Living Up to a Legend by Diana Bishop

[dropcap]Subtitled [/dropcap]My Adventures with Billy Bishop’s Ghost, Diana Bishop’s memoirs of her grandfather, WWI Canadian flying ace Billy Bishop, is an insightful, moving look at growing up in the shadow of a legend. Living Up to a Legend (Dundurn, 2017) is full of important moments and keen recollections of a life lived not only with Billy’s ghost but …

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Pink Chimneys by Ardeana Hamlin

Pink Chimneys could well be the quintessential “Maine” historic novel in that it describes life in the Bangor region in the early 1800s when the city was being developed as a primary port for shipping and other businesses. Originally released in 1987, Islandport Press has released the 30th-anniversary edition of Pink Chimneys with a new forward by the …

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Adventures of a Grenfell Nurse by Rosalie M. Lombard

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is a meme floating around the Internet that states: “Don’t live the same year 75 times over and call it a life”. For at least two years of her substantial life (born in 1927, she is still alive as of this writing), Rosalie Lombard could not be accused of any sort of repetition as she served …

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Death Dealer by Kate Clark Flora

On January 26th, 2003 David Tanasichuk of Miramichi New Brunswick called the Miramichi Police Force (MPF) to report that Maria, his wife was missing. He stated that she had been gone since January 14th and he hadn’t heard from her since. An MPF constable, in following up on the call said: “Hi David, I understand …

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The Effect of Frost on Southern Vines (Stories) by Sandra Bunting

Miramichi’s unofficial poet laureate Sandra Bunting, has just released her first collection of short stories entitled The Effect of Frost on Southern Vines (2016, Gaelog Press). Having lived abroad for many years, Ms Bunting returned to Miramichi in 2011. The stories that make up this volume are primarily set in Ireland, but some, such as the …

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Jack Fitzgerald’s Treasury of Newfoundland Stories, Volume II: Amazing and Strange

Jack Fitzgerald’s Treasury of Newfoundland Stories, Volume II: Amazing and Strange is a substantial collection of tales from times long forgotten. They include yarns of Newfoundland’s people and places, happenings and things, ranging from the extraordinary and remarkable to the bizarre, uncanny and fantastic. Especially appealing is the Christmas section which includes spine-tingling tales of …

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The Nearly Girl by Lisa de Nikolits

The Nearly Girl is a quirky exploration into people’s peculiarities and is absolutely riveting to read. [perfectpullquote align=”right” cite=”Canadian Living” link=”” color=”#EA1855″ class=”” size=”16″]”This latest book from [Lisa] is a true exploration of the human spirit. Anyone who has ever felt like they’ve slipped through the cracks or been lost in life can relate to …

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Waiting for Still Water by Susan White

Award-winning New Brunswick author Susan White’s newest young adult/middle-grader novel is Waiting for Still Water, a book centred around an extended family composed of foster children, past and present, who have been under the care of the redoubtable Amelia Walton, who owns a farm on Walton Lake on the Kingston Peninsula. Over the years, Amelia …

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A Long Ways From Home by Mike Martin

Instalment #5 in Mike Martin’s Sgt. Windflower Mystery series finds the Grand Banks Newfoundland RCMP officer monitoring a relatively peaceful motorcycle gang show of strength in the province, only to discover two dead bodies in its wake. This, along with tracking down a missing female motorcyclist has Windflower stretching his limited resources to the full. …

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The Money Shot by Glenn Deir

Ever since anchorman Peter Mansbridge (CBC’s The National) announced his plans to retire, the search has been on for a replacement. I propose that Sebastian Hunter the male protagonist (and more often than not, antagonist) of Glenn Deir’s irreverent novel The Money Shot (2016, Breakwater Books) be given a ‘shot’ at the top job. [perfectpullquote align=”right” …

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Straw Man (A Jack McMorrow Mystery #11) by Gerry Boyle

[dropcap]Update[/dropcap]: 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 …

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After Drowning by Valerie Mills-Milde

This is Valerie Mills-Milde’s debut novel and it is a superb one. Located on the north shore of Lake Erie where there was once a thriving freshwater fishing industry, After Drowning is a semi-psychological and vastly intriguing novel about lives shattered by events past and present in the fictional town of Port, where a vestigial …

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Night Ambulance by Nicholas Ruddock

Gun Control. Doctor-assisted death. Abortion. Three of the most polarizing issues facing humankind in the 21st century. There are no ‘grey areas’ when it comes to these issues, no fence-sitting; one is either for or against them. It is abortion, however that is the central pervading theme for the characters of Bell Harbour and St. …

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