Staff pick: Atmospheric historical mystery set in Halifax

Published by Nimbus Publishing, What Kills Good Men is a historical police procedural mystery set in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1899.

The setting was of special interest to me as Halifax is where I grew up and is very near where I live today.  Reading a novel in a locale with which you are very familiar sheds a different light on the reading experience.

The story follows one week of a murder investigation.  The victim was a prominent member of society, a city alderman, who was living a double life.  The policemen in charge of the murder investigation were a duo of high integrity and morals.  The elder, Culligan Baxter, was a married man and a Catholic who was burnt out, embittered, and highly judgmental.  The younger,  Kenny Squire, was just learning the ropes and was applying his keen intellect to his very first murder inquiry.  There was obviously a lot of respect between the two policemen and their rapport was a pleasure to read.


The vivid descriptions of the historic city of Halifax transported the reader to both the time and place of the book’s setting.  The characters were so well developed that the reader knows what they are thinking as well as what they are doing.  Written with thoughtful prose, the language of the novel also serves to transport the reader to the turn of the century.  You can appreciate the societal confines and almost feel the dampness of the fog and the coldness of the wind off the harbour.

The author has previously written a non-fiction work about poverty in 19th century Halifax.  The research for that work has stood him in good stead with this novel.  The historical data was accurately and skillfully portrayed with a sound rendering of class distinction, religious polarity, and the differences between the well-educated and those less so.

The chapters were quite long with each covering a day in the investigation.  The reader was reminded of the impediments faced by police during this time period and of the more tedious aspects of police work.

 Halifax City Police on the Grand Parade steps, Halifax, Nova Scotia 1914

Rich in character and description, this atmospheric novel will appeal to anyone who enjoys having a little history lesson with their murder mystery.  The message of the novel was that power corrupts and nothing is black or white.  The ending was realistic in that justice does not always prevail.  My rating:

Though I know the area well, I feel the book could have benefited from a map for those less acquainted with the locale.

My bookclub read the novel for the month of November and we discussed the title’s significance.  We determined that the ‘good man‘ of the title was not the murder victim, but rather the policeman, Culligan Baxter.  What ‘kills‘ him is the fact that justice is often denied, and that the world is not black or white, but a shade of gray as murky as the Halifax fog.

Halifax in 1899

Halifax in 2015

David Hood grew up just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has lived in the city for many years. His previous publications include Down but Not Out, an examination of nineteenth-century poverty in Halifax. For much of the past fifteen years he has been teaching at the secondary and post-secondary levels. He is currently teaching in Singapore.   Hood said he has talked to Nimbus Publishing about a possible series. He’s started working on a second book, one that may involve an assassination attempt on the city’s archbishop.


This post was originally published on the blog: Fictionophile

Staff Pick: "What She Left" by T.R. Richmond

Unlike footprints in the sand which disappear at the first high tide, our digital footprints remain long after we are gone...

“What She left” tells the tragic story of the death of twenty-five year old Alice Salmon. The story is told in snippets of emails, Twitter messages, texts, diary entries, and letters (our collective modern memory). Years ago, when someone died all that was left was a few paper records, birth and marriage certificates, photos etc. Now, the internet generation leaves a more prominent mark on our psyche via their digital footprint.

Digital footprint

Alice Salmon, a budding journalist, went clubbing with three friends one cold February night and died alone by drowning in the River Dane in Southampton. Her demise went unseen by anyone who would admit to it, and ironically unobserved by close circuit cameras.
 
Alice was someone I would have liked to have met. Obsessed with truth, quotations, literature, and love. She drank to excess and loved to excess. She suffered from episodes of depression. She was over-analytical, loved Jane Austen, had great empathy for her fellow man, and had a deep affection and respect for the written word.

After her death, the internet generation have the wherewithal to make Alice whoever they want her to be. It all depends on interpretation. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story? In attempting to capture the legacy of her life, even the good stuff they say is tainted by opinion and biased interpretation. Everyone has an opinion. Those who loved her and knew her well. Those who were mere acquaintances but wanted others to think they were more…  With the power fueled by social media, speculation can be interpreted as fact.

One of Alice’s former university professors, Jeremy Cooke spent hundreds of hours trawling through the minutiae of Alice’s life for a book he is writing entitled “What she left”. He considers himself to be the guardian of Alice’s memory and writing a book about her was to be his ‘swansong’. He is terminally ill. He wants Alice to be her own story, so he utilizes our collective modern memory in the writing of his book. He maintains that ‘Love’ is what remains after everything else. It’s what Alice gave out every day and now she’s gone it’s what she left.

An award-winning academic, he is called “Old Cookie” by students and faculty alike. He is viewed by others as pompous, patronizing and superior. His opinion of himself is much different. He uses the moniker ‘Silver Surfer’ when online. He loves two women, his wife Fliss – and Alice’s mother, Elizabeth. Thirty years ago, Elizabeth was a student of his, and they had a brief affair. He and Fliss never had children and since his diagnosis he is now obsessed with recognition and legacy.

