Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers.
Don’t let the title mislead you; this is not a book about the results of a psychology experiment, however it is a novel about a woman who uses that excuse to explain away her presence in a cabin in a remote northern Ontario town in the dead of winter, should anyone ask.… Continue reading
It’s not very often you get to review two books covering the same topic practically back-to-back. Such is the case this month (October) with the coverage of the Dennis Oland trial. Dennis Oland was convicted of second-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of his father millionaire Richard Oland in 2011.… Continue reading
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