County author Janet Kellough releases sixth book in mystery series

Janet Kellough

Meet County author Janet Kellough, who will be at Books & Co., in Picton Saturday, July 22 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., to sign copies of her newly-released book The Heart Balm Tort. (Note to fans: bring any or all of her other books to have signed as well).

The Heart Balm Tort is the sixth in Kellough’s wildly successful Thaddeus Lewis mystery series. Each book in the series stands on its own, but if there’s anybody out there who is new to the stories surrounding the itinerant “saddlebag” preacher, having all six will give a richly satisfying summer read. They are also available at  Amazon, and as both Kindle and Kobo ebooks!

The Heart Balm Tort – Still humiliated after his disastrous posting in Cobourg, preacher and sometime detective Thaddeus Lewis is asked to investigate a case of arson and murder that had its beginnings as a simple suit for seduction – a so-called “heart balm tort”.

The last person he expects to find in London, Canada West is con-artist and former adversary Clementine Elliott, a woman he last saw many years before – when she was skipping out on her hotel bill. London buzzes with gossip as Thaddeus doggedly pursues evidence of a young man’s innocence, but he appears to be getting nowhere until he enlists Clementine’s aid – and when Thaddeus’s granddaughter Martha is threatened by the killer, Clementine proves to be an unexpected ally in the desperate effort to save her.

Wishful Seeing – the fifth book in Kellough’s series, was short-listed this spring for a Crime Writers of Canada 2017 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.

In it, itinerant saddlebag preacher Thaddeus Lewis uncovers murder and conspiracy in Northumberland County.
After a body is discovered on an isolated island in Rice Lake, Lewis embarks on a desperate hunt for the truth when a woman for whom he feels a guilty attraction stands accused of the murder.

Meanwhile, railway mania grips the county: everyone expects to get rich off the Cobourg–Peterborough rail line — some at the expense of others.

The Burying Ground – Someone is digging up the graves at the Strangers’ Burying Ground in Toronto – the final resting place of criminals, vagrants, indigents, and alcoholics.

The authorities are unconcerned; after all, for years the growing village of Yorkville has been clamouring to have the bodies moved and the Burying Ground closed.

The graveyard’s secrets lead Thaddeus Lewis and his son Luke into the hidden heart of 1851 Toronto where they discover a trail of corruption and blackmail tied to an old sexual scandal and a dangerous enemy intent on vengeance.

47 Sorrows – The bloated corpse of a man dressed in women’s clothing washes up on the shore of Lake Ontario near Thaddeus Lewis’s home. Nothing is found on the body except a small scrap of green ribbon.
It’s 1847 – “Black ’47”- and 100,000 Irish immigrants are fleeing to Canada to escape starvation. The emigrants bring with them the dreaded “ship’s fever”, and soon Canadian ports are overflowing with the sick and dying.
Lewis’s youngest son, Luke, volunteers in the dreaded fever sheds. He finds a green ribbon in the lifeless hand of a patient named John Porter. Luke uncovers a tale of enmity that began in Ireland, and enlists Thaddeus’s aid in trying to discover what happened. Their search leads them to the heart of the criminal underworld of Toronto, where the final acts of vengeance play out against the tragedy occurring in the fever sheds.

Sowing Poison – After tracking down a serial killer in “On the Head of a Pin” Thaddeus Lewis untangles a twisted tale of murder, mystery & mysticism in the lakeside village of Wellington, Prince Edward County.
After an absence of many years, Nathan Elliott returns home – only to disappear again a few days later.

Elliott’s wife arrives & begins holding seances in her rooms at The Temperance Hotel, an activity Lewis finds offensive. His attempts to discredit her lead him to greed, spite, murder, Edgar Allan Poe and a wild boy who lives in The Great Sand Hills of Wellington.

On the Head of a Pin – Thaddeus Lewis, an itinerant “saddlebag” preacher still mourns the mysterious death of his daughter Sarah as he rides to his new posting in Prince Edward County. When a girl in Demorestville dies in much the same way, he realizes that the circumstances point to murder, but in the turmoil following the 1837 Mackenzie Rebellion he can get no one to listen.

Convinced there is a serial killer loose in Upper Canada, Lewis must track the culprit across a colony convulsed by dissension, invasion and fear of pirates on the St. Lawrence River. His only clues are the Book of Proverbs and a small painted pin…

Janet Kellough is also a storyteller, playwright and performer. Find out more by visiting her website at www.janetkellough.com

Coming up Sept. 1-2 in Picton, Kellough, with partner in crime writing Vicki Delany, are hosting “Women Killing It”, a new Crime Writers’ Festival that will spotlight some of Canada’s best women writers who work in the crime/mystery genre.