The Canadian bestseller starts a WWII Britain series with Season of Darkness (McClelland $22.95). Readers will remember her Murdoch series, Victorian, turned into Canadian TV.

The creator of the acclaimed Detective Murdoch Mysteries turns her exceptional storytelling skills to a murder mystery set in rural Shropshire, England, in the darkest days of the Second World War.

The world is at war, and Elsie Bates, a vivacious young Londoner, is now working in the fields of Shropshire as a member of the Land Army. The war has changed everyone’s lives, not least those of the civilian aliens imprisoned in a nearby prisoner of war camp. A German invasion seems imminent and everyone is on edge and, at night, literally in the dark. Then Elsie’s body is found by the side of the road, a German pistol by her side, and Detective Inspector Tom Tyler has much more to worry about than the Nazis and his son’s odd behavior since he came home from the disastrous battle at Dunkirk.

Season of Darkness starts a trilogy, welcome news to fans of British mystery! Jennings, who lives in Canada, makes a welcome return to The Poisoned Pen.

Maureen Jennings (http://www.maureenjennings.com), now a Canadian Citizen, was born on Eastfield Road in Birmingham, England and spent her formative years there until she emigrated to Canada at the age of seventeen with her mother.

This has meant that she still feels a deep connection with her homeland. It has also no doubt been a strong influence in her love for, and her writing about, the Victorian period. She attended the University of Windsor where she attained a BA in philosophy and psychology.

A couple of years trying to decide what she really wanted to do with her life resulted in her returning to university, the University of Toronto, this time where she earned an MA in English literature.For the next eight years, she taught English at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute at a time when the English department seemed to be chock full of writers. Eric Wright, went on to write the highly successful Charlie Salter mystery series, Graeme Gibson, Peter Such, and others were writing both novels and poetry. An exciting time in so many ways but after eight years, another change of direction and in 1972, Maureen left Ryerson to become a psychotherapist, which was a long time interest. She has continued in private practice since then, although nowadays she mostly conducts creative expression groups and writes. Always passionate about dogs, she is happy to own a border collie named Jeremy-Brett and a mixed breed named Varley.