Small-Town Mystery Lovers Will Swoon Over the Loon Lake Mysteries Series

Retired dentist Paul “Doc” Osborne has lived an aimless and alcoholic existence since his wife died two years ago. He hasn’t even attempted his favorite pastime, fly fishing, since then.

When he stumbles across his old equipment in his garage, he decides to give it another go, with the help of a world-class fly-fisher and Loon Lake Chief of Police Lewellyn Ferris.

What starts as a calm day on the lake turns into an active crime scene when their boat is greeted by a body floating in the water.

Doc goes from fishing buddy to honorary sheriff’s deputy as he and Lew scour Loon Lake for answers in an investigation that will change everything Doc thought to be true about his sleepy small town. 

Things have settled down since Doc Osborne and Chief of Police Lew Ferris solved the case of the body in the water and brought the killer to justice. Doc still takes every opportunity to spend time with Chief Ferris, though, and fly fishing is the perfect way to do it. 

When Doc goes out fishing for muskies one day, he gets more than he bargained for when he finds four dead bodies frozen in a cage. Chief Ferris is called in and the two embark on yet another investigative adventure into the criminal underbelly of Loon Lake. 

Doc is out kayaking one afternoon when he makes a shocking discovery—something that is starting to become par for the course for him.

He and Chief Ferris have only just begun to investigate the grisly remains of a woman with bite marks on her shoulder when a second person, a successful businesswoman from Kansas City, turns up dead.

Is it a coincidence? Or is a more elaborate plot unfolding in Loon Lake…

Quiet Loon Lake has been inundated as of late by a flood of competitive bass fishers, bikers, and more unsavory characters than Doc and Chief Ferris are comfortable with.

While Doc busies himself with solving a decades-old murder case, he soon realizes he has a more pressing mystery on his hands in the form of an unknown stalker. 

As winter descends upon Loon Lake, Doc, and Chief Ferris find its frozen waters are no longer suitable for fly fishing. They’re good for one thing, though: murder.

When the bodies of two snowmobilers are pulled out of nearby Two Sisters Lake, it seems like an accident.

But when a beautiful woman’s body turns up in a snowdrift, Doc and Chief Ferries have no choice but to embark on an investigation into what seems like a drug deal gone bad.

At least, it did at first. As the investigation continues, it seems there may be something more sinister brewing beneath the frozen surface of Loon Lake. 

When popular advice columnist Hope McDonald is found dead in her Loon Lake home, Chief Ferris can think of more than a few suspects. She also knows just the person to help her investigate them: Doc Osborne.

The killer must be clever to go after such a well-known personality and evade authorities, but Doc and Chief Ferris are more clever—they’re going to have to be, if they want to reel in this cold-blooded killer. 

As spring turns to summer, Doc Osborne is looking forward to spending some time with Lew on the lake. His fly fishing is put on hold yet again when three bodies are discovered on a backroad of Loon Lake, dead not from an apparent car crash, but from bullet wounds.

Among them is exotic dancer Peg Garmin, whose surprising connections to a wealthy Chicago family surface during the investigation. But Doc and Chief Ferris are about to learn that some secrets were buried for a reason.

If they’re going to dig, they better dig fast, before the killer gets away—or gets them.  

The body of a young woman is found floating beneath a party pontoon in Loon Lake’s “Party Cove,” a favorite of wealthy vacationers from Chicago.

That same morning, an eminent widow is found bludgeoned to death in her stately home. With multiple mysteries to solve and not enough hands to do it, Chief Ferris turns once again to Doc Osborne, who is all too happy to help.

They discover that the bank accounts of both the victims have been completely drained, along with those of dozens of others in Loon Lake, making it clear that these are not isolated incidents.

In Loon Lake, they never are.  

Thanksgiving Day should be the one day Chief Ferris and Doc Osborne get to relax—together and out of uniform, Doc hopes.

But while the rest of Loon Lake stuff their turkeys and set their tables, Chief Ferris and Doc Osborne must investigate a string of credit card thefts and cold-blooded murders.

Things escalate with the unexpected arrival of Gina Palmer, a former investigative reporter turned forensics database expert, who has arrived at Loon Lake on the trail of a Canadian thief who has been pillaging stores across the upper Midwest.

Doc Osborne’s daughter, Erin, has just opened her own legal practice. He is helping Erin assist one of her clients in reclaiming an antique chest from an uncooperative dealer when he trips over an old rug in the merchant’s shop, and human remains come tumbling out.

When he recognizes a gold filling glinting from the intact skull, he can solve the mystery of whose remains they are.

As for who killed him? That question’s going to be much harder, and much riskier, to find an answer to. But that's never stopped Doc before. 

It’s another winter in Loon Lake, and with that comes another round of visitors flocking to the town for the International Ice Fishing Festival—and another round of trouble for Doc and Chief Ferris.

