Award-winning mystery writer Gail Bowen’s first three masterful mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Joanne Kilbourn are now collected in a single volume. In Deadly Appearances, a successful politician sips his water before a speech at a picnic on a sweltering August afternoon and, within seconds, he is dead; in Murder at the Mendel, Joanne’s childhood friend may have a far more complicated, far more sordid, and far more deadly past than Joanne knows about; and in The Wandering Soul Murders, a centre for street kids holds a dark and disturbing secret, forcing Joanne to act when her own children are drawn into a web of intrigue that will leave you breathless.

"A treat for long-time fans as well as a perfect introduction for newcomers to this classic series of dramatic mysteries featuring Joanne Kilbourn, from "the queen of Canadian crime fiction." (Winnipeg Free Press) In The Last Good Day, Joanne meets the tough-yet-tender criminal lawyer and paraplegic playboy Zack Shreve, who will soon take on a key role in her life. The occasion is tragic; a young legal colleague of Zack's plunges his car into a northern lake only hours after beginning to tell Joanne a disturbing secret. In The Endless Knot, Zack and Joanne find themselves enmeshed in a violent crime. Their diverging loyalties and obligations test their growing relationship. It is put under strain again in The Brutal Heart, when a birthday barbecue is interrupted by a phone call informing Zack of the suspicious death of a local call girl -- one whose gilt-edged client list once included Zack himself. The Nesting Dolls begins in a blizzard. A young woman hands a baby to a friend of Joanne's teenage daughter and disappears. Hours later, the young woman's body is found in a parking lot. Soon, two women with compelling claims are fighting over the child and again, Zack and Joanne find themselves on different sides of a confict that threatens to tear more than one family apart. In Kaleidoscope, Joanne has just retired from her university career, and is looking forward to a summer at the family cottage. Only a last-minute change of plans keeps the Kilbourn-Shreve clan from tragedy when their home, and Joanne's own past, become flashpoints in an increasingly deadly battle between developers and activists over the future of a troubled neighbourhood. The Gifted focuses on Joanne and Zack's teenage daughter, Taylor, who is already an impressively talented artist. Taylor falls under the spell of a beautiful but damaged young artists' model, and soon Joanne discovers not only that the young man has dark secrets but that at least one of her own friends may be complicit in a plan that could put Taylor's life at risk. The bundle includes an excerpt from the 15th in Joanne Kilbourn series, 12 Rose Street, as well as a Q & A with the author.

This second Gail Bowen omnibus contains her next three masterful mysteries featuring Canada’s favourite amateur sleuth, Joanne Kilbourn. In A Colder Kind of Death, a prisoner is shot to death in the exercise yard of a Saskatchewan penitentiary, and Joanne becomes a suspect when his wife is found strangled; in A Killing Spring, the School of Journalism where Joanne teaches becomes a world of deceit and fear when one of its teachers is found dead in a seedy rooming house; and in Verdict in Blood, Joanne is asked to help solve the case of a tough judge who is found battered to death in a park.

Andy Boychuk is a successful Saskatchewan politician – until one sweltering August afternoon when the party faithful gather at a picnic. All of the key people in Boychuk’s life – family, friends, enemies – are there. Boychuk steps up to the podium to make a speech, takes a sip of water, and drops dead. Joanne Kilbourn, in her début as Canada’s leading amateur sleuth, is soon on the case, delving into Boychuk’s history. What she finds are a Bible college that’s too good to be true, a woman with a horrifying and secret past, and a murderer who’s about to strike again.

When a prisoner is shot to death in a Saskatchewan penitentiary, Joanne Kilbourn finds herself haunted by a part of her past she wished had never happened. The dead prisoner is Kevin Tarpley, the man who six years earlier had brutally killed her politician husband, Ian, in a seemingly senseless act. The haunting takes on a more menacing cast several days later when Tarpley’s wife, Maureen, is discovered dead with a brightly coloured scarf wound tightly around her neck, a scarf that belongs to none other than Joanne Kilbourn. Soon this single mother, author, university professor, and TV-show panelist is deemed the “number one” suspect in Maureen Tarpley’s demise. Joanne knows there has to be a connection between these two murders. But what is it? A cryptic letter sent to Joanne by Kevin Tarpley just days before his death intimates that Ian Kilbourn’s killing may not have been as senseless as first assumed. In fact, there are hints that some of Ian’s political colleagues may have been involved. But how deeply and in what way? Then there’s the faded photograph of a pretty young woman and her baby that Joanne finds tucked in the wallet of her dead husband. Does it offer any clue to Ian’s murder, or to the deaths of the Tarpleys? Warily, Joanne Kilbourn is forced to follow a tangled trail deep into a heartbreaking past she never knew existed. A Colder Kind of Death is the fourth novel featuring Gail Bowen’s “reluctant sleuth,” Joanne Kilbourn. With its deft mix of wry humour and mayhem, closely observed family scenes and gripping suspense, warm characterization and betrayal, it confirms Gail Bowen’s stature as one of the greats of mystery fiction.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.