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This page lists novels that feature the Toronto based police detective Charlie Salter.

The Night the Gods Smiled

Eric Wright

1984

A Charlie Salter novel.

"It is a puzzling case inspector Charlie Salter of the Metropolitan Toronto police is assigned to solve. Professor David Summers has been found in his Montréal hotel room while attending a conference. The only tangible clues are a lipstick-marked glass and whisky bottle - used to crush David's skull. Clues so banal they present a challenge in themselves."

Smoke Detector

Eric Wright

1984

A Charlie Salter novel.

"The death of an antique dealer seems an unlikely stimulus for the stalled career of Inspector Charlie Salter, of the Metropolitan Toronto police. The victim died in a fire deliberately set and that meant arson and murder. Charlie discovers plenty of suspects: the dealer's assistant, mistress, wife, and any number of other unfortunate people he might have swindled. All these promising leads seem to go nowhere, until chance points Charlie back forty years: to wartime Vancouver. Step by intricate step he works his way towards the truth."

Death in the Old Country

Eric Wright

1985

A Charlie Salter novel.

"Inspector Charlie Salter and his wife Annie were looking forward to a much-needed second honeymoon, enjoying the pleasures of the English countryside. What they didn't need was a murder dropped in their doorstep. That's what happens when they discover their innkeeper slumped in his office, stabbed. It's a case for the local constabulary but the Salters become caught up in a mystery that leads them to Italy, through London, and back to the inn."

A Single Death

Eric Wright

1986

A Charlie Salter novel. Published in the US as The Man Who Changed His Name.

"Inspector Charlie Salter considers Christmas shopping bothersome; until his ex-wife, Gerry turns up; determined to make trouble for the police department and Charlie. There's an unsolved murder involving a recently-separated woman, Nancy Cowell, who apparently met a killer through a 'Companion Wanted' ad. Gerry expects Charlie to solve it - a crime with too many suspects. Charlie finally uncovers new leads but not until he has been caught up in Nancy's lonely world of casual encounters, secret hatreds, and betrayal."

A Body Surrounded by Water

Eric Wright

1987

A Charlie Salter novel.

"Charlie Salter is on a family vacation with their sons, on his wife's turf in Prince Edward Island, where her family is socially-elevated. In fact her Father is arranging the retrieval of a long-lost provincial seal; partly for heritage and posterity, coincidentally aligning community favour with political pursuit. However murders occur that may or may not be connected with this failed transaction, whose Toronto dealer insists the goods were picked-up by one of the deceased locals."

A Question of Murder

Eric Wright

1988

A Charlie Salter novel.

"When a bomb kills a bookstore owner in the fashionable Yorkville section of Toronto, Police Detective Charlie Salter must determine whether the victim was the target, or the visiting Princess of Wales."

A Sensitive Case

Eric Wright

1990

A Charlie Salter novel.

"The murder of masseuse Linda Thomas was a sticky situation - her clients included big people in high places. It was a case for Special Affairs Inspector Charlie Salter and his chief investigator, Sergeant Mel Pickett. Once on the job, they delicately kick open a hornet's nest of hostile, secretive suspects, including a provincial deputy minister, a famous television host, the tenants of the woman's building, a nervous academic, a secret lover, and an unidentified man - the last person to see the victim alive. A lot of people had a lot to hide - and even more at stake than their careers. It's a sensitive case. Charlie's doing a lot of tiptoeing around... with a killer lurking in the shadow of every step!"

Final Cut

Eric Wright

1991

A Charlie Salter novel.

"Inspector Charlie Salter is working undercover as a police 'adviser' to a movie crew shooting in Toronto. A fake fire alarm, a missing can of film, a damaged sound machine, and a kidnapped actor are merely opening salvos in what appears to be an attempt to halt production on this ill-fated film. Yet who among the bickering cast and crew would want to see the movie fail? Could it be the Easter European actor who's made a name for himself playing villians; the arrogant, egocentric star; the flakey first assistant director; or the obnoxious screenwriter who's on everyone's hit list? It's a reel-life mystery that has Charlie Salter dreading the next scene. But when the leading man is mugged and a prime player is found with a dagger through his chest, Salter takes the lead in a homicidal drama that stretches from Toronto to Bucharest, on a trail steeped in blood, retribution, and corrosive memory."

