Finley Martin has chosen has chosen … the real Landscape of Charlottetown and Stratford to set a story with people who could indeed be real – complete with flaws … Against this he has been able to tell a story which has a plausibility to it. He tells the story very well and all the readers of the panel shared their desire to read it at a single sitting – a good mystery novel does that and this is a very good novel. For these reasons the Panel has agreed that The Dead Letter should be on the short list for the P.E.I. Book Award for fiction.

Skillfully weaving this mystery with aspects of Anne’s (Brown) personal life, from a romantic entanglement to adolescent woes of her teenage daughter, Martin conjures an absorbing tale that has excitement and soul in equal measures.

This book literally took me by surprise! It felt like it started a bit slowly … Then … bang! Before I knew it I was hooked as the pace was quickening between Anne’s work life, home life and love life. I loved the introduction of so many characters, and the way they wove together was brilliant.

The beginning of this book … pulled me I right in. The Dead Letter by Finley Martin opened with an affair, a pregnancy, and a murder all in one chapter. The first chapter leaves the reader with a string of questions just waiting for the book to answer.