July 1936. Toronto is in the grip of a deadly heat wave. Horses are dropping in the street. Charlotte Frayne is the junior associate in a two-person private-investigation firm owned by T. Gilmore. Anti-Semitism and murder in "Toronto the Good” in the depths of the Great Depression provide the historical background for this satisfying mystery. The fabric of the City of Toronto is as fully realized in Heat Wave as it is in all the Detective Murdoch books. A hate-letter is delivered to Charlotte’s boss, who leaves the matter in Charlotte’s hands to investigate. On the same day, Hilliard Taylor, a First World War veteran who, together with three other former prisoners-of-war, operates the Paradise Café, seeks the firm’s assistance in uncovering what he believes is the systematic embezzlement of the Café. These two events, seemingly unrelated, come together and bring to life characters as real to the reader as those of the Detective Murdoch series.

Charlotte Frayne’s boss, Mr. Gilmore, travels to Europe in the fall of 1936 on a mysterious trip, leaving her in charge of the detective agency. The redoubtable Mrs. Jessop hires Charlotte to investigate the untimely death of her son, a disfigured and injured veteran of the Great War. The police ruled it a suicide, but Mrs. Jessop doesn’t agree and wants Charlotte to find out what really happened. On the same day, Charlotte is hired to infiltrate a small women’s wear manufacturer to uncover communist agitators the owner believes are responsible for the labour unrest in his company. When the factory supervisor is discovered murdered on the job the same day Charlotte turns up for her first shift at Ladies’ Superior Clothing, she finds herself seconded by the police in their investigations.

December 1936. Charlotte Frayne, Private Investigator, is pulled into a dangerous international plot when her boss, Mr. Gilmore, provides shelter to a relative in grave danger. Stephen, a refugee from Germany, is privy to information that could change the very future of a country still reeling from the devastation of the War to End All Wars—and at his heels are powerful forces that will do anything to ensure his intelligence never sees the light of day. Meanwhile, Charlotte’s estranged mother reappears, wanting her help to find a child she gave up at birth twenty years ago. Despite her turbulent feelings, Charlotte agrees to investigate, not knowing that the two cases will connect in surprising ways. Back at the Paradise Café, Christmas draws near and Charlotte’s beau Hilliard Taylor and his partners are in disagreement about the holiday concert. With her beloved grandfather in the mix, there’s no telling whether the show will end in good tidings or tyranny.

is the fourth installment in the Paradise Café Mysteries featuring Private Investigator Charlotte Frayne and set in Depression-era Toronto.