The Icing on the Corpse [Paperback]

A feisty heroine, a cast of oddball characters, and a plot to keep the pages turning combine to make The Icing on the Corpse, Mary Jane Maffini's second Camilla MacPhee mystery, a winner. Set in Ottawa, the ice-bound capital of Canada, the story features the world's longest skating rink and a city shivering in midwinter. It's appropriate that the primary "stiff"--a serial batterer who had been stalking his former girlfriend--is found frozen to death in an ice sculpture.

Camilla, a lawyer with the Justice for Victims organization, has a mouth like a truck driver and a quick, quirky mind. To save a good friend from being charged with the icy murder, she is forced to use all her wiles and a variety of extra-legal measures, along with the surprisingly able assistance of her employee, Alvin, who wears Day-Glo leis and nine earrings, and the ancient, chain-smoking Mrs. Parnell--Dr. Watson with a walker. Meanwhile, Camilla does everything in her power to avoid her sister's upcoming wedding, the disapproving eye of the local police, and being murdered herself. Snappy dialogue, lots of good humour, and just enough blood to stain the snow ensure a fine, smooth, chilling read. They don't call it "the dead of winter" for nothing. --Mark Frutkin

"MacPhee, a lovable character if ever there was one, rushed to protect the former girlfiriend of a wife batterer...As well as an entertaining whodunit, any Ottawa mystery lover couldn't help but find this an endearing, homespun tale for the keeping." -- -The Ottawa Citizen

"MacPhee, a lovable character...an entertaining whodunit, any Ottawa mystery lover couldn't help but find this an endearing, homespun tale for the keeping. -- The Ottawa Citizen

"This clever mystery from the Ottawa-based Maffini marks the return of victim's advocate Camilla MacPhee, heroine of Speak Ill of the Dead, nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award. The Icing on the Corpse is better...Maffini is a feminist, although she doesn't let the message get in the way of the plot." -- -The Globe and Mail

"This clever mystery from the Ottawa-based Maffini marks the return of victim's advocate Camilla MacPhee, heroine of Speak Ill of the Dead, nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award. The Icing on the Corpse is better...Maffini is a feminist, although she doesn't let the message get in the way of the plot." -- -The Globe and Mail

In the second Camilla MacPhee mystery, it's now forty below in Canada's capital, but victims' advocate Camilla is feeling the heat. When a savage serial batterer goes on the rampage looking for revenge against his former girlfriend, the terrified woman turns to Camilla and Justice for Victims for help. But a sudden change of fortune causes her client to really feel the chill. Camilla wades into the investigation, now one of murder, and gets a frosty reception from the police. Soon everyone connected with the case is either cooling their heels behind bars or trying to avoid cold storage in the morgue. Camilla's really skating on thin ice looking for this killer - literally.

Someone is taking revenge... In the second Camilla MacPhee mystery, it's now forty below in Canada's capital, but victims' advocate Camilla is feeling the heat. When a savage serial batterer goes on the rampage looking for revenge against his former girlfriend, the terrified woman turns to Camilla and Justice for Victims for help. But a sudden change of fortune causes her client to really feel the chill. Camilla wades into the investigation, now one of murder, and gets a frosty reception from the police. Soon everyone connected with the case is either cooling their heels behind bars or trying to avoid cold storage in the morgue. Camilla's really skating on thin ice looking for this killer - literally.

Mary Jane Maffini is a lapsed librarian and a mystery addict. She is the author of six Camilla MacPhee mysteries, two Fiona Silk adventures, five Charlotte Adams books, and nearly two dozen short stories. She holds two Arthur Ellis Awards for best mystery short story, as well as the Derrick Murdoch lifetime achievement award. Speak Ill of the Dead was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel and Lament for a Lounge Lizard for best novel. Mary Jane lives and plots in Ottawa.