They receive a frantic call from Rob Beltners with the terrible news that his wife was found dead of on a ski trail with a gunshot wound to the head. At the same time, Patience Schumacher, the president of Wheedon Technical College, comes to them with fears of a stalker.

As the duo investigates, the two unrelated cases reveal themselves to be more connected than they first seemed. A dangerous killer is on the loose, and the visitors pouring into Loon Lake just keep coming…

A summer love triangle turns from salacious to deadly when the body of vivacious twenty-six-year-old Jen Williams turns up dead with a single gunshot wound through the heart.

Suspicion immediately falls upon two people: her lover John McNeil’s wife, and the other woman with whom Mr. McNeil had just ended an affair.

Normally, Doc and Lew would be on the case, but as Lew battles pressure from the mayor to retire, and Doc gets stuck babysitting his grandaughter, their investigation is put on hold.

When the pair go out onto the lake one day to destress, they make a crucial discovery that just might save the day—and Lew’s career. 

It’s tourist season in Loon Lake, but the quaint atmosphere and picturesque lake aren’t enough to distract visitors from the grisly murder of a senator during a rainstorm one August night.

The eyes of all the nation are on Chief Ferris as she hunts down the killer, once again listing the help of her trusted friend and fishing partner Doc to do so.

The investigation takes a turn for the personal when Doc discovers his oldest daughter, Mallory, has entered into a relationship that may land her directly in the killer’s path of destruction.

It’s July in Loon Lake, but trouble in the not-so-tranquil town never takes a summer vacation—and neither does Chief Lewis.

She and Doc are tasked with the remains of a bank executive and a graduate student found deep in the heart of the national forest. Doc is distracted by his grandson’s recent hospitalization for a serious illness, but not too distracted to notice how cozy Lew is getting with the father of the murdered student, who is teaching Lew the art of Japanese fly fishing.

Passions and priorities collide in this installment of the Loon Lake mysteries.

It’s July in Loon Lake, but trouble in the not-so-tranquil town never takes a summer vacation—and neither does Chief Lewis.

She and Doc are tasked with the remains of a bank executive and a graduate student found deep in the heart of the national forest.

 Doc is distracted by his grandson’s recent hospitalization for a serious illness, but not too distracted to notice how cozy Lew is getting with the father of the murdered student, who is teaching Lew the art of Japanese fly fishing.

Passions and priorities collide in this installment of the Loon Lake mysteries. 

The sun rises on Loon Lake one summer morning to reveal a gruesome accident that took place at a local gentlemen’s club the night before.

The wealthy proprietor, a member of a prominent Wisconsin family and a member of the private Deer Creek Fishing and Hunting Preserve was found dead at the scene.

When Chief Ferris and Doc discover a set of mysterious footprints near the crime scene, their suspicions are confirmed: this was no accident. Things take a sharp turn for the worse when, on the first day of the muskie fishing tournament, Doc’s granddaughter goes missing.

Chief Ferris and Doc have investigated plenty of murders before, but as the frantic search for his granddaughter stretches on, it becomes clear this case is not like the others.

What better way to enjoy a Sunday afternoon in June than the closing ceremonies of the annual Loon Lake fishing tournament?

The whole town is in great spirits, but their festivities are brought to an abrupt halt when a young wife discovers her older husband, the richest man in Wisconsin, has been killed by a single gunshot wound to the head.

It’s once again up to Chief Ferris and Doc to track down the killer, but when his fifteen-year-old granddaughter is busted in a drug sting, his comfortable position with local authorities is thrown into flux.

Things escalate still further when numerous elderly patients in the local nursing home discover they have been robbed. It’s clear to residents of Loon Lake that this summer will not be a normal one—at least, not by outside standards.

But as things escalate, this summer feels extra perilous—even for Loon Lake. 

Doc Osborne’s friend Chuck Pelletier is doing alright for himself. He’s the lead accountant for a planned luxury fly-fishing lodge preserve being built in the area, and he and hew new wife are happily married.

Which is why Doc is alarmed when, one morning, Chuck comes to him with the frantic claim that his boss and his wife tried to run him over. Chief Ferris is too busy pursuing illegal loggers in the Northwoods to take Doc’s concerns seriously when he raises them to her.

Two hours later, Chuck is found dead, and Doc decides to take matters into his own hands. As it turns out, his and Lew’s missions might have more to do with each other than they thought…

For decades, vacationers from Chicago have come to Loon Lake for a tranquil escape. For a wealthy Chicago industrialist and his wife, it’s the last thing they ever do.

Their bodies are discovered at their summer home at the same time a local lawyer disappears. Chief Ferris enlists Doc for another investigation, one that gets complicated by everything from their own family issues to foreign hackers.

One thing’s for certain: the duo will be spending more time catching culprits than fishing together this summer.