Wreck Bay: An Amanda Doucette Mystery by Barbara Fradkin Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2023 $21.99 / 9781459743878 Reviewed by Bill Paul * Amanda Doucette has worked overseas as an aid worker and across Canada with men and women who have struggled, “battered by addiction.” She’s nearing forty and has a history of trauma. While organizing activities…
Read more 1816 An ‘atmosphere of isolation and suspicion’
In the Defense of Liberty: a novel by Keith Maillard Calgary: Freehand Books, 2023 $24.95 / 9781990601415 Reviewed by Lenore Rowntree * When the story opens, it’s the middle of the afternoon, in the month of June. Mason is in a stranger’s truck rolling toward Merida University through “beautiful goddamned Ohio Country, all that green…
Read more 1815 A ‘stacking of visions’
Welcome Trevor and Brett by Richard Mackie * On behalf of the Board of the Ormsby Literary Society and our Advisory Board I’d like to welcome Trevor Marc Hughes and Brett Josef Grubisic as interim editors of The British Columbia Review for the year May 1, 2023 to May 1, 2024. The position was made possible…
Read more 1813 Welcome Trevor and Brett
Such a Lovely Afternoon: Stories by Patti Flather Toronto: Inanna, 2022 $22.95 / 9781771338844 Reviewed by Candace Fertile * The nine stories of North Vancouver’s Patti Flather’s debut collection, Such a Lovely Afternoon, are so crammed with concrete details and believable problems that it’s impossible not to run the stories as short movies in your…
Read more 1812 Families in dysfunction
Ruby Red Skies by Taslim Burkowicz Halifax and Winnipeg: Roseway Publishing an imprint of Fernwood Publishing, 2022 $24.00 / 9781773635606 Reviewed by Steven Brown * Ruby is not happy. She feels taken for granted by both husband and daughter. Her opinions don’t matter. Her husband talks down to her, openly mocks her, is oblivious to…
Read more 1810 Intrigue, then and now
Patterson House by Jane Cawthorne Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2022 $22.95 / 9781771339391 Reviewed by Valerie Green * In her novel Patterson House, Jane Cawthorne has produced a warm yet tragic story of a once-wealthy Toronto family who still own a stately mansion known as Patterson House. Cawthorne begins in 1873 with the ghostly voice of…
Read more 1808 The rich and the desperate
The Vicar’s Knickers: The Mildly Catastrophic Misadventures of Tony Vicar, Book 2 by Vince R. Ditrich Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2022 $19.99 / 9781459747289 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * The Liquor Vicar, the first of Vince R. Ditrich’s three book series, introduces wannabe musician Tony Vicar. He’s missed his big break by a couple of years…
Read more 1803 The locals of Tyee Lagoon
Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell, illustrations by William Kurelek, 75th anniversary edition Calgary: Freehand Books, 2022 (first published by Macmillan of Canada, 1947) $44.95 / 9781990601125 Reviewed by Amy Whitmore * A pre-schooler knocks on a minister’s door in search of God’s help in seeking revenge. Another pre-schooler navigates town with his…
Read more 1801 It’s what boys do
Last Winter by Carrie Mac Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House), 2023 $24.95 / 9781039005198 Reviewed by W.H. New * Readers who finish Carrie Mac’s Last Winter and then turn to her biographical note will recognize that many of the themes of her novel arise from lived experience: a declared identity as queer and…
Read more 1797 Choosing to speak
Any Other City by Hazel Jane Plante Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $22.95 / 9781551529110 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Whenever film critics gripe about pop music biopics, “cliché-ridden” is standard fare. Considering a pop star’s ready-made chapters — juvenile precocity, discovery, rise and fall, triumphs and tragedies, and so on — over-reliance on…
Read more 1796 Rock ’n’ roll trans recall
Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Age. A Canada West Anthology by Elizabeth Bass, Karen L. Abrahamson, and J.E. Barnard (editors), with a foreword by Gail Bowen Vancouver: Sisters in Crime (Canada West Chapter), 2022 $24.27 / 9781777246655 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one…
Read more 1795 Move over, Miss Marple
The Runaway Heiress by Meg Tilly Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Berkley), 2021 $10.99 / 9780593201084 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Who better than an Oscar-nominated actress to write a story about the quirky, unconventional lifestyle of Hollywood? Author Meg Tilly does not disappoint us in her novel The Runaway Heiress. After an unconventional beginning…
Read more 1786 A first-rate thriller
Blood Atonement by S.M. Freedman Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2022 $22.95 / 9781459750241 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * S.M. Freedman‘s Blood Atonement is shocking and thrilling, terrifying from the moment you realize the broad accuracy of the events it describes the aftermath of. And of course, this is a situation where it pays to pay attention….
Read more 1783 Hooked from the start
The Whole Animal by Corinna Chong Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2023 $19.95 / 9781551529158 Reviewed by W.H. New * Corinna Chong’s first book, The Whole Animal, introduces a startling new writer, one who is drawn to the disruptions of contemporary life and clearly unafraid of using the blunt language of her generation. The characters here…
Read more 1781 Briefs
Knight of the Rails by Christine Welldon Toronto: Red Deer Press, 2022 $14.95 / 9780889956698 Reviewed by Ron Verzuh * Move Over Dickens: Meet a Canadian Pip and An Unusual Artful Dodger Novels for teenagers rarely cross my desk these days. In my youth I revelled in the adventures of the Hardy Boys until Mom…
Read more 1780 Move over Dickens
Double Karma by Daniel Gawthrop Toronto: Cormorant Books, 2023 $24.95 / 9781770866836 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * In many different ways Double Karma, by New Westminster writer Daniel Gawthrop, feels huge. Spanning decades, linking lives in the United States with lives in Burma (misleadingly called Myanmar by the military junta, as we learn) it is…
Read more 1777 Burmese disguises
Sunset and Jericho: A Wakeland Novel by Sam Wiebe Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2023 $24.95 / 9781990776236 Reviewed by Brett Josef Grubisic * Regarding Sunset and Jericho, an expected question might be “So, is it any good?” Happily, the unhesitant answer (“Yes, absolutely”) inspires a better follow-up: “Oh, what’s so worthwhile?” The easy reply is…
Read more 1774 Hardwired for defiance
Canada, By Jove by Betty Annand Airdrie, Alberta: BWL [Books We Love] Publishing, 2021 $16.99 / 9780228619437 (Amazon price and Amazon print ISBN) Also available as an eBook for $2.99 from these retailers Reviewed by Valerie Green * Betty Annand’s book, Canada, By Jove, is a charming tale of two young brothers, Ernest (Ernie) and…
Read more 1764 The adventures of Ernie and Bert
Sombrio by Rhonda Waterfall Guelph ON: Gordon Hill Press, 2022 $22.00 / 9781774220672 Reviewed by Steven Brown * Sombrio, by Rhonda Waterfall, is a dark tale of estrangement, paranoia, delusion and self-loathing, set to the tune of some kind of woodsy mystic opera, complete with the ethereal sound of singing off in the dark forest….
Read more 1762 Three on a beach
E.J. Hughes: Canadian War Artist by Robert Amos Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2022 $35.00 / 9781771513852 Reviewed by Peter Clarke * Few artists have been so quintessentially identified with the West Coast as E.J. Hughes. At the time of his death in 2007 he had long been known as a reclusive figure living at Shawnigan Lake…
Read more 1760 E.J. Hughes: the formative years