“An intriguing first novel, featuring an out-of-the-ordinary protagonist who thinks too much---and not enough.”

--- Rick Blechta, award-winning author of the Pratt & Ellis Mysteries

“Deadly Donation stars Rachel Tile, a smart and savvy criminologist who gets drawn into the many layers of intrigue and emotion surrounding the recent murder of her ex-husband, Michael. Diving into the confusing web around the crime and unsure of what she might find along the way, Rachel gathers the spicy facts that will eventually lead to the murderer. All this while seeking a huge donation from some wealthy high-rollers who can help save the program at the university where she teaches. Tepperman has hit a home run with this first book in his new crime series featuring Rachel Tile.”

— Bruce McGregor, author of GPS Wealth and GPS Millionaire

“A cracking good read! Lorne Tepperman keeps the pages turning as the mysteries and the murders hidden behind the sudden disappearance of a large promised donation to an anonymous Canadian university are unravelled. Very fun reading—with a fine eye for the dark side of big money at the top.”

— Lars Osberg, author of The Age of Increasing Inequality: The Astonishing Rise of Canada’s 1%

“Real estate tycoon gets murdered. But by whom and why? Lots of enemies, most potential murderers. Business associates with axes to grind. Dysfunctional family members, by blood or marriage, that have angry debts. His ex-wife, a criminologist, investigates. It’s a well-paced thriller with intriguing labyrinthian complexity. The turns and twists keep you reading page after page after page. Fugue states, Norse legends, shapeshifters, and artistic interpretation all energize the thrill of the read.”

— Neil Guppy, author of The Schooled Society

“If you like ‘whodunit’ crime fiction in a Canadian (read Toronto) setting, there is much to savour in this densely plotted saga involving the murder of the disreputable ex-husband of the story’s narrator, who is a professor of criminology at a well-known Canadian university. As prof turned detective, she applies her classroom knowledge of crime causation to hunt down the perpetrator. As in all good whodunits, the reader is presented with a network of plausible, and deeply flawed, suspects, all of whom—including the narrator—have good reason for wishing the victim dead. For readers familiar with Toronto and its environs, there is further pleasure to be had from recognition of many of the locations and situations that drive the narrative—from gambling and organized crime in Prince Edward County, to the reliance of university departments on the donations of dodgy personages.”

— Julian Tanner, author of Teenage Troubles

“In this dizzying and glorious race through an ex-wife’s lively mind, Lorne Tepperman’s Deadly Donation carries us on a brilliant criminologist’s hunt for Canada’s most generous man’s killer. A powerful and mesmerizing gamble of a book, seen with the wise eye of a master observer!”

— Murray Pomerance, author of A King of Infinite Space

“This craftily written and fast paced murder mystery has everything: sex, violence, gambling, addiction, marital betrayal, a nasty (and wealthy) victim and a myriad suspects, including the protagonist. Add in Norse mythology and a denouement that is both surprising and inevitable, all set in normally sedate Toronto and pastoral Prince Edward County, and you have a book impossible to put down. Deadly Donation is much more than a whodunit. It is a thoughtful meditation on truth, consequences, character and life’s meaning.”

— Michael Adams, author of Sex in the Snow and Fire and Ice

“Lorne Tepperman, a retired academic, draws on years of experience studying crime, gambling, and family relations in crafting this neo-noir thriller. The thicket of compelling characters he’s created is, however, a far cry from any that would be found in a scholarly treatise. Conflicting and overlapping motives, an undertow of corruption and deceit, and clues hidden in plain sight will challenge readers until the final denouement. Given the multi-layered, compelling protagonist Tepperman has fashioned, one suspects this will not be the final mystery Rachel Tile is called upon to untangle.”

—-Rosemary Gartner, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Gender, Sex, and Crime