Opposite Sully's Gym - (Patrick Bird Mystery) by Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A missing tenant, an irate mother-in-law, and a killer hiding in a Toronto rooming house -- out-of-work PI Patrick Bird is back in business.

Patrick Bird thought he was helping his mother-in-law collect back rent from a deadbeat tenant at her Ossington Avenue rooming house, not starting a new investigation. But when he discovers Jack Turner's third-floor darkroom is demolished and the photographer is missing, the other tenants come under scrutiny: Mr. Yusuf, the international student training to be a doctor; Danny Blinken, the shifty taxi driver; and Shirley Burton, the young nurse far from home.

As Bird investigates, he uncovers information about a former tenant. James Earl Ray, who assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. just weeks earlier, had been hiding out in a room on the second floor.

The case takes Bird and the police down a path of intrigue reaching right into the centre of one of the most infamous assassinations of the twentieth century and leading our truculent PI to just about the toughest spot he could imagine.

Review Quotes

Praise for The Road to Heaven

"An edge-of-the-chair page-turner full of suspense." -- Liv Spector, author of The Rich and the Dead

"This twisty noir thriller will appeal to fans of Raymond Chandler and James Ellroy." -- Booklist

"From the setting -- a richly evoked Toronto in the Sixties -- to the cynical but committed narrative voice, to the dark family dynamics that complicate the search for a missing teen, The Road to Heaven will bring this terrific new talent to broader audiences. P.I. Patrick Bird is a character I hope to encounter again, and again." -- Linda Landrigan, Editor, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

"The compressed time frame adds a propulsive element to the narrative and the author is adept at deploying plot turns at appropriate and surprising intervals, lending the story a vibrancy that keeps the reader plowing forward relentlessly." -- Toronto Star

About the Author

Alexis Stefanovich-Thomson is the author of the Patrick Bird detective novels. The first book in the series, The Road to Heaven, was nominated for an Edgar Award. He is a past winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award and The Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Novella Award. He lives in Toronto.