Jeremy Cooke has no male friends with the exception of Larry, a pen-friend he’s had since childhood, but never met. He and Larry still correspond, always with utmost truthfulness. Larry is the only person he can really vent with. Now however, Larry has died…

The novel has myriad characters, and we catch glimpses of their relationships with Alice. We wonder, did she slip in an alcohol fueled accident? Did she commit suicide? Or, did one of these fine characters ‘do her in’?

We meet Gavin (Mocksy) a blogger and former housemate who was obsessed with Alice. He stalked Alice and pilfered her possessions. He contacted one of Cooke’s former co-workers and got the dirt on “Cookie”. He then proceeded to spread vicious innuendo via his blog. Gavin’s character leads the reader to believe that Cooke might have murdered her.

Then there is Luke Addison, Alice’s boyfriend. Alice loved him despite an earlier betrayal. If she had lived they would have had a happy life together… Luke is feeling guilty after her death. The police went so far as to arrest him for her murder, then they released him due to lack of evidence. Could he have done it?

We come to know and empathize with her grieving mother, Elizabeth – and her best friend from childhood, Megan. We briefly meet the three friends who were with her the night she died.
We meet Ben Finch, a former boyfriend whom she jilted. Could he have anything to do with her death?

“What she left” is a treatise on modern communication, the fragility of human life and how people handle bereavement. A murder mystery as well as a story about love unrequited and reciprocated. Written with intelligence and empathy, the novel depicts loss in a unique way. T.R. Richmond certainly utilized a different approach in telling this story. However, in this case it was the only way to do it well. I took longer than usual to read this book as I found the epistolary format off-putting and a tad distracting. However, that being said, I find I cannot fault anything else about it. A literary mystery with uniquely divulged red-herrings and twists, “What she left” will appeal to lovers of psychological thrillers and literary fiction alike.

Staff Pick - "Little Black Lies" by Sharon Bolton

For several years now I have been a huge fan of Sharon Bolton’s novels.

The setting of “Little Black Lies” was one which I’ve never encountered before in popular fiction. The Falkland Islands were portrayed vividly with both geographical and historical accuracy. It reminded me a bit of the Scottish Hebrides with its abundant wildlife, windswept rolling hills and sea.

Aerial photo of Stanley

Amongst this breathtaking scenery we meet some of the inhabitants of Port Stanley, the main town of the Falklands. Stanley has a population of just over two thousand people. Not much at all for the capital of a country the size of Wales.
The narrative of “Little Black Lies” is told over the course of one week via the perspective of three different people. A plot device that is very effective in this instance.
Three years ago the women in “Little Black Lies” were vastly different people. Catrin Quinn was married to Ben and had two healthy boys with another baby on the way. Rachel Grimwood, her best friend, was also the mother of two young boys with a third on the way. The women had been friends since childhood and were closer than sisters, sharing every thought and aspiration.

The narrative begins with Catrin Quinn – a very damaged woman who has endured what is for most people is the very worst thing imaginable. She has lost two young sons in a careless accident and as a result of this trauma she has miscarried a third son… Catrin is coping as well as she can. Her marriage to Ben has dissolved and she now lives alone with her Staffordshire Terrier, Queenie.
Her days are filled with her work as a cetaceans specialist at the Falkland Conservation Headquarters. However, never a day passes that she does not think of her boys and her thoughts have become suicidal… She thinks the only reason she does not ‘end it all’ is the vast rage she feels for who she blames for their death, her former best-friend, Rachel. She keeps a diary detailing her rage and plans for vengeance.

This week is no ordinary week in the Falklands. A young boy has gone missing. This is the third boy to go missing in as many years. This has made the entire island population tense with fear and suspicion. Unlike England or the U.S., where a missing child brings about fear of pedophiles, in the Falklands people fear drowning, animal attacks or something less sinister. But with three missing children the hard-working islanders are desperate for answers and they begin imagining something more fearful. They try to assure themselves that nothing evil could happen here…
In addition, the week holds a natural disaster. Almost two hundred pilot whales have beached themselves on the shores and it is Catrin Quinn’s mandate to cope with this distressing natural disaster.

The book’s second narrative traverses this disastrous week with Catrin’s former lover Callum Murray.  From Scotland, Callum originally came to the Falklands as a soldier in the Falkland’s War. It is as a result of this war that he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Callum is a tall, handsome man who chose to make his home in the beautiful country he so bravely defended.  The country where he accidentally met the married Catrin –  with whom he fell immediately in love.
The third narrative follows Rachel Grimwood’s week. Rachel feels like a pariah. Her guilt weighs so heavily upon her that she has difficulty coping with everyday life. She cannot look people in the eye. She shows little affection for her youngest son, though she loves her two elder sons dearly. She is often home alone with the boys as her husband Sander travels with his work. As a result of a her actions three years ago two little boys have lost their lives.  Little boys that she once cared for deeply.  She has lost her best friend. She is seriously depressed.

An intricately plotted story of how one moment of thoughtlessness can lead to tragedy that impacts upon countless people, “Little Black Lies” is filled with a pervading sense of loss. There are many surprises in store for the reader. With solid, empathetic characters and jaw-dropping plot revelations, it is a novel that will be appreciated by anyone who admires crime fiction with a psychological bent. It contains all of the elements of a great thriller: betrayal, secrecy, passion, despair, fear – and Sharon Bolton uses these elements in a seamless way that grabs you and won’t let go until the very, very end.
Highly recommended!

