Someone is murdering pickleball players in Loon Lake and Sheriff Ferris is on the hunt for their killer in Victoria Houston’s third nail-biting Lew Ferris mystery, perfect for fans of Marc Cameron and Nevada Barr.When a local pickleball player is shot in the head while practicing at an abandoned tennis court with his partner-slash-lover, Sheriff Lew Ferris suspects that the bullet was a stray shot from hunters in the area. It’s not until a second player–the first victim’s mistress and pickleball partner–is killed that Sheriff Ferris realizes this is no hunting accident. Someone is hunting people, and it’s up to her to find out who.With the first victim’s crazed widow breathing down Lew’s neck, there’s no room to breathe, let alone to find time to appreciate the beautiful Loon Lake fall and go fishing. Adding to Sheriff Ferris’ difficulties are three pickleball players convinced someone has targeted them,...

Murder, She Wrote meets Fargo in the Northwoods of Wisconsin in the nineteenth "gripping, atmospheric, and smart" (T. Jefferson Parker, New York Times bestselling author) installment of the Loon Lake series. When the bodies of a wealthy Chicago industrialist and his wife are discovered in their summer home at the same time that a local lawyer disappears, life becomes complicated for Loon Lake Chief of Police Lew Ferris. Relying on the forensic dental expertise of her close friend and acting coroner, Doc Osborne, Lew soon finds the investigations are even more complicated than she thought when a rarely used computer belonging to a local sawmill operation is taken over by foreign hackers. Add to that the family issues facing both Lew and Doc, and this Northwoods summer becomes both hot and dangerous. Engaging and fast-paced, Dead Big Dawg is a clever mystery perfect for fans of Lee Goldberg and Janet Evanovich.

Ninth in the Loon Lake MysteriesMurder never takes a holiday... or so Loon Lake learns one wintry Thanksgiving Day. Chief of Police Lew Ferris, short-handed thanks to an AWOL coroner, never even gets the turkey stuffed before the bodies start to surface. By the end of the day, credit card theft and dysfunctional families have so muddied the waters that not even expert tracker and dedicated fishing guide, Ray Pradt, can hope to fish the final day of muskie season. And while retired dentist, Doc Osbornse, had counted on sitting by the fire with Lew (out of uniform) and planning a fly fishing trip to Wyoming—the unexpected arrival of Gina Palmer, former investigative reporter turned forensics database expert, ramps up the action with her pursuit of a Canadian link to the theft of merchandise from stores across the upper Midwest.Dead Hot Shot, ninth in the Loon Lake Mystery series, is a heady mix of murder, mayhem and fishing in the...

Murder She Wrote meets Fargo in the eighteenth installment of Victoria Houston's "engaging" (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine) and critically acclaimed mystery series set in the northwoods of Wisconsin."My wife and Gordon Maxwell tried to kill me this morning." Doc Osborne is startled by the unexpected words tumbling out of the mouth of his friend and fellow AA member Chuck Pelletier, the recently remarried lead accountant for a planned luxury fly-fishing lodge preserve under construction in the area. Alarmed, Doc tries to alert Police Chief Lew Ferris, but she is tied up with law enforcement teams across the state. They're searching for thieves who have been cutting down and stealing hundreds of thousands of precious birch trees from public and private property across northern Wisconsin. But it's too late. Pelletier is found dead not two hours later. Doc is shocked, saddened, and determined to get to the bottom of...

Fishing aside, there's nothing Doc likes better than helping Chief of Police Lew Ferris a world-class fly fisherman in her own right delve into Loon Lake's criminal underworld. He's looking for any excuse to spend time with the only woman he knows who likes to fish as much as he does. So bloodthirsty killers and backwoods bandits be damned, Doc will take the quiet risk.

