Run the Bead by Dustin Cole Berlin: Soyos Books, 2023 $18.99 (USD) / 9780645795851 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Early in Dustin Cole’s sophomore novel, Run the Bead, the Vancouver author briefly draws attention to a minor character who writes science fiction under the pseudonym R.F. Hale. Much later, the author has his protagonist scan…
Read more ‘Audacious? Yes. Dizzying? A little, yes.’
Life at the Precipice by R.F. Vincent Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023 $20.99 / 9781039171497 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * There’s a long tradition of novels masquerading as true stories. Think of Robinson Crusoe. Or Lemuel Gulliver. Readers in 1726 were treated to the appearance of a book of travels by Captain Gulliver, who told of Lilliputians…
Read more Cpt. Sivart’s adventures in wonderland
Gorgeous Gruesome Faces by Linda Cheng New York: MacMillan/Roaring Brook Press, 2023 $26.99 / 9781250864994 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * All that glitters is likelier ghoul than gold in Linda Cheng’s K-pop-inspired debut novel, Gorgeous Gruesome Faces. Cheng was born in Taiwan, though much of her adolescence was spent moving between different cultures and continents….
Read more 1975 Ghoulish K-pop teen horror!!
Skid Dogs by Emelia Symington-Fedy Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2023 $26.95 / 9781771623643 Reviewed by Catherine Owen * You know a book is both meant for you as a reader and well-written when you feel regular twinges of discomfiting self-recognition as the story sinks into your blood. I can’t remember the last time I…
Read more 1969 Advice to a teen girl
Echo Lane by Sandra Kelly Edmonton: Stonehouse Publishing, 2023 $22.00 / 1988754453 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * Echo Lane by Invermere’s Sandra Kelly is an emotionally tense and compelling novel. The protagonist, Patsy, has lived an undeniably difficult life. Though she lives in Calgary, much of the present is occupied by thoughts of her past…
Read more 1968 Genius brother, dead sister, MacGuffin, oh my!
Uncontrolled Flight by Frances Peck Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2023 $25.95 / 9781774390757 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * Frances Peck has once again written a story that will grip British Columbian’s fears and hearts. Her debut novel, The Broken Places, envisioned fall-out from the big earthquake predicted to hit the Vancouver area. Uncontrolled Flight’s catalyst is…
Read more 1964 Literary thriller, ‘by all accounts … thrilling’
The Palimpsest Murders–A European Travel Mystery by Reed Stirling Airdrie: BWL Publishing, 2023 $18.99 / 9780228626268 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Reed Stirling (Shades of Persephone) begins his book by giving readers the meaning of the word “palimpsest,” which features in his title. He explains: “Palimpsest—A manuscript or piece of writing material on which later…
Read more 1962 Murder mystery marred by typographic errors
Like Every Form of Love: A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime by Padma Viswanathan Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada, 2023 $35 / 9781039006201 Reviewed by Valerie Green * This book is described as A Memoir of Friendship and True Crime. It is also two separate stories within a story while describing many different forms…
Read more 1959 Hidden truth and diversion
In the Belly of the Sphinx by Grant Buday Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2023 $25.00 / 9781990071157 Reviewed by Carol Matthews * In the epigraph to his latest novel, Mayne Island’s Grant Buday reprints this question by Celine: “And where, I ask you, can a man escape to when he hasn’t enough madness inside him?” Celine,…
Read more 1951 Victorian history as a ‘ludicrous romp’
How to Be Found by Emily Pohl-Weary Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $19.95 / 9781551529356 Reviewed by Rhea Tregebov * Emily Pohl-Weary’s YA novel, How to be Found, makes for propulsive, compelling reading. Sixteen-year-old best friends Michie and Trissa consider themselves sisters and offer each other both standard sisterly grief and fierce sisterly loyalty. Only-children…