Staff Pick: "Five Night Stand" by Richard J. Alley

A beautifully written tale of three disparate yet kindred souls – all at a crossroads in their lives.

Oliver Pleasant, an octogenarian jazz pianist of some renown is finally retiring from the music business. He is wrapping up his long career with a final five night stand on the stage of a New York hotel owned by an old friend. Sadly, his lifestyle of travel, music, and women have left him estranged from his grown children. The table he has reserved for his family remains accusingly vacant throughout his last shows. His wife, Francesca, the love of his life, has been dead for two decades. Oliver has lived through the racism of the South, traveled to Europe in the heyday of jazz, fathered children, bedded myriad women, and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow musicians. Through it all he had a deep and abiding love and respect for the ‘music’. Now he feels little other than the loneliness, regret and fear that comes with old age.

Agnes Cassady, also a pianist, is in her early twenties and suffering from what she believes to be a fatal neurological disorder. She hails from Memphis, Tennessee but has lived in New Orleans for the past few years plying her trade. Recently the pain and tremors that result from her condition have hampered her musical ability. The reason for Agnes’ trip to New York is yet another hospital with yet more tests. This time it is the famous Mount Sinai with its expert physicians. Since learning of her probable early demise, Agnes has packed a lot into her short life. She loves music and men in that order. When she learns that Oliver Pleasant is playing while she is in town, she knows that she must attend his final performances. He has long been her idol.

Frank Severs, a former journalist, also from Memphis – is in town to write about Oliver Pleasant’s life and last performances. He greatly admires the man and his music and feels he could do justice to a story about him. Frank’s personal life is in flux. He is distant from his wife whom he still loves. Their many years of trying to conceive a child has left a rift in their marriage. It is a rift that Frank doesn’t know how to bridge – or if he should even try to bother.

The meeting of these three lost souls and their brief time spent together was nothing short of magical.
The characters are fully developed and are so ‘human’ that it is a joy and a privilege to share time with them.  The early winter New York setting is described clearly with an affection for the place.

Thelonious Monk 1962

Filled with the joy, sadness, regret and confusion that is life, Five Night Stand was a novel for music lovers and non-music lovers alike. I actually read part of it whilst listening to the infamous Thelonious Monk via YouTube. His music was a wonderful background for the novel.

This novel should be on the bestseller lists! Highly recommended!

Staff Pick: "Five Night Stand" by Richard J. Alley

A beautifully written tale of three disparate yet kindred souls – all at a crossroads in their lives.

Oliver Pleasant, an octogenarian jazz pianist of some renown is finally retiring from the music business. He is wrapping up his long career with a final five night stand on the stage of a New York hotel owned by an old friend. Sadly, his lifestyle of travel, music, and women have left him estranged from his grown children. The table he has reserved for his family remains accusingly vacant throughout his last shows. His wife, Francesca, the love of his life, has been dead for two decades. Oliver has lived through the racism of the South, traveled to Europe in the heyday of jazz, fathered children, bedded myriad women, and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow musicians. Through it all he had a deep and abiding love and respect for the ‘music’. Now he feels little other than the loneliness, regret and fear that comes with old age.
Agnes Cassady, also a pianist, is in her early twenties and suffering from what she believes to be a fatal neurological disorder. She hails from Memphis, Tennessee but has lived in New Orleans for the past few years plying her trade. Recently the pain and tremors that result from her condition have hampered her musical ability. The reason for Agnes’ trip to New York is yet another hospital with yet more tests. This time it is the famous Mount Sinai with its expert physicians. Since learning of her probable early demise, Agnes has packed a lot into her short life. She loves music and men in that order. When she learns that Oliver Pleasant is playing while she is in town, she knows that she must attend his final performances. He has long been her idol.

Frank Severs, a former journalist, also from Memphis – is in town to write about Oliver Pleasant’s life and last performances. He greatly admires the man and his music and feels he could do justice to a story about him. Frank’s personal life is in flux. He is distant from his wife whom he still loves. Their many years of trying to conceive a child has left a rift in their marriage. It is a rift that Frank doesn’t know how to bridge – or if he should even try to bother.

The meeting of these three lost souls and their brief time spent together was nothing short of magical.
The characters are fully developed and are so ‘human’ that it is a joy and a privilege to share time with them.  The early winter New York setting is described clearly with an affection for the place.

Filled with the joy, sadness, regret and confusion that is life, “Five night stand” was a novel for music lovers and non-music lovers alike. I actually read part of it whilst listening to the infamous Thelonious Monk via YouTube. His music was a wonderful background for the novel.

 In my humble opinion this novel should be on the bestseller lists!
Highly recommended!


Richard J. Alley, a longtime freelance writer and editor, was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife and four children.

Staff Pick: In a Vertigo of Silence by Miriam Polli

Just like a person’s memories are ‘snatches of time’ not in chronological order, so too is In a Vertigo of Silence. Written as the collective memory of a family, the novel moves back and forth in time to reveal snatches of the lives of three different generations of a Polish immigrant family.

