Hundreds of dead fish. Some unexplained deaths. A birdless town. "Foreign exeuctive" Ian Munro is sent to the town of Lahti in Finland. But the man he is there to meet is killed in front of him. Who killed the man? And why does the beautiful Riitta Koivisto ask so many questions? Munro starts looking for answers and discovers a poisonous secret.

"Back home in the Kootenays after her Arizona honeymoon, Lane offers her assistance when neither the outgoing teacher, Rose, nor her replacement, Wendy, show up at the local schoolhouse one blizzardy Monday in December. But when she finds the teachers' cottage ransacked with Rose unconscious and bleeding, and Wendy missing, Lane delivers Rose to the hospital in Nelson and turns the case over to her exasperated husband, Inspector Darling, and his capable...