Corpse Flower: A Cornwall and Redfern Mystery

by Gloria Ferris

  He pulled me closer. “Do you know what you need, Cornwall?”

  “I need a new BlackBerry. If you say I need a man, you’ll be yelling for an extra shot of pain meds in a minute.”

  “There’s the Cornwall I lust after. The correct answer is fun. You need to have fun again.”

  “Fun is my middle name. Everyone says so.”

  “When I have two good legs under me, we could take a ride in the country on our bikes, stop for a romantic dinner.”

  “Do you think your Goldwing can keep up with my Savage?”

  He laughed, then winced and carefully straightened his leg. “I’m confused. Is that a yes?”

  “Fine, let’s do it.”

  What the heck.

  “How about a kiss to seal the deal?”

  I patted his good leg. “We’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

  Acknowledgements

  To my beta readers: Kathy Alessio, Cheryl Bellefeuille, Marlene Donaldson, Alyssa Ferris, Donna Houghton, Lara Ferris Inneo, Barb Lowe, Marilyn Pharoah, and Desneiges Roy. Thank you for critiques, suggestions, and, most of all, your friendship.

  To Donna Warner, my sister/editor, thank you for your unflagging support and the countless hours you spent helping me with Corpse Flower. It’s been a long road, but we had a lot of fun along the way. Now, on to the next project!

  To Allison Hirst, my fabulous editor at Dundurn, thank you for patiently and good-naturedly guiding the book to publication.

  To the Crime Writers of Canada judges who picked Corpse Flower as the winner of the 2010 Unhanged Arthur contest. It was truly an honour to be chosen, and I thank you all.

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  Copyright © Gloria Ferris, 2013

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

  Editor: Allison Hirst

  Design: Jesse Hooper

  Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Ferris, Gloria, 1947-

  Corpse flower [electronic resource] : a Cornwall and Redfern mystery / by Gloria Ferris.

  Electronic monograph.

  Issued also in print format.

  ISBN 978-1-4597-0714-6

  I. Title.

  PS8611.E79C67 2013 C813’.6 C2013-900817-9

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

  Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

  J. Kirk Howard, President

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