Concrete mystery series about the violent crimes with international ramifications that occur in the place known as 'The Gateway City', Edmonton, in the province of Alberta, in Canada.
Thomas Edward, a psychologist and anthropologist from Ontario, has returned to Edmonton, Alberta, where he lived as a child, to solve cold cases and current crimes with international ties, and to unravel the historical mysteries of the Gateway City that he believes are all linked to together. A young, retired policeman from Montreal, Jack McCrae, also has a childhood past in Edmonton, has come in search of an escaped criminal who ended his career, and to find his missing sister; he secretly works for a federal agency investigating who Thomas Edward really is. Circumstance brings the two private detectives together, and they go to the extremes to close their cases, learn about the underbelly of Canada's most violent city, while facing all sorts of adversaries. They are assisted by the grumpy Sergeant Alan Boyd of the Edmonton Police Service, Margaret Schiller of the University of Alberta, the owners of Café Diplomatic (where Edward's Apartment On 97th Street is located), the Friday Night Irregulars and staff of the Sherlock Holmes Pub (a.k.a. Sherlock's), and an assortment of informants in their cases.