The writing style could be confusing and distracting, but it is not. This is due to the fully rounded characterizations and the skillful writing. With loss and female tenacity as recurring themes throughout, the characters become so well known to the reader that they will remain in the memory as friends.

The family is a matriarchy with Marishka at its head. A strong and eminently likeable woman, she came to the United States via Ellis Island with her husband, Antoni. They settled in Pennsylvania where he found work in a coal mine. Tragically, like so many other miners in the early 1920s, he perished in the mine. This when Marishka was only days away from giving birth to her third daughter… Marishka’s tenacity is evident in how she went on to become a talented seamstress, laundress and sometimes house cleaner to make ends meet.

Over time, we meet Marishka’s three daughters. Paulina, the eldest, is an artist and very close to her mother. Anna, the beautiful middle child, is a mentally fragile women who drinks to excess. Eva, the youngest, makes a ‘sound’ marriage and has one son.

We then come to meet Emily, Anna’s daughter. Emily is bullied at school partly because she comes from a fatherless family. She faced betrayal by her best friend, Wanda. In her adolescent years she developed an eating disorder. Her grandmother fears for Emily living with her disturbed mother, so she moves in with them to take over Emily’s care and welfare. Emily and her grandmother are soul mates. Things go well until Marishka becomes ill, and Anna is institutionalized. At that time both Marishka and Emily go to live with the dutiful Eva.

The strange thing is, although the bond between grandmother and granddaughter is very close, Emily grows up believing that she only has one aunt… This family secret and the reason it came about affects the entire family.

We follow Emily’s life as she goes off to college and becomes an adult. Then, after a family tragedy, the family secret is revealed…

I mused about the title. Perhaps the silence is the ‘not knowing’ of the family secret. Perhaps the vertigo is the dizzying maelstrom of emotion one feels when something shocking or life-changing is revealed.

I wondered at the many mentions of the moon. I had to look them up as I had never heard of some of them. The beaver moon, the hunter moon, the sap moon, the hunger moon, the buck moon, the planting moon. Then of course the ‘O’ in vertigo of the title on the cover is the moon… Does the author use this device to put forth the adage that the family members, although separated, are all under one moon, so therefore united? Or, did she have something profound and entirely different in mind?


Miriam Polli has written an empathetic and captivating family saga that many will enjoy. Highly recommended literary fiction!

Read By The Sea July 11/15

Come to this year's Read by the Sea in beautiful River John, Nova Scotia.
This year's illustrious group of authors include: Maureen Jennings, Giles Blunt, Linden MacIntyre and Isabel Huggan.  What better way to spend a Saturday?

Staff pick - The Ice Twins by S.K. Tremayne

“When you love someone and they die, it is as if part of you dies with them. Therefore all love, if you like, is a form of suicide”.--S.K. Tremayne

S.K.Tremayne’s novel “The Ice Twins” exhibits a pervading sense of menace. Not the overt kind of menace where the protagonist is feeling threatened by harm, but the insidious kind born of a mixture of mistrust, suspicion, social isolation and self-doubt.

Sarah and Gus Moorcroft once had it all. Careers they were good at and enjoyed, a nice house in Camden, a loveable dog, and beautiful and perfectly identical twin girls, Lydia and Kirstie. The girls were everything to each other, sharing a bond stronger than other sisters, with private jokes and their own special twin language. Then, when the girls were six years old, a tragic fall killed one of the girls. Their perfect life was shattered forevermore… You see the twins were so identical that even Sarah wasn’t really sure which girl died. At the time she thought it was Lydia. But now… she is not so sure. Have they mourned the loss of the wrong girl? The remaining twin exhibits character traits of both girls, and appears to be mourning her sister by claiming to be her… Almost as if they are ice twins melting, one into the other.

As a measure of getting on with life, the Moorcrofts decide to move to Scotland. Gus has inherited a tiny island in the Hebrides on the Sound of Sleat.

The cottage and the lighthouse on the island are in desperate need of repair as they have been uninhabited for years. There is no cell signal, no internet, and no television. The only way to access the island is by boat, with walking only possible at the low tide and then dangerous because of the sucking mudflats.

Once the Moorcrofts move to this beautiful and isolated spot, they hope that things will change and that life will hold some promise. But, it seems as though this isn’t to be. Their beloved dog ‘Beany’ seems to behave differently and doesn’t really like to be in the cottage which is perpetually cold and damp. There is a tension between Sarah and Gus that even the hard work required to live in this remote spot will not destroy. They both suffer from survivor’s guilt and fear for their remaining daughter’s welfare. When they enroll Kristie in the village school, her odd behavior – talking to an invisible someone and claiming to be Lydia – causes her to be ostracized by her schoolmates. When Sarah, in desperation for her daughter to have a friend, invites one of the little girls from the village over to the island for a play date, the day ends disastrously. Sarah secretly consults a child psychologist. She fears for her daughter’s sanity. The little girl seems to not know who she is and asks “Which one of ‘me’ is dead?”

