A Toby Wong Novel

Part cozy mystery and part family drama, the second novel in Elka Ray’s Vancouver Island mystery series will keep you up late with a twisty tale of love, money, and murder.

While divorce lawyer Toby Wong spends her days helping couples split up, she’s still hoping for her own love story. The second novel in Elka Ray’s Vancouver Island mystery series finds Toby settling back into island life and looking forward to getting to know two attractive men better–charismatic Josh Barton, whom Toby first fell for as a teen, and the newly-met Detective Colin Destin.

Unfortunately, Toby’s romantic prospects take a hit when she’s sucked into a family drama. Toby’s mom, Ivy, is distraught when her best friend–wealthy socialite Daphne Dane–goes missing. Is Daphne’s new boyfriend behind her disappearance? And is he a conman, like his betrayed wife–who’s also Toby’s client–alleges?

Things get worse when Toby finds a battered body. As well as threatening her relationships with Josh and Colin, Toby’s involvement with the Danes puts her in danger.

About the author:

Elka Ray  is the Canadian author of The Toby Wong Novels. Born in the UK and raised in Canada, Elka divides her time between Central Vietnam and Canada’s Vancouver Island and sets her fiction in both locales, to include Saigon Dark, Hanoi Jane, a short-story collection, What You Don’t Know: Ten Tales of Obsession, Mystery & Murder in Southeast Asia and a series of children’s picture books published in Vietnam.

Elka is also a freelance editor for Heritage, Vietnam Airlines’ inflight magazine, based in Hanoi, Vietnam; a designer and editor for MaiGuppy, a producer of picture books, greeting cards, and souvenirs in Hanoi; and a freelance writer and copywriter, whose clients include Vietnam Tourism Administration and the Four Seasons Resort.

When she’s not writing, drawing or reading, Elka is in the ocean.

Book Excerpt

Silence. Colin’s footsteps don’t start up again.

I open the door a sliver and peek through it. The room’s still brightly lit. I can see the back of the sofa and the pale, thick carpeting. A heavy crystal vase lies on the floor, the decorative grasses it held now crop-circled around it. Nearby, lies an outstretched hand.

I bite down a cry. It’s Colin’s hand, the fingers long and strong. Hardly daring to breathe, I widen the door another inch.

He’s on the floor, sprawled on his back. Through the gap, I can see his chest and his neck, the side of his face . . . His cheek is bone white. I gently push the door a little wider. His other cheek drips scarlet. My vision swims. He’s bleeding. And unmoving. Is he dead?

 I want to run but am frozen.

Someone else enters my narrow eld of vision—a figure in black pants and a long dark coat. He’s faced away, his head hidden by a black hood. My heart accelerates. Who is it? When he turns slightly, I see a pillow clasped to his chest. It’s leopard-printed.

This sinister figure walks closer to Colin and crouches. He presses the cushion to Colin’s bloody face. It takes a moment to understand. He’s smothering Colin!