Mother Love: Murder in a Small Town

There is a murder here, no question, but readers craving a simple whodunit should look elsewhere: The real mystery is why Maria, a pleasant, placid housewife, abandoned her family for seven years.

L.R. Wright ("Bunny" to her family and friends) was best known for her celebrated mystery series set in a little town on Western Canada's Sunshine Coast, featuring Karl Alberg of the Canadian police. In 1986 the first book in the series, The Suspect, won the Edgar Award for Best Novel of the Year, making Wright the first Canadian to be so honored. Two other books in the series--A Chill Rain in January and Mother Love--won Arthur Ellis Awards (now the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence). Wright died in 2001, and in 2024 the Alberg series was adapted for television as Murder In a Small Town.