Murder on the Thirteenth

Once again murder and other dark doings strike the small city of Fort York, Canada, during World War II. And again, Inspector Albert V. Tretheway - now Regional Officer, Air Raid Precaution - is the one man who can solve the mystery. It all begins on January 13th, 1943 when Fort York is in the midst of its most complete wartime blackout. Suddenly reports come in of sightings of an eerie flume-like light in the marshes outside town. Tretheway, investigating, finds evidence of weird practices that his friend Cynthia Moon, who dabbles in the occult, identifies as the work of a coven of witches. A month later Sgt Wan Ho finds another strange sign, this time in Gore Park: a dead rabbit is hanging from a tree, with its left hind foot missing. Chief of Police Zulp and his men refuse to become alarmed, but Tretheway decides to keep a close watch on his friends and wardens on the thirteenth of each month. Tretheway's concern seems justified when more corpses turn up - one is found spreadeagled on Fort York's busiest crossroads with an equally dead pop-eyed owl in each fist - and the others die in equally peculiar circumstances. Tretheway takes matters into his own hands. He uncovers a dark, shocking plot and knows he must try to stop the next murder, which he believes will occur on Hallowe'en. This is a fitting sequel - at once hilarious and blood-chilling - to the first Tretheway mystery, A Good Year for Murder.