[.ca] Menace: An Edwina Henderson Mystery (ISBN 0770427987)

Amazon.ca:
Menace, the final mystery by L.R. Wright, who'd won nearly every award available to Canadian mystery writers before her death in 2001, ranks among the finest by this genre-bending author. Earnest young social worker Rebecca Wilson brushes off a casual invitation for a date, and strange things start happening at her home. A speeding Lexus almost runs down senior citizen Olive Parfit, who suspects the incident might have been intentional. Neither woman realizes that she's caught the obsessive attention of a violent psychopath, but Sergeant Edwina (Eddie) Henderson links the occurrences, recognizing a potentially deadly pattern of stalking emerging in the sleepy town of Gibsons, British Columbia. She just has to figure out who is responsible before someone gets seriously hurt. Wright became the first Canadian to win the prestigious Edgar Award for best mystery novel for The Suspect, the debut in a series that featured Karl Alberg, the head of the RCMP detachment on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. She retired Alberg in Acts of Murder, and Menace is the second novel featuring Eddie Henderson, his capable replacement. As a locale Gibsons may be as Canadian as a beaver dam, but Wright avoids falling into clichés. She opts, as she often does, to stretch the boundaries of the murder mystery, in this case by writing a mystery in which the dead body comes almost as an afterthought. --Deirdre Hanna

Sunshine Coast Mystery marks a sad passing:
Menace is a well built mystery set on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia. It has plenty of suspense as a stalker terrorizes local women in the small town of Gibson where newcomer Sgt. Eddie Henderson has just taken control of the local RCMP headquarters. The cast is well developed and likeable as only a small town community can be. There is a real sense of place here which readers will want to see developed in future stories. Unfortunately, protagonist Eddie Henderson will never be as fully developed as her predecessor L.R. Wright's creation Karl Alberg was in her Sechelt, B.C. series. Menace is L.R. Wright's final book as the author died of cancer in 200l. It is a worthy tribute to a fine Canadian writer. Fans will read it with a touch of sadness knowing it is the last of her works and new readers can read backwards and enjoy her earlier novels for the fine writing and loving characterization. I envy them the experience.