Undertow

A heartbreaking set of murders bring detectives Leith and Dion together again, now in the Lower Mainland, where violence flows like a riptide.

Last summer the inlet waters washed an unknown woman’s body onto the rocks of North Vancouver’s Neptune shipyards. Nameless and unclaimed, Jane Doe has become yesterday’s news by the time detectives David Leith and Cal Dion arrive in Vancouver, but her story doesn’t end there.

For Leith, another killing is demanding all his attention as Leith tries to fit into his new posting in North Vancouver: Why would anyone beat a regular guy like electrician Lance Liu to death, and then track down his young wife and baby girl to finish them off? The only survivor from the family, four-year-old Joey, is unable to describe the killer. As the case draws on, Leith starts to question the wisdom of bringing his own family to the city.

Meanwhile, Cal Dion is back on his home ground, but more alienated than ever as he watches his hopes of reintegration fade with every mistake. But another savage killing keeps Dion busy. Oscar Roth, a nightclub owner, is found gutted and asphyxiated in his upscale home. But with Dion not feeling his best, Oscar’s associates are all too distracting.

The killings are adding up, but something is missing — something that will take both detectives to unravel, if they make it that far.