Set in an apartment building that is “like a big hug,” The Secret Office is aimed at Grade Three readers, “but its appeal transcends easy age categorization.” —Ginny Ratsoy reviews The Secret Office,
by Sara Cassidy (illustrated by Alyssa Hutchings) (Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, 2024) $8.95 / 9781459839465
“For the reader, it’s the enjoyment of a thousand experiences and observations unexpectedly articulated, and that’s the thing about this novel. Every sentence.” —Caitlin Hicks reviews Chandelier, by David O’Meara (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $22.95 / 9780889714762
Nigeria-set sophomore novel “has enough tangly relationships for a soap opera, ample tension for a psychological thriller, and meaningful, if slightly under-explored sociopolitical commentary on race, religion, and gender.” —Jessica Poon reviews Every Drop of Blood Is Red, by Umar Turaki (New York: Little A (an Amazon Imprint), 2024) $24.99 / 781662508110
Debut novel, based on family memories, probes the “pitch-black reality of the Holodomor, the Soviet-engineered famine that is estimated to have killed up to five million Ukrainians in the early 1930s.” —Ryan Frawley reviews Black Sunflowers, by Cynthia LeBrun (Toronto: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2024) $21.95 / 9781554556434
A debut novella, in “some ways a mini-version of the classic Great Canadian Novel,” is “also a haunting subversion of that same overdone CanLit subgenre.”—Daniel Gawthrop reviews Yellow Barks Spider, by Harman Burns (Regina: Radiant Press, 2024) $22.00 / 9781998926190
At a glance a standard police procedural, this debut novel “offers an extra layer of depth that examines deeper truths of the human condition.”
—Trish Bowering reviews Barcelona Red Metallic, by Christine Cosack (Toronto: Second Story Press, 2024) $22.95 / 9781772603910
With “each new offering, Van Camp reminds us of his remarkable gift for storytelling. ‘Beast’ is no exception.” —Zoe McKenna reviews Beast, by Richard Van Camp (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $24.95 / 9781771624145
Marked by “verve and whimsy,” this collection portrays a “virtuous smart mouth poet” who is “gentle with humour” and “searing with insight.”
—Cathy Ford reviews Refabulations: Selected Longer Poems, by Sharon Thesen (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2023) $24.94 / 9781772015102
A debut story collection set in rural Nova Scotia offers a careful examination of the messiness of family dynamics. —Candace Fertile reviews In the Shadow of Crows, by M.V. Feehan (Montreal: Baraka Books, 2024) $19.95 / 9781771863476
Atmospheric and poetic writing supports a striking novel that follows an aunt and niece on a perilous, uncertain journey. —Bill Paul reviews Bad Land, by Corinna Chong (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781551529592
A boldly illustrated kids book in memoir form is “a simple, heartwarming story that offers life lessons to the young—and perhaps to older readers as well.” —Ron Verzuh reviews Adventures in Desolation Sound, by Grant Lawrence (illustrated by Ginger Ngo) (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990776878
A ‘fairy tale wedding’ provides a novelist with the opportunity to create “a chaotic, soul-baring, multi-generational family drama.” —Bill Paul reviews The Wedding, by Gurjinder Basran (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2024) $24.95 / 9781771624169
Readers will feel anger and compassion “as they follow this pathetic, arthritic, alcoholic woman through the last years of her life as she finally realizes that Hitler’s horrific ‘Final Solution’ was the most odious event in history.” —Valerie Green reviews The Imposter, by Johanna Van Zanten (Las Vegas: Histria Books, 2024) $29.99 / 9761592113767
Expansive sophomore novel showcases an author’s “talent for delving into the minds of different personalities across several decades.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Leap Year Gene, by Shelley Wood (Toronto: HarperCollins Canada, 2024) $25.99 / 9781443473163
“If this all sounds like a soap opera, rest assured, However Far Away is an understated, nuanced portrait of complicated relationships.” —Jessica Poon reviews However Far Away, by Rajinderpal S. Pal (Toronto: House of Anansi, 2024) $24.99 / 9781487012540
An assassin, an animal ghost, and a reality TV episode hosted by twin psychics are just a samplings of the goings-on in the finalé of a small town-set comic trilogy. —Ron Verzuh reviews The Vicar Vortex, by Vince R. Ditrich (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 2024) $21.99 / 9781459747319
Adept thriller is a welcome cause for “a single session of binge-reading punctuated with that rapturous state of feeling appalled at human behaviour.” —Jessica Poon reviews The Haters, by Robyn Harding (New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2024) $29.00 / 9781538766101
Uneven sophomore novel features sisters Rumer and Charlotte, “city girls fleeing parental bonds and disaffection with university studies.” —Trish Bowering reviews Hotel Beringia, by Mix Hart (New Westminster: Tidewater Press, 2024) $24.95 / 9781990160387
“Penetrating every corner of this cramped and desolate world, in a town with ‘the world’s shittiest beach and a lot of bitter people,’ is, unsurprisingly, alcohol. If poverty is the villain of the novel, its ruthless accomplice is alcohol.” —Theo Dombrowski reviews Bruise, by Adrian Markle (Victoria: Touchwood Editions, 2024) $24.00 / 9781990071072
“[F]or those who want to understand something of human journeys—and how to mourn, how to live with grief—” this YA novel “is a study in how we might navigate.” —Alison Acheson reviews Where Was Goodbye?, by Janice Lynn Mather (Toronto: Simon & Schuster Canada, 2024) $23.99 / 9781665903950