Read more 1942 Teenage girls, ‘unredacted’
The Watchers’ Club: A Novel of Innocence and Guilt by G. Kim Blank Sante Fe: Sunstone Press, 2023 $36.00 / 9781632935304 Reviewed by Bill Engleson * Overture— My opportunity to review G. Kim Blank’s first novel, The Watchers’ Club, came about rather serendipitously. A mutual friend sent me a link to a recent Victoria…
Read more 1938 Boys coming of age (in a compact murder mystery)
The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding Toronto: Grand Central Publishing, 2023 $28.00 / 9781538726761 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * The Drowning Woman by Robyn Harding is disturbing, juicy, riveting, and true to Harding’s previous work—the perfect nocturnal accompaniment to guarantee sleeplessness, but the fun kind. In terms of scandalizing secrets, think Big Little Lies, only…
Read more 1936 Thriller with monstrous, ‘unequivocally irredeemable’ men
I Only Read Murder by Ian Ferguson and Will Ferguson Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2023 $24.99 / 9781443470766 Reviewed by Jessica Poon * I Only Read Murder is a zippy whodunit by Victoria’s Ian Ferguson and Calgary’s Will Ferguson with plentiful red herrings, comedic zingers, and miscommunication. If you’re looking for fun escapism with a satirical…
Read more 1925 Murder-mystery, where comedy prevails
Laundering the Dragon–Black Renminbi By John D’Eathe Vancouver: Adagio Media, 2021 $17.99 / 9781999433918 Reviewed by Valerie Green * John D’Eathe has written what is described as “a contemporary melodramatic novel” set in recent times about a current day problem in the powerful, international financial business world. D’Eathe begins his book with an…
Read more 1915 Money laundering and melodrama
The Get: A Crime Novel By Dietrich Kalteis Toronto, ON: ECW Press, 2023 $26.95 / 9781770416840 Reviewed by Bill Paul * It’s 1965 and two street-wise Jewish hoods in Toronto, Lenny Ovitz and Gabe Zoller, hope to make bundles of money investing in a run-down tenement block near St. James Town. They’ve caught “wind that…
Read more 1906 The undoing of Lenny Ovitz
A Shattered Calm By Bruce F.B. Hall Victoria: FriesenPress, 2023 $24.32 / 9781039134836 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Bruce F.B. Hall retired early to travel, to sail, and to become a storyteller while using a wide range of his own experiences to become an author of note. A Shattered Calm, Hall’s self-published debut novel, is…
Read more 1888 A ‘particularly spellbinding’ thriller
The Malevolent Seven By Sebastien de Castell London: Jo Fletcher Books, 2023 $35.00 / 9781529422771 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * Full disclosure: Sebastien de Castell is a friend of mine. We met at a writer’s group several years ago just after he published his first novel, Traitor’s Blade, a swashbuckling, sword-fighting fantasy. I read it then,…
Read more 1882 Blood magic, rat mages, and righteousness
The Wild By Owen Laukkanen Toronto: Underlined, 2021 $13.99 / 9780593179741 Reviewed by C.L. Shoemaker * YA fiction by mystery writer and Vancouver resident Owen Laukkanen, The Wild is a third-person dive into the thoughts and ideas of Dawn, a seventeen-year-old drug addict living with a drug dealer twice her age. When Dawn comes home…
Read more 1881 Grief, detox, murder, and wilderness tips
Someday I’ll Find You By C.C. Humphreys Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 2023 $25.00 / 9780385690515 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Loosely based on his parents’ true story, C.C. Humphreys has produced an enthralling page-turner set in World War 2—it’s a novel you will not be able to put down. Someday I’ll Find You tells the story…
Read more 1877 Love, cloak-and-dagger espionage, and WW2
The Almost Widow By Gail Anderson-Dargatz Toronto: HarperAvenue, 2023 $25.99 / 9781443464482 Reviewed by Steven Brown * There may be trouble ahead. Piper’s conservation officer husband Ben was supposed to be home four hours ago. He took his boat across the wintry lake to investigate tree poaching in a proposed park area and hasn’t returned….
Read more 1875 A ‘twisty turn-y story’