A Family Matter

“The last person I wanted to see again was my mother. But she turned up anyway”

In this, the third book in the Max Dexter mystery series, Max’s mother returns to Hamilton after an absence of twenty-some years. Max is not anxious to meet with her — why should he after she’d abandoned him as a child?

To make matters worse, Max and his assistant, Isabel O’Brien, are still in the cross-hairs of crime boss, Dominic Tedesco, who’s looking to even the score from their last meeting.

But a bigger question looms: Is Max’s mother involved in an internal Mob war now heating up and about to explode?
Now, a week before Christmas in 1947, Max and Isabel are feeling the heat from those dark forces who don’t believe in “Peace on Earth”.

“Chris Laing’s latest book, 'A Family Matter', is the third in his series on Hamilton private eye Max Dexter. From the first page it picks you up and drops you down into the Hamilton of 1947. With vivid writing and an encyclopaedic knowledge of what was going on in post-war Hamilton Laing transports you to a real place where you can almost taste the food and feel the grit. For anyone who likes crime fiction and local history this is the ideal read. I couldn’t put it down.” — Margaret Houghton, Hamilton author and historian
“1940s Hamilton obviously lives again, thanks to your writing.”— Stewart Brown, former entertainment reporter for 'The Hamilton Spectator' and author of 'Brant Inn Memories'.

The Max Dexter Mystery Series includes: 'A Private Man' (2012), 'A Deadly Venture' (2014), 'A Family Matter' (2017) and 'A Devious Dame' (2019).