Paula Savard

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Created by Susan Calder

Fifty-something and divorced, Calgary, Alberta’s PAULA SAVARD  feels like she’s just pinning her wheels — her love light is flickering and almost out, her job has grown tedious and predictable, and her two daughters have grown and gone. And then an old friend is shot and killed in the seasonally titled series debut, A Deadly Fall (2019). With the cops seemingly floundering, Paula is reluctantly drawn into the investigation — as an insurance adjuster she’s developed a keen sense of skepticism, and she knows how to ask a question or two. And it’s sure more intriguing than filing yet another report.

The sequel, Ten Days in Summer (2019), finds her still an adjuster, working an arson claim which left a man dead, even as the Calgary Stampede roars on in the background. Winter’s Rage (2021) comes next, with Paula looking into the death of a pedestrian, killed in a hit-and-run. Soon enough, murder rears its ugly head.

By 2023’s  Spring into Danger, Paula (apparently no longer bored with her job, and vowing not to get mixed up in murder anymore), has set  up her own small investigation firm. It’s 2020, however, and COVID-19 has shut down Calgary, and new cases (even those not involving murder) aren’t exactly flying in over the transom. So when a couple of e-bikes are stolen from a neighbourhood bicycle shop, she jumps at the chance to investigate the claim, despite the rather bizarre involvement of a local psychic in the case.

I love the book’s cheeky summary on the author’s page:

“A murder draws Paula in deeper. To save an innocent life, Paula abandons her plan to stay safe and she leaps into danger.”

Which is fun enough, but then she asks:

“Is this the thrilling conclusion to the Paula Savard mystery series?”

So far, it is…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Canadian mystery author Susan Calder grew up in Montreal, where she attended Concordia University, and earned a degree in Urban Studies. She worked as an insurance claims examiner, and relocated to Calgary in 1996. Besides writing the Paula Savard series, she’s penned To Catch a Fox (2019), a standalone suspense, and A Killer Whisky (2024), a mystery set in Calgary during the 1918 influenza pandemic, World War One, and Alberta Prohibition. When she’s not engaged in writing and related activities, Susan is likely to be travelling, biking, or hiking in the mountains near Calgary.

UNDER OATH

  • “A pointedly nuanced debut novel, …sparkles with tone and energy that set the pace, a concise storyline, and edgy dialogue that moves the story forward…a debut worth reading and a possible series with insurance claims providing a minefield of potential stories.”
    — Don Graves (Hamilton Spectator) on A Deadly Fall
  • “Paula is an intelligent, determined, often critical (though in a good way) yet still compassionate sleuth, who is front and center in this mystery debut. She’s a solidly developed character, one readers will want to get to know better, with an interesting supporting cast, which should serve her well in subsequent books. With possibly a new profession in hand, and her first case behind her, readers will look forward to seeing how she fares.”
    — Mysterious Reviews on A Deadly Fall

NOVELS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

THE DICK OF THE DAY

  • October 25, 2026
    THE BOTTOM LINE:  Fifty-something and divorced, this Calgary-based insurance claims adjuster feels like she’s just pinning her wheels — her love light is flickering and almost out, her job has grown tedious and predictable, and her two daughters have grown and gone. And then an old friend is killed, and murder begins to appear in her caseload with alarming frequency in this four-part series that makes colourful and ample use of Calgary’s ever-changing seasons.
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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