needs evidence. The evidence does not need to be flashy. In fact, the best clues often are small or mundane. It may be a detail that does not match a witness’s story, a gap in a timeline, a record that was overlooked, or a small fact that takes on new meaning after one more interview.

What makes a police procedural satisfying is watching the detective turn those separate pieces into a case that can stand up.

In the Parks Pat Mysteries, Detective Margie Patenaude follows the facts. She also understands that every fact belongs to somebody’s real life.

Evidence is more than a lab report

Television has taught us to expect a mystery to be solved by one dramatic test result. A police procedural can include forensics, of course, but a real case is usually built from more than that.

A detective looks at access, opportunity, timing, and motive. She talks to the people who were there. She asks the same question in different ways. She checks whether a story fits the location and whether the location fits the story. She keeps track of what someone says, but she also pays attention to what they leave out.

That is the quiet pleasure of a procedural. The answer grows from patient, sometime plodding work. A piece of evidence is not magic. It is one part of a larger picture.

The setting gives evidence a meaning

A clue is never separate from the setting. A crowded athletic park creates different questions from a quiet stretch of woods. A river flat with layers of history creates different questions from a garden, a reservoir, or an open field.

In Silence on the Turf, the busy setting at Shouldice Park means many people are close to the case. That does not make the truth easy to find. A crowd can produce rumours, assumptions, and a lot of partial memories. Margie needs to sort out what people know from what they think they know.

Ghosts in the Ground puts the investigation in a place shaped by the river, industry, and community memory. The past matters, but Margie still has to separate documented fact from the stories people carry with them.

In Bones of the Elbow, the setting calls for care. Human remains, a public park with a fragile ecosystem, and strong feelings about how the land should be used make every decision matter. Evidence must be preserved and protected.

A detective has to earn the answer

Readers of police procedural mysteries do not only want to know who committed the crime. They want to see how the detective figures it out. Margie makes connections because she has done the work, listening closely, checking the details, and persisting even when the first theory falls apart.

The same is true in earlier Parks Pat cases. Grounded in the Wind, Reservoir of Secrets, and Peril in the Blooms each give Margie a different piece of Calgary and a different problem to untangle. The cases are self-contained, but they share the same promise: the solution has to be earned.

Police procedurals with heart

Evidence matters. So do the people around a case. A death changes the lives of family, friends, coworkers, and neighbours. Witnesses may be frightened, angry, stubborn, or grieving. Suspects have their own reasons for holding back. A good detective notices those things without letting sympathy replace proof.

Margie is good at that balance. She is a Calgary Police Service homicide detective, but she is also a mother and a Métis woman with a life beyond the shift. She understands that a case is not merely a file to close. Still, she has to do the job carefully and fairly, especially when emotions are running high.

That is where police procedurals find their heart. The procedure gives the investigation its shape; the people give it weight.

Follow the evidence with Parks Pat

If you enjoy police procedurals with strong setting, the Parks Pat series may be a good fit. Calgary’s parks, pathways, water, and neighbourhoods are not just background. They are part of how Margie sees each case.

You can begin with Out with the Sunset to follow Margie from the start, or jump into one of the new park mysteries: Silence on the Turf, Ghosts in the Ground, or Bones of the Elbow. Each is a stand alone mystery.

For more police procedural reading ideas, visit the Police Procedural Mysteries hub.

Frequently asked questions

What role does evidence play in a police procedural mystery?

Evidence gives the investigation its shape. Detectives compare witness accounts, timing, records, and physical clues until the facts support a clear conclusion.

Are the Parks Pat Mysteries about more than the investigation?

Yes. The books follow the evidence, but they also consider the family, community, and place around each case. Margie is a detective, a mother, and a Métis woman working in Calgary.

The post Evidence, People, and the Questions That Matter in Police Procedurals first appeared on pdworkman.com.

Three Calgary Parks

Three Very Different Police Procedural Mysteries

Calgary has the sort of parks that invite you to stay a while. You can watch a game, follow a river path, walk under trees, or sit with a coffee while the dog investigates every blade of grass.

They are also very different from one another.

That difference matters in a mystery. Setting is a character. The people who use a place, the history it holds, and the way someone moves through it can shape an investigation before Detective Margie Patenaude even knows the victim’s name.

Each Parks Pat Mystery takes Margie into a Calgary park. Each setting shapes the investigation differently.

Shouldice Park: a case in the middle of the crowd

Silence on the Turf begins at Shouldice Park, a place that is made for activity. Fields, teams, coaches, parents, kids, cars, and spectators all mean there is plenty going on.

A busy place can be a gift to a detective. There may be many witnesses. There may be people who noticed a car, a conversation, or someone acting out of place. But a crowd can also make things worse. Everybody catches a different moment. A rumour can travel faster than a verified fact. People who know one another may protect each other without even thinking about it.

Margie needs to know who was where, when, and what people actually saw. That makes Shouldice a strong setting for a police procedural mystery: the case is public, noisy, and full of pieces that do not line up at first.

Learn more about Shouldice Park.

Beaver Dam Flats: a case with a long memory

In Ghosts in the Ground, Margie and Detective Gagnon are drawn to Beaver Dam Flats and the surrounding river landscape.

This is a different kind of Calgary mystery setting. The river gives the area space and movement. The old industrial history and vanished neighbourhood stories give it memory. People can look at the same patch of ground and see a peaceful escape, a piece of family history, or a place that has been misunderstood for years.

