Four Short Sets with Jason Davey - Coming in August 2026
Four mysteries. Four musical sets. One reluctant sleuth.Jason Davey never meant to become a detective.
He’s a working musician, a man who would much rather worry about his next gig than his next mystery. But trouble has a way of finding Jason, whether he’s at sea, backstage in Soho, deep in Canada’s frozen north, or sitting in a cramped South London flat listening to a story that doesn’t quite add up.
In Four Short Sets with Jason Davey, Winona brings together four previously published stories featuring her reluctant sleuth:
A missing pampered dog aboard an Alaskan cruise…
A dead nightclub owner and a stolen Fender Strat in Soho…
A vanished folk musician whose trail leads to northern Alberta…
And an online romance that spirals into obsession and murder.
Wry, atmospheric, and filled with music, mischief, and memorable characters, these four stories trace Jason’s evolution from accidental investigator to a man who knows that sometimes the truth—like true musical talent—can’t stay buried for long.
The stories:
Salty Dog Blues
A pampered pooch, a color-allergic diva, and a cruise ship entertainer who didn’t sign up to solve crimes. All aboard Salty Dog Blues!
In this whimsical tale, join Jason Davey—ship's entertainer and aspiring amateur sleuth—as he grapples with his dual identity on a ship filled with eccentric characters. Assigned as crew but considered an officer, Jason enjoys the comfortable freedom of ship life, where his only audience anxiety comes from the occasional bout with disagreeable canines.
When Abigail Ferryman, a hilariously dramatic passenger with a ridiculous allergy to the color blue, boards with her pampered service dog, Lord Fothergill, Jason quickly finds his quiet life disrupted. From culinary catastrophes to canine chaos, every moment is filled with misadventures. And when Lord Fothergill mysteriously disappears, all fingers point to a nefarious plot aboard the ship, and Jason is drawn into the chaos of an impromptu detective role.
As he navigates through shipboard shenanigans—from a dog on a bender to culinary confrontations—will Jason put the pieces together before the ship reaches Juneau? Packed with witty humor, memorable mishaps, and a cast of quirky characters, Salty Dog Blues is a delightful short story where the salty sea isn’t the only thing stirring up a storm!
Salty Dog Blues first appeared in Crime Wave 1: Where Maple Meets Murder, published by Sisters in Crime-Canada West. It was nominated as a finalist in Crime Writers of Canada's Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella on April 21, 2021.
Chronologically, this is Jason's first big foray into the field of amateur sleuthing.
Blue Devil Blues
A failed audition. A missing Strat. A corpse in a Beatle wig.
Welcome to Diamonds—an aging Soho nightclub that’s seen better days. Musician Jason Davey walks in hoping for a gig and walks out with a murder investigation on his hands.
When the club’s eccentric owner turns up dead backstage, Jason finds himself entangled in a mystery laced with ambition, family secrets, and vintage rock 'n’ roll. Worse still, his father’s prized Fender Strat has gone missing—and someone’s willing to kill for it.
Set in the moody heart of London’s Soho, Blue Devil Blues is a quirky, suspenseful short story that strikes all the right chords.
Perfect for fans of cozy noir, amateur sleuths, and mysteries with a musical twist.
Blue Devil Blues first appeared in Last Shot: Four Tales of Murder, Mystery and Suspense by Alice Bienia, Dwayne Clayden, Winona Kent and Peter Kingsmill (2021).
Chronologically, this is Jason's second deep dive into amateur sleuthing, and follows the short story Salty Dog Blues and the novel Cold Play, and comes before the novella, Disturbing the Peace.
Disturbing the Peace
A missing musician. Canada's frozen north. Can Jason locate Ben Quigley before a deranged fan puts them both permanently on ice?
Jason Davey's last job was aboard the Star Sapphire cruising from Vancouver to Alaska. Now Jason's back on shore, and he has a regular gig at a jazz club in London.
When Dominic, Jason's film-student son, asks his dad to help track down a missing musician for a documentary he's making, Jason leaps at the chance.
Ben Quigley played rhythm guitar in Jason's parents' folk group Figgis Green in the late 1960s. And he dropped off the face of the earth four years ago.
Jason's search ultimately takes him to Peace River, Alberta - 300 miles from Edmonton in Canada's frozen north. And what he discovers there is both intriguing - and disturbing.
Disturbing the Peace was initially published as a standalone novella on December 10, 2017 and, chronologically, comes after the short story Blue Devil Blues and before the novel, Notes on a Missing G-String.
On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog
An online scammer, a desperate victim, and a doomed West End musical.
Jason Davey's always had a soft spot for the children of old friends, which is how he finds himself sitting in a cramped South London flat, drinking Earl Grey tea and eating Jammie Dodgers while a young woman named Zoey Scattergood tells him about the man she loves. The trouble is, the man she loves is Rob Folley, a famous, unavailable American actor currently starring in the theatrical wreckage of "Haunting Hamlet". What began as a flirtatious Twitter exchange has spiralled into something considerably more complicated and considerably more dangerous.
When Rob Folley's wife turns up face-down in the Regent's Canal, what looked like a tidy case of online exploitation starts to look like something much darker. Jason is about to find out just how far obsession can travel, and how close to home it can live.
Chronologically, this is the latest Jason Davey story, appearing after the novel Bad Boy. It appeared previously in Crime Wave 3: Dangerous Games: A Canada West Anthology, published by Sisters in Crime-Canada West (2024).
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| Four Short Sets with
Jason Davey will be published
by Winona Kent and Blue Devil Books in August 2026. It will be available as an ebook and a paperback through Amazon. |
| Back to Home Page |
