The Ghosts of Paris by Tara Moss Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2022 $24.99 / 9781443461252 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Many of us have wished to travel into the past, whether for specific reasons or to experience a time vastly different from our own. Of course, historical fiction remains the most efficient and inexpensive way to…
Read more 1538 Finding Jack Rake
Red Fox Road by Frances Greenslade Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Puffin), 2022 (hardcover, 2020) $11.99 / 9780735267831 Reviewed by Cassidy Lea * If you ever got lost in the woods, what would you do? What would you need to survive? An axe, maybe some fishing gear, enough dehydrated food to feed you for a…
Read more 1534 Finding Francie Fox
First Nations Wildfire Evacuations: A Guide for Communities and External Agencies by Tara K. McGee, Amy Cardinal Christianson, and First Nations Wildfire Evacuation Partnership Vancouver: UBC Press, 2021 $25.00 / 9780774880664 Reviewed by Kim Naqvi * This concise, clear guide for wildfire evacuations in First Nations communities is more than just practical, informative, and accessible…
Read more 1530 Fight fire with foresight
Perilous Passage by Arthur Mayse, with an introduction by Susan Mayse Montreal: Véhicule Press, 2021 (first published by William Morrow and Company, 1949) $14.99 / 9781550655841 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Despite being a Canadian author and despite his vast contributions to the Canadian literary canon, Arthur Mayse remains a lesser-known author among Canadian literature…
Read more 1522 A vintage west coast thriller
A Funny Kind of Paradise by Jo Owens Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Random House Canada), 2021 $22.95 / 9780735278820 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * An extended care facility in Victoria might seem a claustrophobic setting for a novel, particularly when a stroke has rendered speechless its narrator, Francesca, who inhabits a room with four…
Read more 1516 Memories and caregivers
Peggy’s Impossible Tale by Slavia Miki and Roy Miki, illustrated by Mariko Ando Vancouver: Tradewind Books, 2021 $19.95 / 9781926890210 Reviewed by C.L. Shoemaker * A beautifully illustrated, hard cover chapter book that details the precious relationship between a girl and her guinea pig, Peggy’s Impossible Tale drew my attention first through its lovely ink…
Read more 1495 Mission: possible
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod Madeira Park: Douglas and McIntyre, 2018 $29.95 / 9781771622004 Reviewed by Heather Simeney MacLeod * Editor’s note: From time to time we get our wires crossed at The BC Review, or — very rarely — a publisher sends the reviewer the wrong book or kindly…
Read more 1494 A Cree hero’s journey
Framed in Fire: A Lane Winslow Mystery by Iona Whishaw Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2022 $16.95 / 9781771513807 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * The past is still, for us, a place that is not yet safely settled. — Michael Ondaatje, from The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian Short Stories (1990) In the nine Lane Winslow mysteries…
Read more 1492 Postwar Kootenay intrigue
Inspiring Canadians: Forty Brilliant Canadians and their Visions for the Nation by Mark Bulgutch, with a foreword by Peter Mansbridge Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2022 $24.95 / 9781771623148 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * If Inspiring Canadians’ title doesn’t already mark this book as upbeat, both Mansbridge’s preface, centred on a touching anecdote from his…
Read more 1480 Forty visions of Canada
The Voyage of Freydis: The Vinland Viking Saga, Book 1 by Tamara Goranson Toronto: HarperCollins Canada (One More Chapter), 2021 $23.99 / 9780008495336 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Two things about the title of this novel, The Voyage of Freydis, struck me when I first came across it. Firstly, that it was a voyage. That…
Read more 1457 Dial the happy endings
Death at the Savoy: A Priscilla Tempest Mystery by Ron Base and Prudence Emery Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2022 $18.95 / 9781771623216 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Star-struck readers will likely savour Death at the Savoy. Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong and Claude Monet are name-dropped, Luciano Pavarotti and Bob Hope put in brief appearances,…
Read more 1451 Intrigue at the Savoy Hotel
Cambium Blue by Maureen Brownlee Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2022 $22.95 / 9781550179309 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * It is 1995, and Beauty Creek is celebrating its 60th year amidst climate change and hydra-headed Neo-liberalism. Like most BC Interior towns, the hamlet (somewhere north of Clearwater and resembling Valemount) is in transition, its defining pillars…
Read more 1417 Small town transition
The Almost Wife by Gail Anderson-Dargatz Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2021 $24.99 / 9781443458429 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * A person’s entire life can change in a day. But how it changes? Who it changes? Accepting that change? No one will see it coming. The Almost Wife is a masterpiece of suspense, written through the themes…
Read more 1403 A perilous island sanctuary
The Grey Zone: A Jack Taggart Mystery by Don Easton Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2019 $11.99 / 9781459745308 Reviewed by Jolie Won-Hyang Cho and Corrie Shoemaker * The Grey Zone is a compelling police mystery written by former RCMP officer Don Easton. With twenty years of experience working undercover, including seven years with the RCMP Intelligence…
Read more 1391 Under different aliases
The Girl with Many Names by S. [Samantha] Knight Cambridge, UK: Pegasus Publishers, 2021 £8.99 (UK) $16.09 (Canadian) / 9781784659912 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * If I had to sum up this novel in one word, it would be potential. Samantha Knight’s The Girl with Many Names is a refreshing take on fairy tale retellings…
Read more 1389 Grimhilda’s journey
After Elias by Eddy Boudel Tan Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2020 $21.95 / 9781459746428 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * After reading, reviewing, and thoroughly enjoying Eddy Boudel Tan’s sophomore novel, The Rebellious Tide (2021), I immediately knew that I had to read his debut novel, After Elias (2020). It is, perhaps, a little unconventional to read…
Read more 1383 Wedding at the Ōmeyōcān Hotel
Philosophers’ Walks by Bruce Baugh London and New York: Routledge, 2021 $35.96 (U.S.) / 9780367333133 Reviewed by Theo Dombrowski * Growing up in North Vancouver, Bruce Baugh found himself drawn to taking “long, solitary walks” amongst its “ravines and forests.” During his later extensive studies, he was fascinated to discover that some of the philosophical…
Read more 1352 I walk, therefore I am
Good Citizens Need Not Fear by Maria Reva Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Vintage Canada), 2020 $19.95 / 9780735281967 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Set in Kirovka, a Ukrainian industrial town 900 km from Moscow, immediately before and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Good Citizens Need Not Fear has a sweep that transcends…
Read more 1351 Fifteen brands of sausage
The Errant Husband by Elizabeth Haynes Regina: Radiant Press, 2021 $25.00 / 9781989274583 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * This debut novel treats the reader to a third-person narrative of a female quest with Jungian undertones. The Errant Husband scrutinizes gender relations as it dissects the anatomy of a marriage against the backdrop of historical and…
Read more 1338 Waiting for Hernando & Wally
The Most Precious Substance on Earth by Shashi Bhat Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (McClelland and Stewart), 2021 $24.95 / 9780771094965 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Shashi Bhat, editor-in-chief of EVENT magazine and winner of the Writers’ Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, presents a standout piece of fiction in her novel The Most…
Read more 1337 Oboes and animal crackers