✍The First Page: Better Safe Than Sorry

 


 BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY

By Mike Martin

Publication Date: May 10, 2024

Mystery

Winston Windflower is (sort of) enjoying his retirement from the RCMP in Grand Bank, Newfoundland, happily spending time with his young family, but feeling a little restless. Corporal Eddie Tizzard is running the Marystown detachment and struggling with the demands of the role while his own family grows. When a new kind of drug threatens the community, a body (the wrong body) is found dead in a hearse, and then another drug-connected mysterious death occurs, Tizzard knows he’s dealing with a deadly menace in their quiet, close-knit community.

Windflower finds himself inexorably (and not unhappily) drawn back into the action, first in an unofficial role to help snare the dealers and then back to active duty in a community that desperately needs his steady hand and good judgement. 

Our favorite Mountie, Sgt. Windflower and his fellow courageous cops in small-town Grand Bank, Newfoundland are back to fight a new threat in this compelling page-turner. Award-winning author, Mike Martin once again brings us a stirring story, blending down-home Newfoundland charm with the warmth of family life. 

You can pick up your copy at Amazon.

 



 
                     









Some say April is the cruelest month, but Winston Windflower was pretty convinced that it was March. At least in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. They’d had a relatively mild winter up to this point, but now  they were getting slammed. Not once, but twice, by winter storms that  started the day before St. Patrick’s Day and were just ending now on March  19. The locals called the second storm “Sheila’s Brush” as a nickname given to a storm that seemed to occur right after Paddy’s Day. It came from  an old Irish legend that claimed Sheila was the wife or sister or mother of  St. Patrick and that this dumping of snow is a result of her sweeping away  the old season of winter. 

Supposedly, that was to prepare everyone for spring, which the calendar  said was about to begin in a week or so. But judging by the current weather and Windflower’s years of experience in Grand Bank, that new season  was quite a ways off. As he surveyed the banks of snow and checked the  weather on his phone, there was more of the white stuff coming. He didn’t  mind, really. He actually liked the snow and living in this small town on  the easternmost tip of Canada. 

Until recently, Windflower had been an RCMP officer, a Mountie, but  now was the community safety officer for Grand Bank and a number of  other surrounding communities. When the local RCMP detachment closed  because of budgetary concerns, they needed someone to look after their  local policing. The Mounties would look after the big stuff from near by Marystown, about forty minutes away, while they hoped Windflower  would serve as a deterrent to local criminals who wanted to take advantage  of the situation.





Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the award-winning author of the best-selling Sgt. Windflower Mystery series, set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 14 books in this light mystery series with the publication of Better Safe Than Sorry

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

His latest book is the mystery, Better Late Than Never.

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