When a child is found hanging at the Academy of the Sisters of the Perpetual Soul, or Old Soul as the locals in this seaside British Columbia community call it, Constable Patrick Painter is called out and soon finds that it is not the clear-cut suicide that it seems. Child suicide expert, Dr. Temperance Ivory, however, says otherwise and begins to school the academy's staff and parents on how to deal with suicidal thoughts in children. Totally unaware, she also begins to touch the heartstrings of longtime bachelor Patrick Painter. When another apparent suicide, also a hanging, occurs, both Dr. Ivory and Constable Painter begin to wonder whether suicide is the real answer and soon find themselves both resurrecting old ghosts and looking at skeletons in their own closets. No amount of therapeutic opera singing by Dr. Ivory or stress-relieving gardening by Constable Painter can shake the ghosts that haunt them both.

A Hemorrhaging of Souls, a new mystery by Nicola Furlong, plays out these contemporary deaths against the story of Rigoletto, a tragic Italian opera that seems to be an undercurrent theme in this tale. I found the characters charming and complex, and the plot had me chasing every red herring laid in front of me. My jaw even dropped on a couple of occasions. A Hemorrhaging of Souls is a delicious mystery. I love every page of it!