Social Creature By Tara Isabella Burton
Props to Stacey Maddon, my friend and past Writing Mystery teacher, who put me on to this novel. It was in Stacey’s class that I started what would become the first Candace Starr crime novel, The Starr Sting Scale (Dundurn Press, Feb 2020). So, I guess I have more to thank Stacey for than his…
Book Review: The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
Okay, this time I wasn’t going to be fooled by initials into reviewing a book that was really written by a dude. C.J. Tudor’s first name is Caroline. Her friends call her Caz. I also write under initials my initials. My first name is Carole. The only nickname I had that ever stuck was the…
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
I am really getting into these English translations. As with The First Prehistoric Serial Killer by Teresa Solana, The Perfect Nanny was originally written in another language. In this case, French rather than Spanish. The author is Moroccan born but Parisian living, Leila Slimani. She won France’s most prestigious literary prize, the Goncourt for this…
The First Prehistoric Serial Killer & other stories By Teresa Solana
What a great bunch of fiction, well written and witty, and full of unnatural death. You can’t ask for much better entertainment for a girl like me. Teresa Solena is one of Spain’s best known crime writers, and while her stories are often dark, they are always funny. And none of that humour gets lost…
Dying for Christmas By Tammy Cohen
I wanted to review a book with a holiday theme for the season, and thus selected the talented Tammy Cohen’s Dying for Christmas for my Yuletide noir read. I thought I’d get a hokey and tame mystery, perhaps the murder of a vicar at midnight mass, or a Boxing Day stabbing death with a sharp…
Interview with Mary Lou Dickinson
Mary Lou Dickinson has published four books, One Day it Happens, a collection of short stories, and three novels, Ile D’Or, Would I lie to You, and most recently The White Ribbon Man, a murder mystery set in downtown Toronto at a 171-year-old church hidden behind the Eaton Centre. Her short stories have appeared in numerous literary periodicals over the…
Review: Field of Blood – Denise Mina
I love Denise Mina. Nobody does down and dirty Glasgow like she does. She makes Scotland into this wildly dangerous and exotic playground for criminals that barely manages to control itself enough for the trains to run. I am travelling there on holidays this fall and fully expect to be stabbed with the blowstick of…
Book Review: Death Flight by Melissa Yi
“My cochlea vibrates for thee.” Only a real doctor and romantic could coin such a phrase. And Melissa Yi is both. Her bad guy busting medical resident and possible avatar, Dr. Hope Sze, takes to the not-so-friendly skies in Death Flight, the sixth book in her popular thriller series. Hope still can’t decide between Ryan…
Interview with R.M. Greenaway
BIO RM Greenaway began writing crime fiction some years ago, while northbound on the Greyhound. Work as a court reporter in the remoter parts of BC often took her on the road. Usually she got around by car, but the occasional blizzard would force her onto the bus. Which was good, as being a passenger…
Interview with Melissa Yi
Melissa Yi is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. The Globe and Mail recently recommended HUMAN REMAINS as one of the best Canadian suspense novels, and she has also been recognized by CBC’s The Current and The Next Chapter. Publishers Weekly hailed her work as “impressive” and “moving.” Yi was recently a finalist for the…
