The Wandering Soul Murders - Tapa dura

When her daughter Mieka finds the body of a young woman in a dumpster behind her catering shop, murder has struck too close to home for Joanne Kilbourn. The police quickly dub the victim another "Little Flower" homicide - the latest in a series of prostitutes brutally killed, maimed, and dumped in the trash.
Busy with her newly adopted daughter, Taylor, and with Mieka's upcoming wedding, as well as with her job as a university teacher, Joanne has more than enough on her hands. Yet she can't get the unfortunate woman out of her mind. Then her son Peter's eccentric and troubled girlfriend drowns, an apparent suicide, and Joanne is convinced there's more here than meets the eye.
She learns the two victims are linked by a teddy bear tattoo and by their hazy backgrounds, as her search for the truth takes her from the dark and hopeless rooms that house street kids to the glowing homes of her city's most prominent citizens. These two worlds could not be more different, and when Joanne begins to see connections between them, her investigation takes a deadly turn that threatens everything she values, including the lives of her children.
Combining vivid and likable characters with a powerful mystery plot, The Wandering Soul Murders marks the welcome return of Joanne Kilbourn - and of Gail Bowen, one of our most exciting new suspense novelists.

Gail Bowen is an assistant professor of English at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College, University of Alberta.