To Track a Traitor, page 41
The team at TouchWood Editions, the loveliest indie publisher in existence, continues to nurture, laugh with, and support me in sharing these stories. Thank you to Tori Elliott, publisher extraordinaire; Kate Kennedy, editorial coordinator, whose support is unequalled; and Curtis Samuel, lovely publicist, planner of epic trips, and most excellent cheerer-upper. A special hug of gratitude to owner Pat Touchie, who is always so very kind when we meet.
Editors Claire Philipson, Renée Layberry, and Meg Yamamoto helped to make a real book out of what I provided, and I am eternally grateful for the care and commitment each of them brings. The covers continue to delight everyone who sees them, and we have the wonderful Margaret Hanson to thank for these.
A special thanks to my wonderful first readers, Nickie Bertolotti and Sasha Bley-Vroman, who warn me away from disasters of language or fact before I expose them to anyone else. And of course to my family, Biski and Tammy for their enthusiastic support, my two grandsons Teo and Tyson for, well, frankly, just existing, and most especially my husband Terry, who must put up with every inconvenience occasioned by having a writer in your actual home. The elation, the hand-wringing, the endless sessions of “Let me just bounce this off you,” the Zoom calls, the lost notebooks, the desperate calls for tech help. All of it borne with equanimity and kindness and not a little amusement. He claims to enjoy it. Thank you.
photo by anick violette iona whishaw is the author of the Globe & Mail bestselling series The Lane Winslow Mysteries. She is the winner of a Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award, was a finalist for a BC and Yukon Book Prize, and has twice been nominated for a Left Coast Crime Award. The heroine of her series, Lane Winslow, was inspired by Iona’s mother who, like her father before her, was a wartime spy. Born in the Kootenays, Iona spent many years in Mexico, Nicaragua, the US before settling into Vancouver, BC where she now lives with her husband, Terry. Throughout her life she has worked as a youth worker, social worker, teacher, and award-winning high school principal, eventually completing her master’s in creative writing from the University of British Columbia.
website: ionawhishaw.com
facebook & instagram: @ionawhishawauthor
discussion questions: touchwoodeditions.com/lanewinslow
the lane winslow mystery series
Copyright © 2023 by Iona Whishaw
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. For more information, contact the publisher at:
TouchWood Editions
touchwoodeditions.com
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Edited by Claire Philipson
Cover illustration by Margaret Hanson
cataloguing data available from library and archives canada
isbn 9781771513876 (softcover)
isbn 9781771513883 (electronic)
isbn 9781771513890 (audiobook)
TouchWood Editions acknowledges that the land on which we live and work is within the traditional territories of the Lkwungen (Esquimalt and Songhees), Malahat, Pacheedaht, Scia’new, T’Sou-ke, and wsáneć (Pauquachin, Tsartlip, Tsawout, and Tseycum) peoples.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Canada Council for the Arts, and of the Province of British Columbia through the British Columbia Arts Council and the Book Publishing Tax Credit.
printed in canada
27 26 25 24 23 1 2 3 4 5
“a delight! . . . readers will fall in love as i did.”
Genevieve Graham, #1 bestselling author of Bluebird
early one may morning Lane is pulled awake by a call from Scotland—her grandfather has had a heart attack. As Lane makes plans to fly overseas, Inspector Darling prepares himself for a stint of bachelorhood. But before he can begin to dwell on it, the Nelson Police learn that Ben Arden, a local cad, has gone out for a late-night boat ride and not returned.
In Scotland Lane finds her grandfather on the mend but her estranged sister Diana caught up in stressful circumstances of her own. As Lane follows a thread leading from South Africa to Aberdeen to the War Office in London it becomes apparent that her sister is not missing, as Lane feared, but on the run.
Back at the Nelson Police station clues amass around the Arden case, but progress is interrupted when the mayor himself issues a demand that Darling travel to England to tie up a decades-old mystery. True to form, upon Darling’s arrival in London he is swept up in Lane’s mission, which threatens to endanger the entire family.
* * *
“Intricately woven together, Iona Whishaw presents a stellar mystery with twists and turns in this clever novel.”
—Eliza Knight, USA Today bestselling author of Starring Adele Astaire
touchwoodeditions.com
Iona Whishaw, To Track a Traitor
