The 1918 influenza pandemic strikes Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The Great War rages overseas. While her husband fights in Europe, Katharine works in a doctor's office to support her children and her brother, a wounded veteran. One night their neighbour suddenly takes sick and dies. The attending doctor concludes the man died from influenza, but Katharine suspects someone laced his whisky with a drug that mimics the deadly flu's symptoms.

Katharine convinces the police to investigate. Worried about her brother's involvement with a suspect, she delves into his secrets and comes to fear he's connected to the murder. She grows disturbingly attracted to the investigating detective who returns her affections. He's convinced her brother or someone else close to her is a killer and risks his career to pursue the crime. Katharine must discover the truth so she can move forward in a world that has changed forever.

EDITORIAL REVIEW

Nancy M. Bell

The Scots call whisky Usige beatha, the water of life. But what if whisky becomes Usige bas, the water of death? It's the last winter of WW1 in Calgary, although the citizens don't know that yet, and prohibition is imposed on the population. The trade of illegal liquor is alive and well, the tendrils of that activity reaching into even the higher echelons of society. Two seemingly innocent, but connected deaths send Detective Tanner on a quest that leads him to rely on information provided by Katharine, an attractive neighbour of the deceased men whose brother may or may not be the murderer. Calder has weaved a web of deceit and intrigue while salting the path with an array of red herrings, but in the end leads the reader to a satisfying conclusion.

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