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Mirage
Young Detective Timothy Earley is eager to prove himself when he lands his first Homicide investigation where he will be the lead detective. The opportunity arrives when a body is discovered crammed under the ramp descending onto the Hendrie Trails of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Detective Earley soon finds that he will not be flying solo when his case becomes entwined with fellow Detective Ashley Barton's Missing Person investigation involving the sudden disappearance of a young mother from a wealthy and prominent Hamilton family.The search for both a murderer and an abductor becomes engrossed in the torment of personal betrayals, the sorrow of mental illness, a journey to the Middle East, and the pride of a Muslim family. Suspects are proposed, discarded, and then re-affirmed as the complexities of the dual investigation mount. The resolution of the mystery threatens many lives-both of the innocent and the guilty.
366 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
September 16, 2026
You just gotta love the delicious serendipity of finding unknown literary buried treasure at a local book fair!!
Barbara Leigh Stevens? Who’s she? I never heard of her. Well, let me introduce you now that I’ve stumbled across her work. She’s a born and bred Hamilton, Ontario author with no less than (can you believe this?) eleven books under her belt without so much as a single solitary rating on Goodreads, let alone a review! And that, my reading friends, is shocking!
At her booth that day, I asked her where I should begin reading her work and she handed me a copy of MIRAGE with the comment, “No better place to start than the beginning.” So I did and I loved every minute of it!
A rather green and very youthful Detective Tim Earley has been handed his first opportunity to lead a homicide investigation. The clues, the screw-ups, the false trails, and the red herrings pile up thick and fast – murders, a double kidnapping, a schizophrenic suspect, a lead to the hyper-misogynistic oil fields of Dubai, a jilted female stalker, a DNA examination of disputed fatherhood, wealth, blackmail, and a knock-down-drag-‘em-out battle of dysfunctional families! It would be difficult to imagine a proverbial kitchen sink that could be added to this imaginative blend of story lines but, somehow, Stevens keeps all of the plot threads firmly under control.
And, in the process, she has created a very credible police procedural set in a series of Hamilton and Dundas locations – bars, local apartment buildings, Lake Ontario harbour, Royal Botanical Gardens, nature trails, McMaster University and Children’s Hospital, the Niagara Escarpment - all perfectly described.
Clearly, Detective Earley has more literary mileage left in his youthful career in Hamilton Homicide. I’m DEFINITELY a new fan and MIRAGE is now on my Top 10 Favourites of 2026 list. C’mon, Goodreads. Time to give Ms Stevens a little of your love.
Paul Weiss
Barbara Leigh Stevens? Who’s she? I never heard of her. Well, let me introduce you now that I’ve stumbled across her work. She’s a born and bred Hamilton, Ontario author with no less than (can you believe this?) eleven books under her belt without so much as a single solitary rating on Goodreads, let alone a review! And that, my reading friends, is shocking!
At her booth that day, I asked her where I should begin reading her work and she handed me a copy of MIRAGE with the comment, “No better place to start than the beginning.” So I did and I loved every minute of it!
A rather green and very youthful Detective Tim Earley has been handed his first opportunity to lead a homicide investigation. The clues, the screw-ups, the false trails, and the red herrings pile up thick and fast – murders, a double kidnapping, a schizophrenic suspect, a lead to the hyper-misogynistic oil fields of Dubai, a jilted female stalker, a DNA examination of disputed fatherhood, wealth, blackmail, and a knock-down-drag-‘em-out battle of dysfunctional families! It would be difficult to imagine a proverbial kitchen sink that could be added to this imaginative blend of story lines but, somehow, Stevens keeps all of the plot threads firmly under control.
And, in the process, she has created a very credible police procedural set in a series of Hamilton and Dundas locations – bars, local apartment buildings, Lake Ontario harbour, Royal Botanical Gardens, nature trails, McMaster University and Children’s Hospital, the Niagara Escarpment - all perfectly described.
Clearly, Detective Earley has more literary mileage left in his youthful career in Hamilton Homicide. I’m DEFINITELY a new fan and MIRAGE is now on my Top 10 Favourites of 2026 list. C’mon, Goodreads. Time to give Ms Stevens a little of your love.
Paul Weiss
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review