Five Questions: Sudbury author releases second book in mystery series

Article content

When David Lalonde set to writing his debut novel, Death of a Millionaire, it was only natural that the Sudbury resident should draw upon his 30 years of experience as an OPP officer, including the 22 years he spent as a detective-sergeant investigating major crimes.

Article content

For Death of a President, his second instalment in the Inspector Jack Butler mystery series, Lalonde has also tapped into his second career as a professor in Cambrian College’s Police Foundations program.

Death of a President finds Detective Insp. Butler in the city of Northbury, a fictionalized version of Sudbury, in the mid-1980s, where he’s called upon to investigate the murder of a local college president, Eleanor Kirkpatrick.

Lalonde took a few minutes to participate in The Sudbury Star’s Five Questions feature.

Death of a President is available on Amazon.

Q: Without giving away too much of the plot, can you tell us a bit about this new instalment in the Jack Butler series?

A: Thank you very much for that and for your support: both are greatly appreciated. This novel gives me another chance to show the intriguing and interesting characters and venues that make up our part of the world: Northern Ontario. It is a region full of stories aching to be told.

Article content

Death of a President is the sequel to Death of a Millionaire. It follows the same team of detectives, with a few added characters, as they conduct a new murder investigation. The setting is Northern Ontario, in 1986: a time before the advent of much of the technological and scientific advances we expect and take advantage of today.

Regardless, just as in real life, their ability to sort through and manage the complexities of human nature will be the deciding factor in the success or failure of the investigation.

This time, Detective Inspector Jack Butler and his team are called in to take over the investigation into the murder of a local college president. The investigation takes place on the campus of Ramsey College, in the fictional community of Northbury. The city is well-served by their local police force, but the victim, Eleanor Kirkpatrick, is not only the ex-wife of a prominent local attorney but also the ex-sister-in-law of the city’s police chief. She was deeper into the world of political and social intrigue in the city than she ever wanted to be, and it seems that’s a type of rejection these folks just aren’t used to.

Article content

Q: Your career in law enforcement gave you a great deal of real-life experience upon which to draw while writing your first book. What other events or experiences helped you to write this second story?

A: I have had the great pleasure of moving on to a second career since retiring from policing and am now a professor at Cambrian College. I wanted to use a familiar venue when I chose a college as the setting for this murder but that’s all that the fictional Ramsey College has in common with Cambrian. I actually had an expanded version of the old Bell Mansion in mind for the building and then morphed it into something completely different. As far as college life itself, it’s fun to consider this otherwise balanced world and then tilt it a little. The characters who occupy it are purely fictional, though as always, inspired by an amalgam of people I have encountered in various locales throughout my life.

Article content

When I first plotted the story out, our president at Cambrian was Bill Best, but in a bizarre twist of fate — in terms of the book, that is — he was followed by Kristine Morrissey, our current president. I am happy to report she is alive and well, and that aside from both being beautiful, intelligent women, any similarity between her and my fictional victim is unintended and coincidental. She has taken this all with her customary good humour, but it does seem the security folks on campus are watching me a little more closely these days. Probably just my imagination.

Q: You were well underway with writing Death of a President when your first book, Death of a Millionaire, was released in 2023. How was the process different this time around?

Article content

A: Death of a Millionaire, which is the first instalment in the series, is very much a police procedural novel that provides an in-depth look at the organization and complexities of a police investigation. It also shows the kind of people that detectives encounter in the shadow world of our province. The book is very detailed and helps to establish context, as well as providing a backstage pass to the intrigue that goes on behind the scenes of a major criminal investigation in Ontario.

Death of a President has a much quicker pace, and while still in the police procedural style, is much more of a whodunit. There are clues, right from the beginning, but there are also red herrings throughout, as well. In this novel, I recommend the reader fasten their seatbelt and get ready for a bumpy ride. There are some real twists and turns — just like in real life — but here you can enjoy them from the safety of your favourite reading nook. I hope the readers will also find some good humour, and good living in the mix.

Article content

Q: What do you make of the reception to your books so far, both in terms of sales and feedback from readers.

A: It has exceeded my expectations in both regards, and the ratings and reviews are excellent. There are many loyal readers here at home, and I am surprised and pleased by the attention it has received in the United States and Great Britain, as well. I guess we’re more intriguing than we give ourselves credit for sometimes.

One of the things that has given me the most pleasure is talking with readers who have delved deeply into the characters and situations they find themselves in. They see things that give me new insights into the things I have written.

Q: Readers may be eager to learn where Detective Insp. Jack Butler’s career will take him from here. Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on next?

Article content

A: Death of a Delilah will be out early next year. It is the third instalment in the series and is set in the autumn of 1986. Much has changed, but as they say, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

The team will be called in to investigate the discovery of some human remains, found in an abandoned mine in Northern Ontario. What begins as something simple, and historic, quickly leads to a web of intrigue, muddied by time. As we strive to learn more about our victims, we find ourselves drawn more and more into Canada’s complicated past. That past and the present, our detectives are reminded, are inextricably linked.

[email protected]

Bluesky: @sudburystar.bsky.social

X: @SudburyStar

Article content