For Margie, that means the past is part of the case without being the whole answer. She has to listen to people who care deeply about the place. She has to look for records, verify old claims, and keep the investigation focused on what can be shown.

It is a setting that works beautifully for readers who like atmosphere in their police procedurals. The land is not spooky for the sake of it. It has a history, and that history affects the people still living with it.

Take a look at Beaver Dam Flats and Refinery Park to see why this part of the city stays with people.

Griffith Woods: a case where careful work matters

Bones of the Elbow moves to Griffith Woods, near the Elbow River. The woods feel farther from the city, even though Calgary is never truly far away. There are trails, trees, riverbank, changing weather, and people who come there for quiet.

The discovery of human remains changes things. The evidence needs to be protected. The park brings public attention and strong feelings. Margie has to work carefully, because rushing to fit the facts into an easy story would not help anyone.

This is the kind of police procedural mystery where the setting demands patient persistence. A detective needs to understand the land, its significance, and the difference between what was left behind long ago and what is happening now.

Explore Griffith Woods Park.

Three cases, one Calgary detective

Three different books showing how much the setting can change the shape of a case.

Silence on the Turf brings Margie into a busy community event where everyone has a view of what happened. Ghosts in the Ground takes her to a place where community memory and hard evidence have to be sorted apart. Bones of the Elbow asks her to protect fragile evidence and handle a case that matters to more people than the investigation team.

They are all police procedural mysteries, but none tells the same story in the same way. Each book is a complete case, so you can start with the setting that interests you most.

A series for readers who like a sense of place

Parks Pat Mysteries are for readers who like their crime fiction with a real city underfoot. Margie is a homicide detective with the Calgary Police Service, a single mother, and a Métis woman. Her cases take her through parks and neighbourhoods that feel used, loved, and lived in.

If you would like to meet Margie at the start, try Out with the Sunset. Each book is a complete mystery, you can jump in at any point in her series. Travel with Margie to the field, the flats, or the woods by the Elbow River. Each book is a stand alone mystery.

Then visit the Police Procedural Mysteries hub for more Parks Pat reading paths.

Frequently asked questions

What are the three newest Calgary park mysteries in the Parks Pat series?

The three newest cases are Silence on the Turf at Shouldice Park, Ghosts in the Ground at Beaver Dam Flats and Refinery Park, and Bones of the Elbow in Griffith Woods.

Do I need to know Calgary to enjoy the Parks Pat Mysteries?

No. The books explain the setting through the case, so readers can enjoy the Calgary parks and neighbourhoods whether or not they have visited the city.

The post Three Calgary Parks, Three Very Different Police Procedural Mysteries first appeared on pdworkman.com.

Police Procedural Mysteries

Follow the Evidence with Parks Pat

If you like a mystery where the clues matter, the detective has to do the work, and the answer is earned instead of dropped from the sky, you are in the right place.

The Parks Pat Mysteries follow Detective Margie Patenaude through Calgary cases shaped by real parks, changing weather, busy families, and the things people would rather leave buried. These are Canadian police procedural mysteries with complete investigations, a detective you can come back to, and a city that is never just scenery.

Start with a police procedural mystery

Police procedurals are built around the investigation. Margie and her team talk to witnesses, compare reports, follow the evidence, and keep going when the first easy answer does not hold up. You get a complete case every time, and the characters and the city carry forward from book to book.

If you would like to meet Margie at the beginning, start with Out with the Sunset. If you prefer to choose a case by setting, each Parks Pat Mystery take you into a new Calgary greenspace.

Explore police procedurals

The posts below are a good place to begin.

What Is a Police Procedural?

Canadian Police Procedurals in Calgary

Police Procedural Novellas

Calgary is part of the case

Parks, river paths, neighbourhoods, snow, sudden chinooks, and the ordinary routines of city life all put pressure on an investigation. In Silence on the Turf, a case grows out of the energy around Shouldice Park. Ghosts in the Ground looks toward Beaver Dam Flats and the weight of an older Calgary landscape. Bones of the Elbow heads into Griffith Woods, where a discovery pulls more than one story into the open.

You do not need local knowledge to enjoy the books. But if you know Calgary, you may recognize the feeling of the paths, the weather, and the way a place can hold its own history.

A mystery series for real reading time

Each Parks Pat book is a self-contained police procedural novella. You get a real case, a trail of clues, and a satisfying finish without needing to set aside a week. Read in order if you enjoy watching Margie’s life and team grow, or choose the case and setting that calls to you.

Whether you are looking for Canadian detective fiction, Calgary mysteries, or a smart police procedural for a short reading break, there is a Parks Pat case waiting.

Frequently asked questions

What makes the Parks Pat Mysteries police procedurals?

Detective Margie Patenaude and her colleagues solve cases by following evidence, interviewing witnesses, checking records, and testing the first explanation against what the facts actually show.

Do I need to read the Parks Pat Mysteries in order?

No. Each book has a complete mystery. Start with Out with the Sunset if you would like to meet Margie at the beginning, or choose any case that appeals to you.

Are the Parks Pat Mysteries set in Calgary?

Yes. The series is set in Calgary, and many cases draw on the city’s parks, river valleys, neighbourhoods, and everyday life.

The post Police Procedural Mysteries: Follow the Evidence with Parks Pat first appeared on pdworkman.com.