“I had no choice.” Disgraced homicide detective Mary Swift hears that excuse every day from criminals. Now she’s saying it herself.

 When a Paralympic ski coach is brutally murdered in the resort town of Whistler, Mary has a chance to redeem herself and regain her old job. All she has to do is betray the man she loves and nail his best friend for murder.

As the case unfolds amid simmering corruption, suspicion falls on the murdered man’s fiancée, a Paralympic ski racer with a troubled past as an exotic dancer. Mary’s not so sure, and the only two constables she trusts are working against her.

 Constable Dervla Dall, ex-military police Afghanistan, has an Oxycodone addiction–and her runaway daughter’s fingerprints are at the murder scene.

Constable Jean-Marc Bellerive acts like a choirboy on steroids, but he’s desperate to recover compromising photos before they appear online.

Mary can’t trust anyone, but in the end she must believe in the one person who’s let her down the most—herself. As the killer’s motives unravel, Mary faces heart-breaking decisions that will change her life forever, and may cost her life.

The River Cage is a completed 95,000 word crime novel; it was shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Best Unpublished Novel 2020.