It's mid-July in Loon Lake, and Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris has her hands full with the discovery of the skeletal remains of a missing bank executive and the murder of a graduate student. To complicate matters, both victims were discovered on a hidden river deep in the national forest—a place that just so happens to be a dangerous wolf rendezvous site.Lew recruits her close friend and fellow flyfisherman, retired dentist Doc Osborne, for his forensic and interrogation skills. But Doc has his own set of problems to worry about: his grandson is hospitalized with a grave illness, and now Lew seems to be getting too interested in the father of the murdered student—a well-to-do widower who is teaching her the Japanese art of tenkara flyfishing.

In Loon Lake, Wisconsin, a woman is murdered, her body discovered under a bridge. But Lew Ferris, chief of police, has his mind on another case—a local woman claims she’s being stalked. Is the woman, a former nun with possible psychological problems, imagining it, or is someone really terrorizing her? The latest Loon Lake mystery, like its predecessors, depends on its characters to propel readers through the story: Lew, Doc Osborne, likable Ray Pradt (who, in this book, is angling for a part on a new reality TV show about ice fishermen), and the newcomers, alleged stalker victim Patience Schumacher and her husband, Charles Mason. The nice thing about the book is that fans of the series will enjoy reuniting with some old friends, and newcomers can jump right in and have a great time.

"...populated with sympathetic, well-drawn characters...Houston also delivers beautiful descriptions of the bucolic setting, along with plenty of sharply rendered fly-fishing scenes." —Booklist It's the dead of winter in Loon Lake when a wealthy widow is run down and killed by a logging truck on an icy street. The truck driver insists he saw a man shove the woman into the path of his truck. A lone witness who may have seen the man who shoved the victim is soon found dead—drowned in icy waters where he was ice fishing. Within hours, Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris finds herself dealing with malicious family members related to dead woman, a cache of grisly paintings, and strange disturbances on the land surrounding the widow's contemporary mansion—all of which point to various people who may have wanted her dead. Lew recruits her close friend and fellow flyfisherman, retired dentist "Doc" Osborne, for his forensic and interrogation skills....

A hot August afternoon and Midwest Clinic CEO John McNeil has been working late. Working on his latest conquest, that is. Jen Williams is twenty-six, in charge of graphics for the hospital's PR division—and quite attractive in a healthy, athletic kind of way. She is quick to laugh and a little too quick to fall for guys. She is no virgin. And she is one of three women—including his wife—intimately familiar with McNeil.When Jen's youthful body is found with a single stab wound through the heart, suspicion falls on both McNeil's wife, who insists she is being stalked, and the striking hospital physician with whom he had just ended an affair. Pressure to find the killer falls on Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn "Lew" Ferris and Dr. Paul "Doc" Osborne, the retired dentist and forensic dental expert whom she has deputized to help with the investigation—when they are not taking a break for fishing and other personal pursuits. When the mayor demands Lew take...

In the midst of a catastrophic August rainstorm, a grisly discovery shatters the serenity of a summer evening in northern Wisconsin. Moving quickly to prevent a panic among tourists, Loon Lake Police Chief Lewellyn Ferris enlists the forensic and interrogation skills of her close friend and fellow fly fisherman, the retired dentist "Doc" Osborne. Within hours of launching their investigation, they find themselves faced with a national media circus as Loon Lake becomes the focus of a murderous scenario that links the murder to the race for the U.S. Senate by a woman who is heir to a Northwoods fortune and other, less savory, family traditions.In the meantime, Doc Osborne's eldest daughter, Mallory, enters into a relationship that may put her life at risk—unless her father and Chief Ferris can find the killer stalking the residents of Loon Lake.

While out kayaking, Paul Osborne discovers the grisly remains of a woman — whose shoulders bear mysterious bite marks. And just as Lew begins her investigation, another body turns up...The second victim was a successful businesswoman from Kansas City, and the evidence indicates she was in Loon Lake for a rendevous with an ex-lover — a con man who had tried to get his hands on her money. Now, Lew's got two confusing cases — and a killer who may be more elusive than any fish....

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