Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers.
Canadian author and retired forensic anthropologist Debra Komar has written her fourth book examining a historical crime, Black River Road (2016, Goose Lane Editions)*. Subtitled “An Unthinkable Crime, an Unlikely Suspect, and the Question of Character”, Ms. Komar searched back through historical court records to find this unique case of a murder committed outside the city of Saint John, New Brunswick in 1869.… Continue reading
To date, award-winning Canadian author and retired forensic anthropologist Debra Komar has written four books dealing with historic crimes committed in Canada: The Ballad of Jacob Peck, The Lynching of Peter Wheeler, The Bastard of Fort Stikine and most recently, Black River Road (to be released in September 2016).… Continue reading
Boyle is a crime novelist based in Maine. Boyle is the author of a dozen novels, including the acclaimed Jack McMorrow mystery series, featuring ex-New York Times reporter Jack McMorrow and his social worker wife Roxanne Masterson. Boyle recently published the 11th Jack McMorrow novel, Straw Man.… Continue reading
: Straw Man was the winner of the 2017 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction!
Islandport Books has released book #11 in the Jack McMorrow Mystery series by Maine author Gerry Boyle. I previously reviewed #10 Once Burned and said that the hard-boiled detective created by Dashiell Hammett is alive and well and living in rural Maine, working as a freelance writer/reporter.… Continue reading
Subtitled Rap, Race, and the Invention of a Gang War, What Killed Jane Creba (2016, Dundurn) is an investigative look into the circumstances surrounding the accidental shooting death of a girl in downtown Toronto in 2005.
It was Boxing Day (December 26th) and Jane Creba was in downtown Toronto outside the Eaton Center with thousands of other people.… Continue reading
Author and forensic anthropologist Debra Komar has written two books to date dealing with murder and wrongful conviction in Atlantic Canada’s past. Her first book, The Ballad of Jacob Peck (2013, Goose Lane Editions) was about a murder inspired by religious fervour that occurred in 1805 in New Brunswick.… Continue reading
The spirit of Dashiell Hammett’s hard-boiled Continental Op detective is alive and well in Gerry Boyle’s Jack McMorrow. Given, he is a somewhat kinder, gentler version, but don’t let the façade fool you: Jack means business. Once Burned (2015, Islandport Press) is #10 in the Jack McMorrow series based on the activities of the investigative reporter created by Maine author Gerry Boyle.… Continue reading
Sean Donovan is back in action, albeit against his will, in AMACAT, book #2 of the “Thief for Hire” series penned by New Brunswick author Chuck Bowie. Forced out of his self-imposed retirement to help solve a murder (along with a vacationing Minnesotan couple) in PEI, Sean soon finds himself assisting an employee (who appeared briefly in book #1) at the Canadian embassy in London to clear her name in a breach of security case, as well as helping his sister out of a jam in Montreal, to whom her boyfriend has gifted a stolen, ugly (but valuable) fish mask, which results in having an overly aggressive insurance agent on her trail.… Continue reading