Dead Insider

Dead Insider
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2013-06-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440533563

In the midst of a catastrophic August rainstorm, a grisly discovery shatters the serenity of a summer evening in northern Wisconsin. Moving quickly to prevent a panic among tourists, Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris enlists the forensic and interrogation skills of her close friend and fellow fly fisherman, the retired dentist "Doc" Osborne. Within hours of launching their investigation, they find themselves faced with a national media circus as Loon Lake becomes the focus of a murderous scenario that links the murder to the race for the U.S. Senate by a woman who is heir to a Northwoods fortune and other, less savory, family traditions. In the meantime, Doc Osborne's eldest daughter, Mallory, enters into a relationship that may put her life at risk--unless her father and Chief Ferris can find the killer stalking the residents of Loon Lake.

Dead Hot Shot

Dead Hot Shot
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 283
Release: 2011-07-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440531595

Murder never takes a holiday...or so Loon Lake learns one wintry Thanksgiving Day. Chief of Police Lew Ferris, short-handed thanks to an AWOL coroner, never even gets the turkey stuffed before the bodies start to surface. By the end of the day, credit card theft and dysfunctional families have so muddied the waters that not even expert tracker and dedicated fishing guide Ray Pradt can hope to fish the final day of muskie season. And while retired dentist Doc Osborne had counted on sitting by the fire with Lew (out of uniform) and planning a fly-fishing trip to Wyoming, the unexpected arrival of Gina Palmer, former investigative reporter turned forensics database expert, ramps up the action with her pursuit of a Canadian link to the theft of merchandise from stores across the upper Midwest. Dead Hot Shot, ninth in the Loon Lake Mystery series, is a heady mix of murder, mayhem, and fishing in the northwoods of Wisconsin.

Dead Deceiver

Dead Deceiver
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2011-02-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440531064

It's late January in Loon Lake and bodies abound: a woman on snowshoes has been discovered wedged under a wooden bridge on a cross-country ski trail. A day later, Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris interviews a couple who alleges that the wife, a former nun, is being stalked. Meanwhile, Loon Lake is hosting an International Ice Fishing Festival with problems.

Dead Big Dawg

Dead Big Dawg
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Gallery Books
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2019-06-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440598835

Murder, She Wrote meets Fargo in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in the nineteenth “gripping, atmospheric, and smart” (T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author) installment of the Loon Lake series. When the bodies of a wealthy Chicago industrialist and his wife are discovered in their summer home at the same time that a local lawyer disappears, life becomes complicated for Loon Lake Chief of Police Lew Ferris. Relying on the forensic dental expertise of her close friend and acting coroner, Doc Osborne, Lew soon finds the investigations are even more complicated than she thought when a rarely used computer belonging to a local sawmill operation is taken over by foreign hackers. Add to that the family issues facing both Lew and Doc, and this Northwoods summer becomes both hot and dangerous. Engaging and fast-paced, Dead Big Dawg is a clever mystery perfect for fans of Lee Goldberg and Janet Evanovich.

Mystery on Pine Lake

Mystery on Pine Lake
Author: Tamra Wight
Publisher: Cooper and Packrat
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-09-18
Genre: FICTION
ISBN: 9781939017024

Trouble has come to the Wilder Family Campground, where someone is out to harm a family of loons. Cooper Wilder and his new best friend, Packrat, must find the culprit, fend off a bully, save the campground, and still have time for s'mores!

Loon Lake

Loon Lake
Author: E.L. Doctorow
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2010-09-22
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 030776298X

The hero of this dazzling novel by American master E. L. Doctorow is Joe, a young man on the run in the depths of the Great Depression. A late-summer night finds him alone and shivering beside a railroad track in the Adirondack mountains when a private railcar passes. Brightly lit windows reveal well-dressed men at a table and, in another compartment, a beautiful girl holding up a white dress before her naked form. Joe will follow the track to the mysterious estate at Loon Lake, where he finds the girl along with a tycoon, an aviatrix, a drunken poet, and a covey of gangsters. Here Joe’s fate will play out in this powerful story of ambition, aggression, and identity. Loon Lake is another stunning achievement of this acclaimed author. “Powerful . . . [a] complex and haunting meditation on modern American history.” –The New York Times “A genuine thriller . . . a marvelous exploration of the complexities and contradictions of the American dream . . . Not under any circumstances would we reveal the truly shattering climax.” –The Dallas Morning News “A dazzling performance . . . [Loon Lake] anatomizes America with insight, passion, and inventiveness.” –The Washington Post Book World “Hypnotic . . . tantalizes long after it has ended.” –Time “Compelling . . . brilliantly done.” –St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A masterpiece.” –Chicago Sun-Times