A Fine Italian Hand

Eric Wright

1991

A Charlie Salter novel.

"Actor Alec Hunter has been found knifed and strangled at the none-too-elegant Days 'R' Done Motel, the kind of place where drug deals and hour-long rentals are common and almost-famous clients are rare. What was Alec doing in such a sleazy place? And who was the Italian-looking gentleman who registered for the room? The police first assume that the mob has disposed of Alec to settle some gambling debts. But the mob denies the charge, and Italians in general are outraged at the suggestion. Charlie's job is to calm the community and find the killer. Alec had borrowed a thousand dollars from his girlfriend on Sunday night, and had next gone to visit his great-aunt at a nursing home. After that, the movements that led to his death at the seedy motel are a mystery."

Death by Degrees

Eric Wright

1993

A Charlie Salter novel.

"For a man who routinely encounters death in the course of his professional life, Salter has a surprisingly difficult time with mortality close to home. There are too many unresolved issues between father and son. Salter seeks a diversion, which he finds in investigating some anonymous letters relating to a recent homicide. Professor Maurice Lyall had been brutally murdered in his home shortly after his election as dean of Toronto's Bathurst College. All signs point to an ordinary robbery turned fatal, but the letters hint at something more. Salter assumes the letters were inspired by simple academic malice. There's no evidence that anyone at the college was in any way involved in the murder. When a suspect is arrested, however, Salter fears that the police have accepted too easy an answer. The deeper Salter delves into the case, the more he's convinced that no random stranger caused the professor's death."

The Last Hand

Eric Wright

2001

A Charlie Salter novel.

"Charlie Slater is sixty - the age limit for active police work. Lately, he's been a glorified receptionist for the deputy chief. But then a Toronto lawyer is murdered, and the prime suspect is a prostitute in a pair of silver boots. The case doesn't ignite any interest until high-powered lawyer Calvin Gregson shows up, supposedly on Flora's behalf, insisting the police solve the case quietly. Deputy Mackenzie figures the assignment will keep Salter temporarily occupied, and puts him on the case with a young Scotsman new to the force and city. Salter is thrilled. As he searches, he meets the law profession's elite and, among others, the victim's sister, MPP Flora Lucas. But it's the lawyer's book group that brings Salter the clues he needs to solve the case - and to discover why Gregson is so eager to wrap the case up quickly and quietly."

My Brothers Keeper

Howard Engel & Eric Wright

2002

"This short, engaging mystery brings together two of the great crime solvers of Canadian literature: Howard Engel's somewhat bumbling private investigator, Benny Cooperman, and Eric Wright's smooth, retiring police detective, Charlie Salter. When Dr. John Davidson Horner, the chief of staff at Toronto's Rose of Sharon Hospital, disappears, Benny Cooperman is brought into the case by his brother Sam, a surgeon at the hospital, who feels he might be implicated in a yet-to-be-published memoir Horner has written that exposes the sins of a number of staff."

A Killing Climate, Collected Short Mysteries

Eric Wright

2003

Includes a Charlie Salter novella.

"A Killing Climate contains all of Eric Wright’s short stories in the mystery field, including a locked-room mystery (An Irish Jig), espionage in the Far North (Caves of Ice), a comic caper story (Two in the Bush), and other exercises in ingenuity, character, and atmosphere. Many of the stories are set near Canada’s Hudson Bay area, but a few (especially Hephaestus with its Caribbean vactioners) are in more temperate regions. The book concludes with the first short tale about Charlie Salter, a novella, The Lady of Shalott, written especially for this volume."

A Charlie Salter Omnibus

Eric Wright

2003

A Charlie Salter omnibus.

An omnibus edition that combines the first three Charlie Salter novels: The Night the Gods Smiled; Smoke Detector; and Death in the Old Country.