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
The Royals Next Door by Karina Halle Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Berkley), 2021 $22.00 / 9780593334195 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * Set on Salt Spring Island, “a small yet eccentric haven between Vancouver Island and the mainland [of British Columbia]” (p. 5), Karina Halle’s The Royals Next Door begins with the unpleasant image of…
Read more 1336 Salt Spring shack and mansion
Velvet Was the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Del Ray Books), 2021 $37.00 / 9780593356821 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * One of the reasons humans are drawn to fiction is because we want desperately to know what it’s like to live a life that isn’t our own. We live vicariously through the…
Read more 1321 The fantasies of El Elvis & Maite
Ginny Ratsoy reviews two books: Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro Toronto: Penguin Modern Classics, 2021 (first published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1971) $19.95 / 9780735234659 * Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro Toronto: Penguin Modern Classics, 2021 (first published by Macmillan of Canada, 1978) $13.99 / 9780143181170 * …
Read more 1307 Alice Munro & the short story
The Rebellious Tide by Eddy Boudel Tan Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $21.99 / 9781459746879 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * In his sophomore novel, The Rebellious Tide, Eddy Boudel Tan immerses the reader into the complexities of the human condition evidenced through the characters’ interpersonal relationships as well as their struggles with identity, discrimination, and social…
Read more 1296 The father he had never met
The Day She Died by S.M Freedman Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $18.99 / 9781459747401 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The Day She Died tells Eve’s story through the broken pieces of her life as she attempts to rebuild after a terrible head injury. The story weaves through amnesia, a strange marriage, and a terrible shift…
Read more 1290 It pays to pay attention
Five Ways to Disappear by R.M. Greenaway (Book 6 in the BC Blues Crime Series) Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2021 $19.99 / 9781459741560 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * As one predisposed to mysteries on the cosy end of the genre spectrum (particularly during a seemingly interminable plague) I shrunk from the first chapter of this police…
Read more 1261 BC blues plague reading
Radium Girl by Sofi Papamarko Hamilton, ON: Wolsak & Wynn, 2021 $20.00 / 9781989496268 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * Sofi Papamarko’s Radium Girl is a striking collection of stories that will widen your perspective and haunt your thoughts. Every story contains rich characters that demand your attention and make you listen to them. The loneliness…
Read more 1250 Ghost girls & glow-in-the-dark
Goth Girls of Banff by John O’Neill Edmonton: NeWest Press, 2020 $19.95 / 9781988732954 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The author of a novel and four poetry collections, John O’Neill is a former high-school Dramatic Arts and English teacher who now lives and writes in Toronto. His Goth Girls of Banff presents short stories about…
Read more 1220 Gothic mountain fiction
Three novellas reviewed by Miranda Marini: Winter Wren by Theresa Kishkan Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2016 $18.00 / 9780978005450 * Tower by Frances Boyle Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2018 $20.00 / 9780978005467 * Wanda by Barbara Lambert Madeira Park & Amsterdam: Fish Gotta Swim Editions, 2021 $20.00 / 9780978005474 Reviewed…
Read more 1209 Novellas of the coast and interior
Music from a Strange Planet by Barbara Black Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781773860589 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * Barbara Black’s website informs us that Music from a Strange Planet, her debut short story collection, “began as a series of flash fictions exploring the intersection of human and insect existence” and “metamorphosed” into…
Read more 1204 Thresholds and transformations
Lucky Jack Road: A Stella Mosconi Mystery by J.G. Toews Oakville, ON: Mosaic Press, 2020 $19.99 / 9781771615082 Reviewed by Ginny Ratsoy * This, the second in the Stella Mosconi Mystery series, invites delving into mystery subgenres. Lucky Jack Road has the hallmarks of a cozy mystery: the amateur detective, typically female, practises her sleuthing…
Read more 1182 Death on Elephant Mountain
The List of Last Chances by Christina Myers Halfmoon Bay: Caitlin Press, 2021 $22.95 / 9781773860596 Reviewed by Myshara Herbert-McMyn * The List of Last Chances by Christina Myers is a wild adventure across the endless and fascinating country of Canada. Our two protagonists—Ruthie and Kay—are hilarious in their encounters and differing experiences. While Ruthie…
Read more 1176 Road trip of change and chance
Prologue to Love by Martha Ostenso, with an introduction by Hannah McGregor Picton, ON: Invisible Publishing, 2020 (first published in New York by Dodd, Mead & Co., 1932) $23.95 / 9781988784595 Reviewed by Miranda Marini * The thing about novels being situated in an actual, geographic place is how those depictions then resonate with readers…
Read more 1151 A Kamloops classic