Sleep While I Sing

“The reader who first discovered L.R. Wright’s talents in The Suspect will find his judgment more than justified with the Edgar-winning author’s latest book…. There are surprises in store in this suspenseful tale, and the writing will keep you turning the pages”   The Armchair Detective

“This is a very fine book…. the writing is graceful, the sense of compassion and melanchony… engage the reader.”   Boston Globe

“Another atmospheric mystery by L.R. Wright… in a smooth, assured style that rings true.”   Cleveland Plain Dealer

Audio Book available through Penguin Random House and Audible
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She was a woman traveling alone, with no identification and next to no luggage, a women who hitched a ride with a stranger on a country road. Now she is dead, her throat slashed by the driver of the car that picked her up, and police Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg has to find her killer— not an easy task when he doesn’t even know her identity or her destination, and when his mind is distracted by the wayward behavior of Cassandra Mitchell, the local librarian with whom he has an on-again, off-again relationship.

For Cassandra has become infatuated with a good-looking actor, Roger Galbraith, who has temporarily left Los Angeles for the little town of Sechelt on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, where he’s staying with his mother and flirting outrageously with all the local women. When it turns out that Galbraith may possibly have known the dead woman, Alberg’s distraction deepens: is his distrust for Roger based on his feelings about the murder, or his feelings about Cassandra? As Alberg struggles to separate jealousy from suspicion, the killer stalks the sleepy town of Sechelt, and only another murder can lead Alberg to the horrifying truth.

L.R. Wright’s first suspense novel, The Suspect, which introduced readers to Staff Sergeant Alberg, Cassandra Mitchell and the town of Sechelt, won the Edgar for best novel from the Mystery Writers of America; it was compared to the very best work of writers like Ruth Rendell and P.D. James. Sleep While I Sing has all the rich characterization, the sure sense of place, and the silken storytelling of its predecessor, and has added an almost Hitchcockian level of suspense: don’t read this story of compulsion and terror if you’re alone in the house.