Salt Spring Reads is an online book club/review. For this column I try to find books that you might love to discover, books with a Salt Spring connection. Reviewed books are available at the Salt Spring Library and in local bookstores. Feel free to share your comments to discuss this book with others.

Margarita Nights by Phyllis Smallman

A Florida setting and a female bartender with attitude, whose husband is killed in a boating accident, form the basis for this intriguing ‘who done it?’

Instead of being rid of him and the troubles he caused her when he was alive, Sherry Travis finds herself deeply involved in more lies and scams as she tries to figure out if his death was accidental, a set-up or a murder. The book is fast paced and a great read if you enjoy well written murder mysteries.

Phyllis Smallman is a Salt Spring resident who spends part of the year in Florida as well as in Ontario.
Margarita Nights was followed by five more Sherry Travis mysteries. The latest one in the series, Martini Regrets, was a finalist in the 2015 National Indie Book Awards in the USA, a finalist for the 2015 Next Generation indie Book Awards and a finalist in the fiction category of the USA Regional Excellence Awards for 2015.

Phyllis Smallman has written other books as well, including Saving Kali, and Long Gone Man. She was the first ever recipient of the Arthur Ellis Award for Unhanged Arthur from Crime Writers of Canada and has been shortlisted by the Crime Writers of the UK as well as for Best First Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada.

If you have not read her homegrown murder mysteries, this Fall will be a perfect time to check one out of the library and curl up with it.

Margarita Nights
Fiction/Mystery April 2008 - 2nd edition September 2013
Electronic ISBN #9780987803306
Trade PB #9780992053604

Margriet Ruurs is a Salt Spring Island author of over 30 books. She runs Between The Covers, Booklovers’ B & B.