Real Life Mysteries: Where Do Stories Come From?

by Mike Martin, @mike54martin

Where do stories come from? That’s a question I get asked a lot. So do other writers. The simple answer is that we get our stories from everywhere. Sometimes it is just a niggling thought that circulated from the back of our mind and percolates into something bigger. At other times it could be a movie or another book we are reading that sparks our interest.

But for me, most of my stories start with something I see on the news or in the media. Something real that pokes me and gets me thinking. I write a light, cozy-type mystery series, the Award-Winning Sgt. Windflower Mysteries, that are somewhat restricted from going into too much detail about crimes and criminals, especially the gory details. But that doesn’t and won’t stop me from talking about real world issues like human trafficking or the opioid crisis. 

But I like it even better when I can find a crime that is interesting, unsolved and somehow less lethal than other types of crime. Yes, some people will always get killed. It is a murder mystery, after all. But credit card fraud or embezzling funds somehow seems cleaner to write about than someone getting knifed or stabbed or shot. Although, all mystery writers do have fun with poisonings, I cannot lie. 

This search for a real life mystery led me to an actual and on-going case of a massive gold heist in Canada. In my latest book, Too Close for Comfort, I try and answer the basic question still remaining in this case. Where is the Gold?

The background is that on April 17, 2023, a robbery occurred at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada, with over C$20 million (US$15 million) worth of gold and other high-value items being stolen. Thieves accessed a secure cargo warehouse and made off with the cash and the shipment of gold bars. While the police investigation is still underway and several individuals believed to be connected to the robbery have been arrested, none of the gold has been recovered.

One expert told the media that he thought that the gold bars “have probably been melted into other forms by now, and may be on a boat somewhere on the Atlantic headed east.”

That’s where Too Close for Comfort, takes over. According to my premise, the gold may have been shipped surreptitiously to Newfoundland, and then melted down so that it could be shipped back across the Atlantic for sale to unsuspected buyers.

To back up my case, there are a number of moth-balled smelters in Newfoundland, including one in Long Harbour that was processing nickel from Labrador. The gold bars could have been melted down and put on a ship or in a container for Europe. Did that happen? We don’t know. All we know is that the gold is still missing. That’s the real mystery.

I hope you will read Too Close for Comfort and see if you can solve the mystery of the missing gold yourself.

Mike Martin is the author of the Award-Winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. Too Close for Comfort was released by Ottawa Press and Publishing on October 1, 2024. It is available on Amazon all over the world.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGVN6LBL (US)

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DGVN6LBL (CANADA)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DGVN6LBL (UK)

https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0DGVN6LBL (AUS)

Mike Martin is the author of the Award-Winning Sgt. Windflower Mysteries. The latest book in the series is Better Safe Than Sorry. You can find that book and all other books in the series on Amazon all over the world.

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