The Road to Heaven

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?” Patrick Bird is a police academy cadet burnout turned PI who works divorce cases and catches people with his camera doing dirty deeds in dark rooms. But his easy routine is shattered when he starts the Linklater case. Sixteen-year-old Abbie Linklater has been missing from 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 could care less. Her father has no idea, but has an aversion to involving the police. Before the sun sets on the first day of his investigation, Bird has roamed the streets of Toronto looking for a runaway, caught a drifter prowling in the Linklater’s backyard, been led to a creepy church with a cult-like following, sparred with the client, been hit by a car, and discovered some loose ends in a bank robbery gone wrong from a decade earlier. And that was all before he found the body.