Gus and Sarah themselves seem secretive and cannot recapture their previous relationship. The loss of their child has formed a rift in their family and this rift is filling with bitterness, deception and anger. There seems to be a huge question of what really happened the day of Lydia’s fall. Sarah herself cannot quite remember the sequence of events. Perhaps this is because directly after the fatality, Sarah was heavily medicated…

Set in a stunningly beautiful place, “The Ice Twins” is a novel with imagery second to none. The reader can almost hear the sound of the wind, the surf and the lamenting sea birds. As well, one could feel the vulnerability of being so dependent on the whims of mother nature. With the conditions becoming more and more bleak as winter approaches, the feeling of isolation is complete.

The narrative contained many red herrings, with suspicion and doubt abounding. The story was told mostly from Sarah’s point of view, but some passages were from Gus’s viewpoint. The atmosphere was creepy and the Moorcroft’s predicament distressing.

I was so invested in the story that I took my book everywhere I went and read during my coffee break and lunch at work. I appreciated the photographs contained within the novel as they brought the imagery into an even sharper focus. “The Ice Twins” was a genuine page turner that held my interest from beginning to end.

S. K. Tremayne is a bestselling novelist and award-winning travel writer, and a regular contributor to newspapers and magazines around the world. The author has two daughters, and lives in London.

“The Ice Twins” has been optioned by Alcon Entertainment.

This book review originally published on Fictionophile

Walt by Russell Wangersky

My most recent reading journey took me to Newfoundland – or to what we in Atlantic Canada affectionately call “The Rock”.   Set in modern day St. John’s,  Newfoundland’s capital city, the novel features a solitary, fifty-something grocery store janitor named Walt.    

Walt is one of the invisible members of society.  Quietly and unobtrusively pushing his broom, cleaning up other people’s messes. Dressed in a uniform which people tend to ignore – until they need his cleaning services and then they don’t look him in the eye…

He lives alone in a house on McKay Street in east end St. John’s.  A house that he once shared with his wife Mary – though now she is gone…  Theirs was a volatile and childless marriage.  Mary left him?  Moved back to her parents? Went out West? Died? – we don’t know.  All we know is that she isn’t there anymore.  Now Walt lives a solitary existence, moving from his house to the grocery store where he works and taking long walks around his home city.  He loves to fish and deems fishing to be an almost religious experience.

Google maps view of McKay St., St. John’s.

Walt has a very keen interest in human nature.  He is a rapt observer of everyone who enters his store.  In fact in everyone he encounters.  This is in part due to his loneliness.  He feels stifled by his insular life, but can not see his way to make the changes necessary to lift him from his routines.
Told almost all from the point of view of Walt, with the odd short chapter told from the point of view of two members of the RNC (the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary), the novel describes Walt’s daily life and his obsession with the grocery lists that the customers from his store discard with abandon.  He collects these lists.  In fact he has bankers’ boxes full of them.  Why? you might ask.  Because they reveal SO much about the writers.  Also, many are written on used envelopes, business stationery, etc. – so in addition to speculation about the writer from the content of the list, Walt often also culls more pertinent information about them… like their home addresses.  Walt has made the study of others habits his doctoral thesis.   He sees his lists as puzzle pieces of a puzzle only he can complete.  His abundance of free time and his dogged determination to discover things about his ‘targets’, make him ideally situated to succeed in his mission.  Is he a stalker? Yes most certainly.  Is he guilty of more serious crimes?  We don’t know…

A week or so after Mary ‘left’, Walt reported her missing.  Now, years later, two members of a ‘cold case’ squad of the RNC have taken up the task of tracing her whereabouts and closing the case.   They suspect Walt of foul play, but there is absolutely nothing to base this suspicion upon.  They have searched his home so many times that Walt actually has a box of ‘search warrants’ in addition to his myriad boxes of grocery lists.

Yes Walt is ‘different’.  But is this why the police suspect him?  Because he is not ‘like’ everybody else, he is misunderstood.  He admits he is peculiar.  He recognizes this about himself.  He doesn’t react to events in the same way that others do.   The police find him unfathomable.  But is he guilty?

Told in the simple yet strangely astute voice of Walt, the novel will keep most reader’s guessing until the last chapter.  A simple, yet deceptively deep psychological thriller that will remain in the reader’s memory.   Once you meet Walt, you are unlikely to forget him.  Highly recommended!



Russell Wangersky is an award-winning writer of fiction and non-fiction. Based in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, he is the author of several books and the news editor of the St. John’s Telegram.

Under your skin by Sabine Durrant

A few years ago I read a wonderful little novel The Great Indoors which I loved and recommended to friends. Now I’ve found that the author of this little novel has turned her talents to writing a thriller.   How could I not read it?

In Durrant’s latest novel we are off to London, England where we enter the life of morning television co-host, Gaby Mortimer.  Gaby has it all, or seems to.  A wonderful high-profile job, a handsome and very successful husband, a darling eight-year-old daughter, a ritzy South London address, and live-in help.

