Midnight Train to Prague by Carol Windley Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2020 $24.99 / 9781443461023 Reviewed by Sherrill Grace * Midnight Train to Prague is a complex narrative set during and immediately after the war with important messages for the present. It is also a compelling historical novel that is well worth reading. Against the background…
Read more #941 Remembering World War Two
Songs from a Small Town (In a Minor Key) by Penny Chamberlain Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2020 $19.95 / 9781989689097 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * Like many harmful and insidious things, the strange disease that haunts the girls in Songs From a Small Town (In a Minor Key) begins almost imperceptibly. Based on the…
Read more #938 A small town with a secret
A Garden of Thieves by Dean Unger Duncan: Village Lane Press, 2018 $24.00 / 9780981306421 * Blessed Be the Bones: A Garden of Thieves, Book II by Dean Unger Duncan: Village Lane Press, 2019 $24.00 / 9780981306452 Both books reviewed by Valerie Green To purchase copies of these books see here or call Dean Unger…
Read more #934 Murder on Texada Island
The Call of the Rift Book 1: Flight by Jae Waller Toronto: ECW Press, 2018 $19.95 / 9781770413542 * The Call of the Rift Book 2: Veil by Jae Waller Toronto: ECW Press, 2020 $19.95 / 9781770415782 Both books reviewed by Natalie Lang Jae Waller’s The Call of the Rift series sees…
Read more #928 Jae Waller’s alt-historical fantasy
Runecaster Book 1: The Stone of Sorrow by Brooke Carter Victoria: Orca Book Publishers $14.95 / 9781459824393 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The Stone of Sorrow concerns magic, myth, and adventure. Each page I turned of this YA (young adult) novel meant more mystery and surprise. I wasn’t sure how much Icelandic and Norse mythology…
Read more #927 A runecaster’s apprenticeship
The Last High by Daniel Kalla Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2020 $22.00 / 9781501196980 Reviewed by Benjamin Matthews * Daniel Kalla’s The Last High begins with a murder, or rather a bunch of murders. We get a firsthand view of the murders through the eyes of Alexa, a 16-year-old girl who watches in bliss…
Read more #926 Crisis on the front line
A Song from Faraway by Deni Ellis Béchard Fredericton: Goose Lane, 2020 $22.95 / 9781773101545 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Novel? Collection of short stories? A Song from Faraway is, in a conventional sense, neither of these. Or both. And this isn’t the only lack of convention in Deni Ellis Béchard’s new book. Pieced together…
Read more #924 Fractured angles & pools of time
Tiff: A Life of Timothy Findley by Sherrill Grace Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2020 $39.99 / 9781771124539 Reviewed by Sheldon Goldfarb * In 1993, towards the end of his life, the noted author Timothy Findley gave a talk at Duthie’s bookstore in Vancouver on one of his favourite topics: censorship. Only this time…
Read more #921 The death and life of Tiff Findley
We Two Alone by Jack Wang Toronto: Anansi, 2020 $19.95 / 9781487007461 Reviewed by William New * Jack Wang is a welcome new voice in Canadian letters. I say ‘new,’ because We Two Alone is his first book of stories; but in fact he has been an active writer for several years. Since 2015 he…
Read more #920 Rogue reverberating
Congratulations to the winners of the 2020 BC and Yukon Book Prizes, for books published in 2019, announced at an online event on September 19th. And especially to the reviewers at The Ormsby Review who so willingly assessed the winners and shortlisted books, all of them published in 2019. Congratulations, as well, to the authors…
Read more #918 Congratulations BC Book Prizes winners, 2020!
Campfire Stories from Coast to Coast by Barbara Smith Victoria: Heritage House, 2020 $19.95 / 9781772033113 Reviewed by Caileigh Broatch * Barbara Smith has been telling ghost stories since 1993, since her first book, Ghost Stories of Alberta. With nearly forty books now under her belt, Campfire Stories from Coast to Coast is a natural…
Read more #910 Handbook of fear & phantoms
The Unbroken Hearts Club by Brooke Carter Victoria: Orca Books, 2019 $9.95 / 9781459820616 Reviewed by Zoe McKenna * In The Unbroken Hearts Club, Brooke Carter highlights the healing power of community and art in the face of grief and loss. Brooke Carter is the author of several novels for young adults, including the Runecaster…
Read more #907 An all-encompassing loss
Panegyric by Logan Macnair Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2020 $19.95 / 9781988098975 Reviewed by Eryn Holbrook * “Do you know who I am?” asks an unidentified inquirer in the opening lines of Panegyric, the first novel by BC-based writer, Logan Macnair. The question, we soon learn, is addressed to the book’s narrator, Larry Mann: a struggling…
Read more #903 Contemplating Montblanc
Primary Obsessions by Charles Demers Maderia Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2020 $18.95 / 9781771622561 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * For authors working in the private detective genre, one of the challenges is to contrive a reason for the protagonist not to go to the police — not when important evidence turns up, not even when…
Read more #902 Demers’ therapeutic thriller
Travellers May Still Return by Michael Kenyon Saskatoon: Thistledown Press, 2019 $20.00 / 9781771871877 Reviewed by William New * Two things to know: (1) Michael Kenyon is a poet as well as a fiction writer, with another eleven remarkable books to his name, and (2) when this new book was in progress it was referred…
Read more #901 Evolving Story
The Runaway Bride by Jody Hedlund Grand Rapids, Michigan: Bethany House Publishers, 2020 $15.99 (U.S.) / 9780764232961 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Jody Hedlund’s book The Runaway Bride tells the story of Arabella Lawrence who arrives in Victoria in September 1862 aboard the S.S. Tynemouth. Over the years, I have conducted a great deal of…
Read more #898 Back to the brideships
The Certainties by Aislinn Hunter Toronto: Penguin Random House (Knopf Canada), 2020 $29.95 / 9780735276871 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Editor’s note: The West Coast Book Prize Society announced on April 8, 2021, that The Certainties, by by Aislinn Hunter, has been shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize in the 2021 BC and Yukon Book…
Read more #892 The potency of the mundane
Here the Dark by David Bergen Windsor, ON: Biblioasis, 2020 $21.99 / 9781771963213 Reviewed by William New * Editor’s note: David Bergen’s Here the Dark is one of 11 books in the Scotiabank Giller Prize 2020 longlist, announced on September 8, 2020. * Subtitled “a novella and stories,” David Bergen’s Here the Dark brings together…
Read more #891 Dealing with the dark
All That Belongs by Dora Dueck Winnipeg: Turnstone Press, 2019 $19.00 / 9780888016812 Reviewed by Valerie Green * Dora Dueck’s book All That Belongs published by Turnstone Press in 2019 is set in Alberta and Manitoba. It tells the story of Catherine, a retired archivist who, on her last day of work, found memories from…
Read more #889 Mennonite roots and shrubs
Rue Des Rosiers by Rhea Tregebov Regina: Coteau Books, 2019 Distributed by and available from Wolsak and Wynn $24.95 / 9781550506990 Reviewed by Paul Headrick * On March 12, 2020, Rhea Tregebov’s Rue Des Rosiers was one of five books shortlisted for the 2020 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes. Winners…
Read more #885 Crossing Rue Des Rosiers