Dead Rapunzel

Dead Rapunzel
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 235
Release: 2015-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440568502

A Los Angeles Times Page-Turner "...populated with sympathetic, well-drawn characters... ouston also delivers beautiful descriptions of the bucolic setting, along with plenty of sharply rendered fly-fishing scenes." --Booklist It's the dead of winter in Loon Lake when a wealthy widow is run down and killed by a logging truck on an icy street. The truck driver insists he saw a man shove the woman into the path of his truck. A lone witness who may have seen the man who shoved the victim is soon found dead--drowned in icy waters where he was ice fishing. Within hours, Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris finds herself dealing with malicious family members related to the dead woman, a cache of grisly paintings, and strange disturbances on the land surrounding the widow's contemporary mansion--all of which point to various people who may have wanted her dead. Lew recruits her close friend and fellow flyfisherman, retired dentist "Doc" Osborne, for his forensic and interrogation skills. Meanwhile, Ray Pradt, ice fishing guide and expert tracker, helps with the initial investigation even as he threatens to engage in an inappropriate relationship with a key witness. Lew's life and career is further complicated when a young woman calls, convinced that Lew is her birth mother.

Murder Under the Loon

Murder Under the Loon
Author: Gerald Anderson
Publisher: Llewellyn Worldwide
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2011-10-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0738720259

In the good old Minnesota town of Fergus Falls, murder is about as common as shorts-wearing tourists in January. But even in quiet Nordic towns, strange things can happen in the dead of winter. Eager to retire, insurance company owner "Pinky" Hofstead had grand plans to announce the appointment of his new president at an all-employee winter weekend retreat. But after a night of snowmobiling in sub-zero weather, Hofstead is found the next day—as cold and stiff as a piece of dried lutefisk. Puzzled by how Hofstead's body could be lying beneath a concrete loon with his snowmobile abandoned fifty feet away, Otter County Sheriff Palmer Knutson and his upstart rookie detective suspect that this is more than just an accident. With possible motives of greed, ambition, and jealousy, could any of the four employees or their spouses be cold-blooded enough to ice the boss? Uffda! There's a murderous chill in the air!

Dead Tease

Dead Tease
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2012-02-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1440531811

A hot August afternoon and Midwest Clinic CEO John McNeil has been working late. Working on his latest conquest, that is. Jen Williams is twenty-six, in charge of graphics for the hospital's PR division—and quite attractive in a healthy, athletic kind of way. She is quick to laugh and a little too quick to fall for guys. She is no virgin. And she is one of three women—including his wife—intimately familiar with McNeil. When Jen's youthful body is found with a single stab wound through the heart, suspicion falls on both McNeil's wife, who insists she is being stalked, and the striking hospital physician with whom he had just ended an affair. Pressure to find the killer falls on Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn "Lew" Ferris and Dr. Paul "Doc" Osborne, the retired dentist and forensic dental expert whom she has deputized to help with the investigation—when they are not taking a break for fishing and other personal pursuits. When the mayor demands Lew take early retirement—and Doc has to babysit his teenage granddaughter who won't stop texting—the frustrations mount. Desperate for a few hours off—and persuaded by Ray Pradt (a fishing guide who wears a stuffed trout on his head, so they should have known better)—to try fly fishing from kayaks, Doc and Lew find themselves in life-and-death straits on the river. This leads to an unexpected and macabre discovery that just may break the case.

Wolf Hollow

Wolf Hollow
Author: Victoria Houston
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-01-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1643858009

Murder stalks the Wisconsin northwoods in a gripping novel from the author of the acclaimed Loon Lake mysteries. It's mid-May in the tiny northwoods Wisconsin town of Loon Lake, and the fish are biting. Walleye's not the only thing on the hook. There are rumors that a precious vein of nickel and copper is buried on the property of wealthy Grace McDonough, and the drilling is about to begin. But not if environmentalist Pete Ferris can help it. When Grace's 24-year-old son, Noah, is caught in a sordid sex crime, police chief Lew Ferris makes the arrest. But a day later, Lew is stricken when her brother Pete turns up dead, a bloody pry bar found in the woods nearby. Then, Grace's body is discovered in a car at the bottom of a river--and Noah has vanished. Lew puts out a statewide APB, but before long, Noah is also found murdered on the McDonough property. It's beginning to look like mother and son were killed by the same person. And when Lew learns that her brother had planned to file a lawsuit to prevent drilling for the sulfide mine, a key piece of the puzzle suddenly falls into place. Lew is beginning to close in on the truth. But has the killer set his bait again, angling for his biggest catch yet?