Murder in the Primary

Walter’s day was off to a bad start ... Walter Stillwell, superintendent of the Port Talbot Water Resource Recovery Facility, was a methodical man. Each weekday he got up at 6:30 a.m., recorded his blood pressure and heart rate, and prepared his breakfast, carefully measuring out 15 millilitres of homemade dressing for his modest salad of leaf lettuce and baking a serving of protein—usually a pork chop or chicken breast—in the toaster oven. Then, after watching a few minutes of the morning news, he dressed and left for work. But today an urgent phone call from the plant foreman interrupts Walter’s routine. A man has been found dead at the plant, in the east primary. As the police begin investigating, it soon becomes all too clear that Walter’s life—and the lives of his friends and colleagues—will never be the same. In this, the first mystery novel ever set in a water resource recovery facility—or, to use the lay term, a sewage plant—wastewater expert John Seldon introduces readers not only to a fascinating cast of characters but also to the overlooked systems and processes that make modern urban life possible. The result is a novel that will leave you guessing until the last chapter not only whodunit—but why.