Where the Ice Falls By J.E. Barnard
What better way to cool off during the dog days of summer than with a frosty winter mystery? Award-winning author J.E. Barnard’s Where the Ice Falls (The Falls Mysteries #2) is set in Alberta in late December. After reading it, I would guess that most of the people who live in this area of Canada…
Petra’s Ghost – Official book trailer
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the time I convinced myself I could make my own book trailer for Petra’s Ghost without having to pay a professional. Note to self: There is a reason why people get paid for making book trailers and it probably has to…
Petra’s Ghost – Irish and Camino Trivia Time!
Well, it’s less than a week before my dark thriller, PETRA’S GHOST hits the shelves here in Canada (a month later for you Yanks and Brits). So, since the novel follows Daniel, an Irish ex-pat who walks the Camino de Santiago, I thought we’d have some Irish and Camino themed trivia to celebrate. How many…
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…
The Blood Spilt By Åsa Larsson
Before reviewing this book, I had to look up the term “Nordic Noir.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_noir) Basically, it is crime fiction that is set somewhere in Scandinavia that is short on metaphor and long on bleak landscapes. The weather in that part of the world lends itself well to bleakness apparently, particularly in the north. And this…
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…
Snap By Belinda Bauer
There are a lot of scary stories told from the perspective of children these days. Whether it is the resurrection of Stephen King’s IT or the mass popularity of Stranger Things, young people are at the forefront of bad things happening. I think it is a result of people getting tired of the “terrified woman”…
Interview with Erika Rummel
Bio Erika Rummel has taught history at the University of Toronto and Wilfrid Laurier U. She divides her time between Toronto and Los Angeles and has lived in villages in Argentina, Rumania, and Bulgaria. With more than a dozen published books on social and intellectual history, she is also the author of five thrilling fiction…