crime The Miramichi Reader

Under an Outlaw Moon by Deitrich Kalteis

December 22, 2021 by Tammy Catherine Greene

Under an Outlaw Moon is based on the true story of Depression-era bank robbers Bennie and Stella Mae Dickson. She’s a teenage outsider longing to fit in. He’s a few years older and he’s trouble. They meet at a local skating rink and the sparks fly.

The “Mr. Big” Sting: The Cases, the Killers, the Controversial Confessions by Mark Stobbe

November 22, 2021 by James M. Fisher

The “Mr. Big” Sting is essential reading for anyone interested in unorthodox approaches to justice, including their successes and failures. It sheds light on how homicide investigators might catch and punish the guilty while avoiding convicting the innocent.

Rough Justice: Policing, Crime, and the Origins of the Newfoundland Constabulary, 1729-1871 by Keith Mercer

November 14, 2021November 14, 2021 by Stephanie Collins

Rough Justice, written by Newfoundland historian and Memorial University graduate, Keith Mercer, chronicles “the first detailed study of policing in early Newfoundland.”

The Body On The Beach by Patrick J. Collins

October 17, 2021 by Stephanie Collins

Inspired by a true event in Harbour Grace, 1920 Frank Fallon, a veteran policeman, finds himself demoted and transferred back to his hometown. Having left the community in 1905 after being rejected by his first love, Constable Fallon never wanted to return to the place of his childhood. Although they were young budding lovers, Marie Callahan's denial of him for the love of another is still a painful memory.

The Hanged Woman’s Daughter by Nellie P. Strowbridge

May 3, 2021 by Stephanie Collins

The Hanged Woman’s Daughter Newfoundland, 1835 Where does a person go when she loses her family, her home, and her place in a community? What can she do when she feels she doesn’t belong anywhere and to anyone? The disappearance of John Snow from Salmon Cove is shrouded in mystery.

Cheap Thrills: A Novel by David Kloepfer

March 27, 2020 by Bill Arnott

Cheap Thrills takes place over the course of a single weekend, beginning with the incessantly stoned Ethan and his roommate Phil discovering the body of their weed dealer in a Vancouver alley alongside a box of porno magazines and crime noir paperbacks.

We All Will Be Received by Leslie Vryenhoek

December 16, 2019 by James M. Fisher

If the title of Leslie Vryenhoek's latest novel reminds you of Paul Simon's song Graceland, that could be by design, for there are several characters looking for Graceland (although it's a very different one from Elvis' mansion). Their stories are told in separate threads that eventually merge to a climactic ending at Graceland, a renovated motel in Newfoundland, near the L'anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.

Broken Man on a Halifax Pier by Lesley Choyce

August 8, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Fifty-five-year-old Charles Howard has lost his long-time journalism job and has been swindled out of his life savings. Standing by the edge of Halifax Harbour on a foggy morning, contemplating his dismal future, his ritual of self-pity is interrupted with the appearance of the mysterious and beguiling Ramona Danforth.

The Forbidden Dreams of Betsy Elliot by Carolyn R. Parsons

July 17, 2019 by James M. Fisher

The Forbidden Dreams of Betsy Elliot is Carolyn R. Parson’s debut novel for Newfoundland and Labrador’s Flanker Press, and she joins such authors as Ida Linehan Young and Gary Collins as storytellers of the first rank. It is set in … Continue reading

Fog by Rana Bose

September 3, 2019March 17, 2019 by James M. Fisher

Fog is suspenseful, conflicting, mysterious and hard to put down. (…) A literate mystery/thriller set in Montreal (on “the Main”) with side trips to Calcutta and Kandahar, this is a superbly written book about a neighbourhood, friendships, justice and belonging.

An Exile’s Perfect Letter by Larry Mathews

November 21, 2019November 13, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Sixty-two-year-old English professor Hugh Norman is getting ready to retire and just going through the motions. He’s detached, irreverent, and quite pleased with himself. But then he learns of a long-lost friend’s sudden death, and shockingly discovers a body while walking through a city park

The Carpenter From Montreal by George Fetherling

June 3, 2021October 5, 2018 by James M. Fisher

The story behind The Carpenter From Montreal centres around Jim (in New York) and a large Montreal man known to all as The Carpenter. It is the Prohibition Era, and gangsters control the flow of liquor out of Canada over the border.

Operation Wormwood by Helen C. Escott

September 25, 2020September 12, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Over the years, Flanker Press of Newfoundland & Labrador has published a vast array of books, both Fiction and Non-Fiction, including the excellent historical fiction books of Gary Collins. Operation Wormwood (2018) is a fictional crime thriller that was … Continue reading

The Moon is Real by Jerrod Edson

July 25, 2018July 24, 2018 by James M. Fisher

Saint John, New Brunswick native Jerrod Edson has published his fifth novel, The Moon is Real (2016, Urban Farmhouse press) the manuscript of which won the Writer’s Federation of New Brunswick’s David Adams Richards Prize in 2013. A novel of … Continue reading

New 2018 Fiction from Goose Lane Editions

July 25, 2018June 2, 2018 by James M. Fisher

are a couple of mini-reviews of two recent fiction titles New Brunswick’s Goose Lane Editions, Marry Bang Kill by Andrew Battershill and Catch my Drift by Genevieve Scott.

Marry Bang Kill by Andrew Battershill

The title of this book comes … Continue reading