S.P. Hozy

In this searing historical novel by Toronto author S.P. Hozy, set amid the turmoil of early twentieth century Shanghai, three women, one Russian, one Chinese, and one French, determine the tragic fate of a young piano prodigy. Which of them is really responsible for his death?

A Cold Season In Shanghai is set against the backdrop of revolution in China, when decadent Shanghai was like no other place on earth. The narrator is Tatiana, a Russian woman brought up in a wealthy family. As a young woman, Tatiana chose to live a life of careless abandon, turning her back on her family’s values. After the dealth of the young musician, she turns away and ultimately abandons her friends.

From the midst of her new life, Tatiana suspects however that she may have been the catalyst for the series of devastating events which caused havoc in the lives of her friends. Tormented by the aftermath of her decisions, she seeks forgetfulness, until ultimately the shocking truth is told.

"Mrs. Reynolds," the State Department official said, "I'm afraid I have some bad news for you. Your husband has drowned in an accident in Thailand."

Joanna Reynolds is about to be faced with the contradictions in her husband's life. Franklin, who was terrified of the water and didn't even own a bathing suit, had drowned. Scrupulous about his financial affairs, he'd written to her three weeks before his death telling her he'd lost everything. But just days before he died, Franklin wrote a will leaving three million dollars.

Franklin Reynolds, a pillar of the community, had been appointed by a Senate committee after the fall of Saigon to solve the Vietnamese refugee problem that was becoming an embarrassment to the American government. He had been in Bangkok, Thailand, for nine months while his wife had remained in their comfortable home in suburban Chicago.

Now the questions Joanna had been afraid to ask were demanding to be answered. What were last few months of Franklin's life like? Was his death in some way linked to the three million dollars? Had he killed himself to avoid some shameful discovery? Or had he been murdered? There had to be an explanation and Joanna needed to know it.

The mystery of Franklin's death raised questions about her own life and the sixteen years of their marriage. Had she been wrong about everything

Telling no one, Joanna books a ticket for Bangkok and embarks on a dangerous quest for the truth. She travels a long way from home, to a land and culture very different from the one she has always known. Unable to turn back, she must follow a trail of corruption and violent death to its horrifying conclusion

Many things come to an end for Joanna, but she discovers that her life is really just beginning.

Ann Hobart had spent her life searching for inner peace. Going to an ashram halfway around the world in India seemed like the perfect answer. "I'm going to come back with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Life Force. I’m going to come back whole," she told her daughter Stephanie just before she left. All Stephanie could think was how naive her mother was to believe this ...

But Ann doesn’t come back from India. Suffering from an undiagnosed illness, she books a ticket but never uses it. Unable to contact the remote ashram, Stephanie decides to go to India and bring her mother back. But when she gets there she learns that life on the ashram is about more than spiritual enlightenment.

Two people have already died. Thrust by events beyond her control into a world she cannot comprehend, Stephanie Hobart young, smart and fearlessly independent must find a way to make sense of what she discovers. She learns that the journey of the self lasts a lifetime.