- New Arrivals
Fiction- Historical FictionCrime & ThrillersMysteryScience-FictionFantasyPoetryRomanceChildren’s BooksYoung Adult
- Biographies & MemoirsHistoryCurrent AffairsTech & ScienceBusinessSelf-DevelopmentTravelThe ArtsFood & WineReligion & SpiritualitySportsHumor
ListsGift CardsWhat To ReadMy Lists- About & Help
- About Tertulia
- Membership & Co-Ownership
- Shipping & Delivery
- Orders & Payments
- Contact Support
- Send App Feedback
- Follow us
- Download the app
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
The Road to Heaven: A Patrick Bird Mystery
A gripping noir mystery introducing artless young detective Patrick Bird, set in Toronto's Parkdale during the tumultuous '60s.
"I didn't kill her. I had the thought, the idea. What's the saying? The road to heaven is paved with bad intentions?"
Police academy burnout turned private eye Patrick Bird works divorce cases, using his camera to catch the unfaithful and the lonely looking for love in rented rooms. But his easy routine is shattered by a new case involving a missing girl.
Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater hasn't been home for three days. Her mother believes Abbie's getting an abortion. Her twin brother thinks she's studying at the library. Her best friend couldn't care less. Her father has no idea; he just wants her home without involving the police.
Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, as Bird roams the streets of Toronto looking for the runaway, he's caught a drifter prowling in the Linklater's backyard, stumbled into a creepy church with a belligerent minister, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong a decade earlier.
And that was before he found the body.
"I didn't kill her. I had the thought, the idea. What's the saying? The road to heaven is paved with bad intentions?"
Police academy burnout turned private eye Patrick Bird works divorce cases, using his camera to catch the unfaithful and the lonely looking for love in rented rooms. But his easy routine is shattered by a new case involving a missing girl.
Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater hasn't been home for three days. Her mother believes Abbie's getting an abortion. Her twin brother thinks she's studying at the library. Her best friend couldn't care less. Her father has no idea; he just wants her home without involving the police.
Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, as Bird roams the streets of Toronto looking for the runaway, he's caught a drifter prowling in the Linklater's backyard, stumbled into a creepy church with a belligerent minister, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong a decade earlier.
And that was before he found the body.
Book Details
- Publisher: Dundurn Press
- Publish Date: Jul 23rd, 2024
- Pages: 304
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 7.90in - 5.00in - 0.90in - 0.55lb
- EAN: 9781459753723
- Categories: • Mystery & Detective - Private Investigators• Noir
About the Author
Stefanovich-Thomson, Alexis: -
Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson won the 2023 CWC Best Crime Novella Award for The Man Who Went Down Under published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. The Road to Heaven, featuring detective Patrick Bird, is his first novel. He lives in Toronto.
Praise for this book
A taut noir that introduces Patrick Bird, a rookie PI who is as self-destructive as he is effective. This edge-of-the-chair page-turner is full of suspense, evocative settings, and unforgettable characters trapped in a web full of secrets and lies.-- "Liv Spector, author of The Rich and the Dead"
Having published Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson's Black Orchid Novella Award-winning story, it's a special delight to welcome his first novel. From the setting -- a richly evoked Toronto in the sixties -- to the cynical but committed narrative voice, to the dark family dynamics that complicate the search for a missing teen, The Road to Heaven will bring this terrific new talent to broader audiences. P.I. Patrick Bird is a character I hope to encounter again, and again.-- "Linda Landrigan, Editor, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine"
In this taut and stylish debut, Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson plunges the reader headlong into a Toronto period piece affectionately stage lit by noir. The opening scene's flashbulb pop exposes the loneliness and corrosive underbelly of a thickly peopled mystery. PI Patrick Bird's dogged pursuit of a missing persons case is captured with a wry awareness of a gaping postwar generational divide and a pitiless eye for intimate affairs.-- "Andrew Steinmetz, author of Because"
Witty and whip-smart, Stefanovich-Thomson dazzles his readers with fresh twists on every page. He dares you to keep up.-- "Nina Dunic, author of The Clarion"
The Road to Heaven is a compelling debut and a must read for fans of the hard-boiled genre. Stefanovich-Thomson masterfully recreates the seedier side of '60s Toronto with pitch-perfect description in this intriguing mystery of a family in crisis. Conflicted PI Patrick Bird proves a sardonic narrator with anger issues and his own dark secrets, making him the unlikely hero tasked with finding the family's missing teenager. A beguiling and well-crafted mystery.-- "Brenda Chapman, author of the Stonechild and Rouleau and the Hunter and Tate mysteries"
A riveting, fast-paced mystery, with aspects of noir and historical fiction thrown in for good measure. Patrick Bird is a young, cynical detective hired by a secretive rich man to track down his missing teenage daughter, Abbie. This seemingly simple plot takes place in a fascinating setting (Toronto, Ontario, mid-1965). At the time, Toronto was rapidly expanding, and youth culture was starting to challenge pious norms in a notoriously uptight city. Did Abbie run away to join the counterculture or is something more sinister afoot? Detective Bird keeps on the case, in a well-written book with multiple plot pivots that keeps everyone guessing until the end. I hope to read more books featuring Detective Bird's adventures in Toronto-the-not-so-Good.-- "Nate Hendley, author of Atrocity on the Atlantic and The Beatle Bandit"
Raw and twisty, The Road to Heaven takes you through hell to get to the promised land. Painfully human, we bear witness to what happens when people's longings crash into bright lights and dark alleys. Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson's prose reads like poetry, spare, yet laden with symbolism and meaning. A bright new star is shining among us . . . a brilliant debut.-- "Jane K. Cleland, author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries"
The compressed time frame adds a propulsive element to the narrative and the author is adept at deploying plot turns at appropriate and surprising intervals, lending the story a vibrancy that keeps the reader plowing forward relentlessly.
-- "Toronto Star"