Margie Patenaude has three new cases on her hands: Silence on the Turf, Ghosts in the Ground, and Bones of the Elbow are the latest additions to my Parks Pat Mysteries. If you enjoy quick-read police procedurals, Canadian settings, and a detective with a life beyond the case, come spend some time with Margie.
You might want to let one of her colleague handle the directions.
A soccer game, a pump house, and a riverbank
These books take us to different corners of Calgary, with three very different investigations. You can read each mystery on its own, or follow the series in order to spend more time with Margie and her family.
Silence on the Turf
The game is over. The investigation is just beginning.
Margie is at Shouldice Park with her daughter, Christina, to watch a high school soccer game. For once, she gets to be a spectator. At least, that is the plan.
When a young player is found unresponsive in the parking lot after the game, Margie’s evening changes completely. Now she has a death to investigate, a community full of opinions, and the difficult job of figuring out what happened beyond the field.
If you like a mystery where an ordinary family outing turns into something much more complicated, start here.
Ghosts in the Ground
A death in the pump house. A neighborhood with a past.
A corporate executive is found dead inside a groundwater pump house in the Beaver Dam Flats/Refinery Park area. It is an unusual place to find a body, and Margie and Detective Gagnon have plenty of questions.
The surrounding community has questions of its own. Contamination, lost homes, and old grievances form the backdrop to a new death. Sorting out what people remember is one thing. Sorting out what those memories mean for this case is another.
There are no supernatural detectives here. The ghosts are the things people have lived through—and have not left behind.
Bones of the Elbow
Human bones. Fragile ground. A case that needs a careful hand.
Human remains are discovered beside the Elbow River in Griffith Woods. Margie and Detective Cruz need to find out who has been found and how those bones came to be there.
They also need to protect a fragile site, handle cultural concerns with care, and work through the attention the discovery attracts. People are already asking questions before Margie has answers.
If you enjoy watching a detective piece together a case while everyone else wants an immediate explanation, this is the one for you.
Which case will you choose?
A game-night death, a pump-house mystery, or bones beside the river?
New to Parks Pat?
Detective Margie Patenaude is a Métis homicide investigator in Calgary. Her colleagues call her “Parks Pat” because bodies found in the city’s parks keep coming her way. That nickname does not mean she is a wilderness expert. Finding the right road can be a challenge all its own.
At home, she is raising Christina. At work, she is dealing with people on some of the worst days of their lives. There is room in these stories for the investigation, the family, and the people who cannot simply move on when a case is closed.
What to start the series at the beginning?
Need to catch up on the series? Get books 13-15
Huge value! Pick up the previous books in the series in one collections
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read the first fifteen books?
No. Each book has its own mystery. Reading in order lets you follow Margie’s family life and recurring relationships as well.
Are these ghost stories?
No. Ghosts in the Ground is a police procedural. The title points to the weight of the past, rather than a supernatural investigation.
Are the settings real?
These mysteries use real Calgary settings, including Shouldice Park, the Beaver Dam Flats/Refinery Park area, and Griffith Woods. The cases and characters are fiction.
Are these long novels?
They are quick-read mystery novellas, suited to readers who want a complete case in a shorter book.
