Death of a Doppelganger by Rod Deakin-Drown New Westminster: Silverbow Publishing, 2019 $23.95 / 9781774030714 Reviewed by Ben Matthews * Rod Deakin-Drown’s Death of a Doppelganger is a classic noir mystery set in modern-day Vancouver. It begins with a murder that happens just before we meet the protagonist, Count Jason Kereso. Kereso is a private…
Read more #879 Murder on the Sun Tower
Rolling Thunder by A.J. Devlin Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2020 $18.95 / 9781988732862 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * In 2018 A.J. Devlin’s first novel, Cobra Clutch, won the Best First Canadian Crime Novel at the 2019 Arthur Ellis Awards in Toronto. The mystery novel was jam-packed with pro wrestlers and scuzzy bikers. “Hammerhead” Jed Ounstead, night…
Read more #878 The return of Hammerhead Jed
A Match Made for Murder: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2020 $16.95 / 9781771513265 Reviewed by Jennifer Chutter * Reading Iona Whishaw’s A Match Made for Murder, Book 7 in her Lane Winslow series, was like being invited to a party where the host had promised me I would have…
Read more #861 Anatomy of a bestseller
The War Widow by Tara Moss Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2020 $34.00 / 9781443461207 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Tara Moss has created another excellent piece of crime fiction with The War Widow. The style of this book, although perhaps a little far-fetched in places, is reminiscent of old movies set in the 1940s like Casablanca,…
Read more #818 Shoulder pads & red lipstick
Horseplay: My Time Undercover on the Granville Strip by Norm Boucher Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781988732985 Note: this book will not be available until November 15, 2020. Order it in advance at your local bookstore. Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * We’re on the toughest section of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. The hookers…
Read more #812 Vancouver junkie hunter, 1983
Perseverance: The Life of William Fernie, the Man Who Caught Billy Miner by Ron Hatch Kamloops: Thompson Rivers History and Historical Society, 2019 $24.95 / 9780991689910 Available by email from trhhs2012@gmail.com, from Kamloops Chapters, and from Amazon.ca Reviewed by Wayne Norton * Bill Miner attracts a remarkable amount of interest from students of Kamloops history….
Read more #806 The Empire strikes back
River of Lies by R.M. Greenaway Toronto: Dundurn, 2020 $17.99 / 9781459741539 Reviewed by Valerie Green * River of Lies is the fifth book in the B.C. Blues Crime Series by R.M. Greenaway, but it was the first one in the series I had read. Although the same characters appear in all the books, the…
Read more #761 Murder & misgivings in North Van
San Josef by Harold Macy New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2019 $20.00 / 9781775165989 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Although I have lived on Vancouver Island for over forty years, I have never travelled farther north than Port Hardy. All I knew of San Josef and Cape Scott at the northern tip of the island was…
Read more #734 Destination Danish colony
Jacintha by Lorraine Davies Toronto: Dundurn, 2019 $21.99 / 9781459744554 Reviewed by Moira Laidlaw with Ginny Ratsoy * Lorraine Davies’ Jacintha is a novel of secrets, mistakes, and forgiveness. It tells the story of Richard Wilson, a professor of English Literature at the University of British Columbia. After a traumatic landslide destroys his house and…
Read more #726 Beware the Shakespeare seminar
Arrow’s Fall by Joel Scott Toronto: ECW Press, 2019 $18.99 / 9781770414273 Reviewed by John Hutchings * This is the second book by Chemainus-based sailor and author Joel Scott, featuring the further adventures of his principal two characters and their old wooden boat, the Arrow. Having not read the first book, I can attest that…
Read more #705 Batten down the hatches
A Deceptive Devotion: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2019 $16.95 / 9781771513005 Reviewed by Kim Naqvi * “He doesn’t seem like the romantic type. I mean, he’s kind of old.” “The world is full of mysteries, Constable.” Clever dialogue, and an ear for human flight and fumbles, places Iona Whishaw’s…
Read more #694 My name is Lane Winslow
The Return of the Shadow by Kunio Yamagishi London: Austin Macauley, 2018 £6.16 (U.K) $25.95 (Cdn) / 9781786937155 / Please order from your local bookstore or through Book Depository who offer free worldwide shipping. Reviewed by Patricia E. Roy * In July 2019, The Return of the Shadow, by Comox Valley writer Kunio Yamagishi, was shortlisted…
Read more #645 The journeys of Eizo Osada
Vancouver Noir by Sam Wiebe (editor) Brooklyn, NY: Akashic Books, 2018 $23.95 / 9781617756597 Reviewed by Paul Falardeau * Vancouver is a beautiful city, one you might expect is a good place to find some world-class, city-adjacent hikes, the best smoked salmon, and some of the finest sinsemilla you could ever hope to smoke. It’s…
Read more #620 Vancouver beyond the postcards
The Bulldog and the Helix: DNA and the Pursuit of Justice in a Frontier Town by Shayne Morrow Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $22.95 / 9781772032505 Reviewed by Kathryn Neilson * This book originates from the abduction, rape, and brutal murder of two young girls in the small pulp mill town of Port Alberni on Vancouver…
Read more #577 A trillion to one in Port Alberni
No Dog Barked: Who Killed the MacLauchlans? by Rod Drown and Ken McIntosh New Westminster: Archives New West, 2018 $30.00 / 9781775095217 Reviewed by Don Hauka * In the early hours of March 21, 1966, Dr. Henry MacLauchlan and his wife Margaret Ann were murdered in their tiny bungalow at 912 Fifth Street in New…
Read more #509 Let sleeping dogs stir
85 Grams: Art Williams, Drug Czar by Daryl Ashby Victoria: Tellwell Talent, 2018 $19.95 / 9781773703503 Reviewed by Kathryn Neilson * During the 1970s, Arthur James Williams ran the largest MDA lab in North America near the small town of Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. With assistance from trusted confidants, he produced and distributed millions of…
Read more #494 Mycology, MDA & Hells Angels
Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic, and a Charismatic Killer by Eve Lazarus Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018 $21.95 / 9781551527468 Reviewed by Larry Hannant First published November 6, 2018 * True crime “may be the dominant genre of our time,” according to Globe and Mail media writer Simon Houpt. And…
Read more #415 Murder by Milkshake
First published Oct. 10, 2018. Dead Reckoning: How I Came to Meet the Man Who Murdered my father. by Carys Cragg Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017. $19.95 / 9781551526973 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * It has been a good year for Carys Cragg of Port Coquitlam. Her Dead Reckoning, published by Arsenal Pulp Press, was announced…
Read more #396 Letters to Drumheller
It Begins in Betrayal: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512619 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * A Sorrowful Sanctuary: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood, 2018 $16.95 / 9781771512893 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb First published Oct. 5, 2018 * Former high school principal and social worker…
Read more #393 A British, British Columbia
Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada’s Highway of Tears by Ray Michalko Markham, ON: Red Deer Press, 2016 $19.95 / 9780889955455 Reviewed by Bonnie Reilly Schmidt First published Sept. 17, 2017 * For ten years, ex-Mountie Ray Michalko investigated the fate of the missing or murdered women and girls on B.C.’s infamous…
Read more #377 Truth for the Highway of Tears