The Calling - Paperback

by Inger Ash Wolfe (Author)

There were thirteen crime-scene pictures. Dead faces set in grimaces and shouts. Faces howling, whistling, moaning, crying, hissing. Hazel pinned them to the wall and stood back. It was a silent opera of ghosts.

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her old goat of a mother and her own sharp tongue to buoy her.

But when a terminally ill Port Dundas woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. And as one terminally ill victim after another is found--their bodies drained of blood, their mouths sculpted into strange shapes--Hazel finds herself tracking a truly terrifying serial killer across the country while everything she was barely holding together begins to spin out of control.

Through the cacophony of her bickering staff, her unsupportive superiors, a clamoring press, the town's rumor mill, and her own nagging doubts, Hazel can sense the dead trying to call out. But what secret do they have to share? And will she hear it before it's too late?

In The Calling, Inger Ash Wolfe brings a compelling new voice and an irresistible new heroine to the mystery world.

Front Jacket

Detective Inspector Hazel Micallef has lived all her days in the small town of Port Dundas, and is now making her way toward retirement with something less than grace. Hobbled by a bad back and a dependence on painkillers, and feeling blindsided by divorce after nearly four decades of marriage, sixty-one-year-old Hazel has only the constructive criticism of her old goat of a mother and her own sharp tongue to buoy her. But when a terminally ill Port Dundas woman is gruesomely murdered in her own home, Hazel and her understaffed department must spring to life. And as one after another terminally ill victim is found their bodies drained of blood, their mouths sculpted into strange shapes Hazel finds herself tracking a truly terrifying serial killer across the country while everything she was barely holding together begins to spin out of control.
Through the cacophony of her bickering staff, her unsupportive superiors, a clamoring press, the town s rumor mill, and her own nagging doubts, Hazel can sense the dead trying to call out. But what secret do they have to share? And will she hear it before it s too late?
In The Calling, Inger Ash Wolfe brings a compelling new voice, and an irresistible new heroine, to the mystery world.

"

Back Jacket

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR THE CALLING

"The Callinghad me from the first page and never let me go. I absolutely loved Hazel Micallef." Kate Atkinson, bestselling author of Case Histories and One Good Turn

"The Calling is a wonderful, creepy and suspenseful novel with enough twists and compelling characters to make you want to devour it all at one sitting." Peter Robinson, author of the Inspector Banks novels

"The Calling is that rare unplug-the-phone, skip-all-meals, ignore-your-bedtime thriller. It s twisty, sharp and very, very creepy and Det. Hazel Micallef is a perfectly original charmer." Gillian Flynn, author of Sharp Objects

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Author Biography

INGER ASH WOLFE is the pseudonym for a North American literary novelist.