Then, one pre-dawn morning in early spring Gaby goes out to the common near her house for her daily run. When during her run she discovers the body of a dead young woman – her life is irrevocably changed. In her shock she touches the girls hair and clothing.  A few days later these factors and other physical evidence lead the detectives to arrest her!   Gaby’s shock, dismay and panic at being arrested are palpable.  With her husband in Singapore on a business trip she has no one to support her during this trying time.  After thirty-six hours pass, with nothing other than circumstantial evidence the police have to release her.  One would think that was the end of Gaby’s nightmare, but no…. her nightmare is only just beginning.   It turns out that the dead woman (who resembles Gaby physically) has been wearing Gaby’s clothes!  The police said that she was at Gaby’s house to interview for the position of nanny – but Gaby has no recollection of such an interview.  And the nightmare goes on….

Marta, Gaby’s present nanny is a cold, uncommunicative women from Poland.  Gaby hired her the week her mother died, when she was emotionally vulnerable.  Gaby’s husband, Philip is increasingly distant and Gaby fears for the future of her marriage. To further enhance Gaby’s torment, the television studio seem to have cut their ties to her.  Her beloved job seems to be a thing of the past.  Also, she is being stalked!  The police detective inspector that arrested her seems to have her in his sights as the most likely murderer and seems to be lurking every time she leaves the house. Then, just when it seems Gaby has no support, she meets an investigative journalist who seems to be on her side.  They meet on several occasions and he seems to believe in her innocence. I’m not sure how the title Under Your Skin factors in however.

I would love to hear what other readers think in this regard.  Is it that Gaby herself “gets under your skin”?  The meaning of the phrase is to irritate someone.  Does Gaby irritate the reader?  Perhaps it refers to DNA evidence?  I’d love to hear the author’s reason for choosing the title.

Under Your Skin by Sabine Durrant fairly drips with tension.  Masterfully constructed with Gaby as narrator, the novel is a page-turner in the truest sense.  This psychological thriller is everything you want in a novel.  Good characterization, tight plot, red herrings and a surprising and disturbing ending.   Highly recommended!

Let me introduce you to "A man called Ove"

In my latest reading adventure I traveled to Sweden where I met “A man called Ove“.  

Ove is a loveable curmudgeon in late middle-age.   He is ever so slightly OCD and has a problem with the machinations of society.   Ove is very set in his ways and is disdainful of almost everyone he meets.  He has a fondness for rules and thinks that anyone who doesn’t  follow them is a harbinger of chaos.   He has always driven a Saab car and thinks that what car a person drives tells a lot about a person.

Ove's story is told in a series of flashbacks which makes the reader cognizant of all the loss and sadness that Ove has encountered in his life along with all the many talents he possesses.

In the present, over the course of of several months, Ove, with a little help from his friends, gets a new lease on life.

Poignant and hysterically funny in equal measure, “A man called Ove” is a heartwarming novel of life, loss, and our intrinsic need to be needed.  Skillfully written with charm and wit, this debut novel is a fast read – and one you will remember for a long time.   You know you’ve read a good book when after the last page is turned you are already missing the characters…  I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoyed “The storied life of A.J. Fikry” or “The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry“.


“A man called Ove” came about as a result of a blog post from Swedish author Fredrik Backman.   His readers took to the character and requested more and more.  The result was this novel.   Like Frederik Backman’s blog readers, this reader believes that the world would be a better place with more people like “A man called Ove“.

Staff Pick - The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

A little book with a big heart. It grabbed me right away. I didn’t want to put it down because that would mean it was over…. I even read the acknowledgments to prolong the inevitable when I would have to let it go.  The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry did everything a work of fiction aspires to do. It made me think, it made me laugh, it made me weep.

This is the simple story (in that all lives are simple – yet vastly complicated at the same time) of bookstore owner A. J. Fikry who resides on a fictional island off the coast of Massachusetts. When we meet him he is a widower whose raw grief over the loss of his wife is ruining his life. He drinks to excess, alone.

Then one day – while drinking – he decides to take out his prized possession. An invaluable copy of Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Tamerlane’. He is so drunk he gets sick and passes out. When he awakes the next morning his rare book is missing! Also, suspiciously… his kitchen has been cleaned up. He reports the theft to the police. Since he now feels that he owns nothing of any real value, he begins to leave his door open when he goes out. One day he returns to his bookstore to find that someone has left a baby. The little girl is accompanied only by a brief note and a stuffed Elmo.

This abandoned child will come to forever change A.J.’s life. Maya is a charming, intelligent, beautiful and oh so precocious girl. He lovingly calls her his ‘little nerd’. Another person who will rock his world is Amelie, a publishing sales representative. When first they meet he is bitter and still grieving his wife. He make a less than positive impression. Despite the rough start, over the years, their friendship develops into something more.

A.J. Fikry, his family and friends, have left an indelible mark on this reader’s soul. A.J. Fikry believes you know everything you need to know about a person from the answer to the question, What is your favorite book? Well A.J. I think your story is mine. A love letter to the world of books, booksellers, and life in general. Filled with quotes and wisdom that will delight every person who considers themselves to be a bibliophile, Gabrielle Zevin‘s novel will set the bar for other novels.

I completely agree with the publisher’s statement that the novel is “an unforgettable tale of transformation and second chances, an irresistible affirmation of why we read, and why we love.”

