Bury the Lead

With Elizabeth Renzetti

A big-city journalist joins the staff of a small-town paper in cottage country and finds a community full of secrets … and murder.

Cat Conway has recently returned to Port Ellis to work as a reporter at the Quill & Packet. She’s fled the tattered remains of her high-profile career and bad divorce for the holiday town of her childhood, famous for its butter tarts, theatre, and a century-old feud.

One of Cat’s first assignments is to interview legendary actor Eliot Fraser, the lead in the theatre’s season opener of Inherit the Wind. When Eliot ends up dead onstage on opening night, the curtain rises on the sleepy town’s secrets. The suspects include the actor whose career Eliot ruined, the ex-wife he betrayed, the women he abused, and even the baker he wronged. With the attention of the world on Port Ellis, this story could be Cat’s chance to restore her reputation. But the police think she’s a suspect, and the murderer wants to kill the story—and her too. Can Cat solve the mystery before she loses her job or becomes the next victim of a killer with a theatrical bent for vengeance?

Praise

A smart, devious whodunnit filled with theatrical shadows and veils, Bury the Lead is both twisty and hilarious.

—Robyn Harding, bestselling author of The Drowning Woman

A classic, but also topical, whodunnit staged with humour and wit.

—Linwood Barclay, author of The Lie Maker

Giant egos, secret grievances, the locals vs. the artsy-farts: theatre towns were made for murder, and Bury the Lead was made for mystery lovers. Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti had a lot of fun with this, and so will you.

—Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist and Oracle

A propulsive, juicy little ride—the perfect combination of Agatha Christie and Janet Evanovich—a gorgeously written, twisty, turny, small-town whodunnit, that also seamlessly weaves together themes of a dying era of journalism, the ruthless nature of ‘theatah,’ and the strength of a woman trying to reinvent herself, heal her heart, and hopefully catch a killer before it’s too late. Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti have created a vivid, warm, hilarious character in Cat Conway, whose story surely doesn’t end here … I loved every page.

—Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters