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Canada is a biiiiig country! Jay Forman's amateur sleuth, travel writer Lee Smith, has got innumerable places to visit...and lots of crime to solve. If you're missing the ability to travel in this our covid year then Jay and Lee can definitely help you out with some virtual travels. In the second book in the series, No Return, Lee visits a fly-in Ojibway community in Northern Ontario to investigate the shooting death of a mining prospector. Other books in the series explore the Muskoka region of Ontario (one I'm familiar with from childhood visits to my grandparents), Newfoundland, and, coming in 2021, the west coast of Vancouver Island (where I happen to live). Today's show is supported by my patrons at Patreon. Thank you! When you become a patron for as little as $1 a month you receive a short mystery story each and every month. And the rewards for those who love mystery stories go up from there! Learn more and become a part of my community of readers at www.Patreon.com/alexandraamor This week's mystery author Jay Forman was once a relatively sane television producer. Since walking away from the cameras she’s been crazy busy adding mother and author to her list of credits. Combining her love of mysteries with her own calamitous travel experiences, she’s now locked her focus on sending Canadian travel writer Lee Smith and Jack Hughes (Lee’s best friend with many benefits, not least of which is that he’s a billionaire philanthropist) to wherever bodies are found. To learn more about Jay and all her books visit JayForman.ca Press play (above) to listen to the show, or read the transcript below. Remember you can also subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts. And listen on Stitcher, Android, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, and Spotify. Excerpt from No Return CHAPTER ONE Sara knew something was wrong when all the kids went quiet. A raven’s long black wings swept through the air low over her head. His caw sounded like the alarm on her bedside clock radio and it alerted the rest of his conspiracy. Six of the big birds swooped down and began circling above the six little heads of her stationary students at the shore. Mary’s tiny hand squeezed Sara’s hard. “What is it?” she asked in barely more than a whisper. “Maybe they’ve found some rubies?” Sara forced herself to sound cheerful, even though she knew darn well that the kids couldn’t have found rubies. River had shown his classmates garnets, not rubies, but his grand tale of finding precious gems had worked the kids into a frenzy. She’d hoped that adding a side-trip on the mainland would be a good way to start teaching them about the wealth of minerals beneath their native lands. She’d also hoped that spending some time running up and down the shore, looking under rocks and hunting for treasure, would help bring Mary a little bit out of her silent shell. “Let’s go see what they’ve found.” Sara took one step forward and the loud crack of the dried branch her hiking boot landed on reverberated in the silent forest. Even the river was quiet. Mary’s bright green frog-faced rubber boots shuffled through some brittle yellowed leaves that crinkled. They both stopped dead when the class parted to let Sara see what they’d found. When she’d been living in Toronto, the only time Sara had seen violent death was when she drove by raccoon or squirrel or skunk roadkill. In the years since she’d moved up here she’d learned how to quell her queasiness whenever someone came back to the reserve from a hunt. She’d even agreed to try her hand at partridge plucking when she and the kids got over to the petawanagang fall gathering camp. But seeing an animal, big or small, moose or beaver, get skinned was still too much for her stomach and as she looked at the carcass lying on the rocky shore she felt herself starting to hyperventilate. Her short bursts of breath instantly condensed into puffy little white clouds when they hit the col...