Back to the Libraries!

After a three-year absence from public libraries due to the pandemic, the Madames of Mayhem are returning to Toronto Public Libraries this weekend. And we're really looking forward to it!

I'll be joining Blair Keetch, Lisa de Nikolits and Madeleine Harris-Callway at TPL's Alderwood Branch this coming Saturday, Feb. 25, from 2-4 p.m., to talk about crime writing, our novels and stories, and the craft of fiction writing. We'll be available to answer questions and to sign books.

We'd love to see you there! Alderwood Branch is at 2 Orianna Drive in Etobicoke, Toronto. Telephone is 416-394-5310.

Author photos, clockwise from top left: Blair Keetch, Lisa de Nikolits, Rosemary McCracken and Madeleine Harris-Callway.

Already missing Sleuth!

Yesterday I attended the launch of Wreck Bay, Barbara Fradkin’s latest Amanda Doucette mystery set on Vancouver Island’s Pacific Rim. I’m now a couple of chapters into this delicious read.

Barbara’s book launch was held at our beloved Sleuth of Baker Street bookstore, which will be closing its doors sometime this year. Owners Marian Misters and J.D. Singh have run their Toronto store for 40 years in a number of locations, and decided it was time for a change. Sad news, however, for readers and writers of crime fiction because Sleuth has been a gathering place for them for four decades. It's an icon of Toronto's crime fiction community.

I first visited the store when it was located on Bayview Avenue to interview J.D. for a 1999 National Post article on the inaugural Bloody Words mystery convention. It seemed only fitting to include one of Sleuth’s owners in my article because these booksellers have their fingers on the pulse of crime fiction—in Canada and around the world.

I kept returning to Sleuth. I was honoured when the store began carrying my own four mystery novels, starting with Safe Harbor in 2012. My Raven Lake book launch was held at Sleuth, also the launches of the five Mesdames of Mayhem anthologies. And the launches of many friends. Over the years, Marian has introduced me to the works of many great crime writers, writers I may not have encountered on my own.

Marian served as Jury Chair for Crime Writers of Canada’s Awards of Excellence for four years, and she was active on the Awards Committee for many years. She was awarded CWC’s Derrick Murdoch Award in 2021 for her contributions to the genre.

Hopefully there will be a few more gatherings at Sleuth before its doors close at 907 Millwood Road. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if someone stepped up and bought the business from Marian and J.D before that happens?

Fave Reads in 2022

A new year of reading has just begun. Here are my favourite reads in 2022—in alphabetical order:

An Image in the Lake by Gail Bowen.

Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker.

Cold Snap by Maureen Jennings.

Everything You Dream is Real by Lisa de Nikolits.

Extraordinary People by Peter May.

Fayne by Ann-Marie MacDonald.

Going to Beautiful by Anthony Bidulka.

Look Both Ways by Linwood Barclay.

Mindful of Murder by Susan Juby.

Not Dark Yet by Peter Robinson.

Perfect Little Children by Sophie Hannah.

Potluck and Other Stories by Lynne Murphy.

Starr Sign by C.S. O’Cinneide.

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny.

Stolen Memories by Diane Rapp.

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn.

The Curator by M.W. Craven.

The Devil to Pay by Barbara Fradkin.

The Don: The Story of Toronto’s Infamous Jail by Lorna Poplak.

The Fine Art of Invisible Detection by Robert Goddard.

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves.

The Hesitation Cut by Giles Blunt.

The Long Call by Ann Cleeves.

The Maid by Nita Prose.

The Next to Die by Sophie Hannah.

The Puppet Show by M.W. Craven.

The Sleeping Nymph by Ilaria Tuti.

What Happens at Night by Peter Cameron.