Robin Spano of Lions Bay wishes she lived inside the Charlie's Angel TV show. It's not exactly a statement P.D. James would make, but then Spano's second, female cop, Clare Vengel murder mystery, Death Plays Poker (ECW $24.95) is not seeking highbrow status. World class poker players are being strangled in their hotel rooms so Clare must pose as a card shark, alias Tiffany, to catch the Poker Choker. She out to write a thriller, not win a Giller. 978-1-55022-994-3

In Robin Spano's debut mystery Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel (ECW Press, 2010) a mayor drops dead while giving a speech, and a university secret society takes credit for the murder.

When a young snowboarder is found dead on Blackcomb Glacier and Whistler police want to call it suicide, the FBI sends Clare Vengel to infiltrate the partying crowd in Robin Spano's third crime procedural thriller, Death's Last Run (ECW $14.95). Turns out the victim Sacha, daughter of a U.S. senator, was involved in LSD smuggling in cahoots with cops.

BOOKS:

Dead Politician Society: A Clare Vengel Undercover Novel (ECW Press, 2010)

Death Plays Poker (ECW 2011)

Death's Last Run (ECW 2013) $14.95 978-1-55022-997-4

[BCBW 2013]