Can’t recommend it enough…

"Startup" by Glenn Ogura

If you read novels to relax, this debut thriller by author Glenn Ogura, “Startup” is not for you.  I was at the edge of my seat – frantically turning pages throughout.  A modern yet timeless tale of good vs. evil.  People with integrity versus the morally bereft.  Set in and around California’s Bay Area and Silicon Valley, the novel features an idealistic young entrepreneur, Zack Penny and his mentor, the ruthless CEO of a major technology business.  To further complicate things, this man, Allen Henley is also his boss and the father of the woman he loves.   When events dictate he make his move from under Allen’s wing to his own startup company, Zack believes that finally he will be able to pursue his dream of heading a tech company that values its employees – and trusts that he, and it, will become tremendously successful due to a cutting-edge, flat-screen technology founded by his friend and business colleague, Dimitre.

Zack’s dreams are short lived when he encounters roadblock after roadblock with his new venture.  Industrial espionage, corruption, personal betrayal, unethical law practices and a completely unscrupulous nemesis provide Zack with disillusion, despair and heartbreak.

“Startup” is a true page-turner.  A fast-paced legal/techno-thriller with a memorable – if slightly ‘over the top’ – climax which will appeal to all thriller readers and fans of television shows such as “The Good Wife”.

Staff Pick - The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

There is nothing more satisfying than discovering a talented new author who promises many enjoyable hours of reading in the future. Such a find is Laura McHugh.

Her debut novel The Weight of Blood holds the reader throughout.

The title has been cleverly chosen. The weight of blood signifies family loyalty and also guilt. Family, whether you like them or not, whether you respect them or not, still holds for most people a deep bond that surpasses all others. For family we will go against all we believe in, keep secrets that should not be kept, keep quiet about actions that should be divulged.

With a setting of a tiny, insular Ozark community, rife with superstition - the novel emits a pervasive sense of unease. The Ozarks are a place where the role of women and men are firmly divided. It is as though feminism has never been heard of…. Girls have a way of going missing there – which demonstrates how very vulnerable are those without a caring family, without that anchor-like ‘weight of blood’.

The story has four central characters: two brothers, one caring and moral – one menacing and amoral. A mother and daughter – uncannily similar in that they are very near the same age and resemble each other physically. The narrative is told mostly in the voices of Lila and Lucy, the mother a daughter, with time shifts to accommodate the fact that the plot spans two generations.

Seventeen years ago Lila Dane went missing. Her daughter Lucy who has felt the loss her entire life – wonders about the mother she never got a chance to know. Now Lucy’s school friend’s body has been discovered after being missing for over a year. Is there a connection between these two girls? As Lucy delves deeper into the disappearances, she discovers that her own family may be involved. Should the weight of blood deter her from following the path of justice? Should family loyalty sway her allegiances? Is there anyone she can trust with what she thinks is the truth?

Written with well-drawn characters in an atmospheric setting, The Weight of Blood is a page-turner in the truest sense. Congratulations to Laura McHugh on her outstanding debut novel!

Staff Pick -Tyringham Park by Rosemary McLoughlin

In County Cork, Ireland there lies a fabulous estate of fifty-two rooms on nineteen thousand acres of land.  It is the home of the Blackshaw family.  Many would assume that wealth and privilege would make life perfect.  However, the residents of Tyringham Park  (M) prove the old adage that ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’.

The family Blackshaw are a dysfunctional lot.  An older husband who is absent most of the time, a young vivacious wife who lives and breathes horses much to the detriment of her young daughters. Then of course there are the servants. The children’s nursemaids, the housekeeper, the groom… they all weave an intricate web of relationships and betrayals that will ensnare the reader.

Set between the years of  1917 and 1943, this historical family saga recounts the life of Charlotte Blackshaw. As a child she was neglected by her mother and abused by her nurse which left her in a fragile emotional state.  When she is nine years old her younger sister Victoria goes missing. The impact of this event ensures that Charlotte’s life and the life of everyone at Tyringham Park is irrevocably changed.

The narrative follows Charlotte from the age of nine to age thirty-five.  It ponders the issues of nature vs. nurture, childlessness, how responsible adults can influence the psyche of innocent children, and most importantly, how fleeting indiscretions can be life changing.

A debut novel by artist/author Rosemary McLoughlin, “Tyringham Park” will appeal to readers of “Jane Eyre” and Kate Morton’s “The Forgotten Garden”.   Fans of “Downton Abbey” and “Upstairs, Downstairs” will surely enjoy it.  As I fit all these criteria, I can honestly say it was a memorable favorite.

Staff Pick - New Canadian author Deryn Collier

What do homicide, hops and horticulture have in common? The great new debut novel Confined Space (M) by Deryn Collier.

I’ll admit that for years I tended to stick to the same authors. Once I find an author I really like, I am happy knowing that I can depend on enjoying a satisfying read. Recently I have broken my old habits and tried several new authors. The most recent debut novel that I have read was a real treat that I felt I just had to share!

Confined Space by Deryn Collier is of such high quality that it is hard to credit it as a first novel.The setting is Kootenay Landing, British Columbia, a small town surrounded by majestic mountains. The female protagonist is the safety compliance officer for Bugaboo Brewery. A stickler for following safety procedures to the letter, Evie Chapelle is shocked and upset to find that one of the brewery workers has been killed in what is at first thought to be a grisly industrial accident.

Soon after, the body of the victim’s girlfriend is found in a field just outside the brewery. With two victims, it seems obvious that they were both the victims of murder. But why? and by whom?

photo by Natalie Santano.

The male protagonist is the area’s coroner. Not the type of coroner that does autopsies ( as depicted on television), this coroner merely investigates the circumstances of deaths, suspicious and otherwise. He is a recent retiree from the military and carries haunting memories of his time in Afghanistan. Bern Fortin now devotes equal time to his coroner’s post and his vegetable garden – this in hopes that his haunted past will be usurped by a quiet life in small-town British Columbia.

Bern’s dreams of a quiet life are interrupted when he and Evie must work together to find a killer. Also, they find themselves immediately attracted to one another… there is just one problem. Evie is married. It is a childless marriage and she and her husband appear apathetic about the relationship. She is a workaholic who doesn’t seem interested in much of anything beyond her job and her dog, Rory… that is until she meets Bern.

Bern makes her feel safe and comfortable. Feelings she has not felt in a long time. However their joint investigation is making someone in the community very nervous. So much so that Evie’s life is put in jeopardy.

Confined Space is a thriller in which the reader both likes and identifies with the characters. With just enough of the ‘whodunit’ to satisfy this die-hard mystery lover coupled with just enough elements of romantic suspense – this novel will appeal to a broad audience. The plot is written with such a sense of urgency that the reader is frantically turning pages to discover who the murderer is. What more can you ask of a suspense novel? Highly recommended. Can’t wait to read more by this talented new novelist.
Shortlisted for the Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished first crime novel by the Crime Writers of Canada, Confined Space is already a winner in my book!

Another outstanding entry in the Halifax Public Libraries' collection of Canadian Mystery fiction (M).

Watch the very cool book trailer for Confined Space:

Great News for Mystery Fans and Those Who Love the Classics!

In a marvelous, thrilling re-creation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, P.D. James fuses her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen with her own great talent for writing crime fiction.

Yes... P.D. James! She explains her decision to write the novel in this Telegraph interview. For the 91-year-old crime novelist, best known for her police procedural mystery series featuring British policeman Adam Dalgliesh, Death Comes to Pemberley (M) combines two personal passions.

"I have to apologize to Jane Austen for involving her beloved Elizabeth in a murder investigation, but this fusion of my two enthusiasms — for the novels of Jane Austen and for writing detective stories — has given me great pleasure which I hope will be shared by my readers," James said in a recent statement.

Death comes to Pemberley is coming soon to our fiction shelves and is now available in ebook format.

As a life-long fan of P.D. James and Jane Austin, this news comes like a wonderful gift wrapped in festive paper.

The novel takes place roughly six years after the marriage of Darcy and Elizabeth. They are now the parents of two boys. In the process of hosting an autumn ball, an uninvited guest arrives and proclaims that her husband has been murdered. The result is that Pemberley's peaceful tranquility is threatened by past sins and old misunderstandings...

Intrigued? Checkout The London Evening Standard's review of the novel.

I haven't had the pleasure of reading it yet, but just know that I'm sure to enjoy it. What a wonderful early Christmas gift.

5 Books I want to Read this Summer - Lynne's Picks

1. The House at Sea's End
by Elly Griffiths

The third installment in this superior series features Ruth Galloway, a forensic pathologist who lives and works in Norfolk, England. The protagonist -- now a single mother -- is very likable, with just enough flaws to make her interesting. The cases she works on are thought provoking and the policeman she consults with adds just enough of a romantic spark to keep the subject matter from becoming overwhelming.

2. Bury Your Dead
by Louise Penny

The sixth installment in my absolute favorite Canadian mystery series. Chief Inspector Gamache, his minions and the folk who reside in Three Pines, Quebec have over the course of the previous five titles become my friends. Friends that I can hardly wait to revisit. "Bury your dead" has won the Arthur Ellis for Best Crime Novel in Canada! No surprise to this reader!

3. Sister
by Rosamund Lupton

This debut novel has been recommended to me by at least three of my friends. Always anxious to try a new novelist, it sounds just the type of novel I prefer. A psychological thriller, "Sister" has been chosen by Oprah's magazine O for its Summer 2011 Reading List so I am now adding it to mine...

4. The Bird Sisters
by Rebecca Rasmussen

I love to try first time novelists and this one intrigued me. It is the story of two elderly sisters living in Wisconsin who have spent their lives nursing people and birds back to health. A heartbreaking yet hopeful debut novel which chronicles the terrible toll of sacrifice through the reminiscences of the two sisters.

5. Frozen Moment
by Camilla Ceder

This debut novel is the first book in a new series set in western Sweden that has been compared to the Wallander novels of Henning Mankell. I have been reading quite a bit of Swedish fiction lately and I am rarely disappointed with the quality overall. The protagonist in this series is policeman, Inspector Christian Tell (described as strong and introspective)and the secondary character is Seja Lundberg, a journalism student. Together they investigate a brutal murder. Sounds like a good, solid police procedural.

Reading outside on a lovely summer's day is one of life's true pleasures.