Ghostly girls, a creepy cradle, and whispers from hidden passageways would be enough to make most people leave their family home. Regardless of any personal or generational connection to the place, an average person would be put off by putrid smells or the continual feeling of someone watching over them while they slept. Sissy and Ava Hush, of Gerard Collins’s new novel The Hush Sisters, are definitely not most people.…
Cat hasn’t been to Montgomery Falls, the town her family founded, since she was twelve years old. Since the summer she discovered she could do things that no normal twelve-year-old could do. Since she had her first kiss with Riley Fraser. Since she destroyed their friendship.
Now, five years later, she’s back and Riley has disappeared.
New Brunswick’s Kathleen Peacock has written a book that has made people sit up and take notice.…
Barbara Radecki’s sophomore novel, Messenger 93, opens with a flutter of information. A mind-bending conversation with a crow kicks off the absorbing thriller, and cryptic messages, hidden clues, and uncertain instructions become the norm in M, the narrator’s, life. M feels compelled to investigate the disappearance of a girl named Krista, and her movements over the seven days that structure each chapter offer insight into her life and closest relationships.…
Larry Tremblay is a playwright, poet and essayist in addition to novelist, and we feel the playwright at work in this book as scenes shift before us. Tremblay plays with us. He walks us through a “trap full of mirrors” where reflections cannot be trusted. The play within the play, the book within the book told through multiple characters’ points of view.…
Not since I picked up a copy of The Exorcist by WP Blatty, have I read another book in one sitting but Access Point kept me glued to my seat until I reached the last page in this psychological thriller. This author is new to me and I can assure you, I’ll be looking for his other work.
The story opens with Ula Miskin, a neurological researcher, who makes an amazing breakthrough mating the human brain with technology.…
It’s May and it’s time for a little spring cleaning of some titles I’ve read, but haven’t reviewed as yet. There’s a mixed bag here; something for every reader’s taste.
Gord Hunter’s memoirs of his life in the Canadian Navy during the Cold War years makes for some good reading, particularly if you are interested in ships, or are an old Navy salt yourself.…
Ontario author Lesley Strutt’s novel On the Edge is part of Inanna Publication’s Young Feminist Series, and is an adventurous read for all ages, especially for those who like sailing stories. Fourteen-year-old Emma (short for Emerald) is living an overly-restrictive life on her Aunt and Uncle’s farm near Kingston, Ontario. For mysterious reasons. her mother handed over care of her to them when Emma was only a little girl.…
Random Act is #12 in the Jack McMorrow Mystery Series penned by Gerry Boyle and published by Maine’s Islandport Press. As soon as I received this Advance Reading Copy in the mail, I eagerly started to read it, for having read most of the series, I am an unabashed fan. Number twelve does not disappoint. I read it in a few hours, only interrupted by the need to sleep.…
Anubha Mehta is a Canadian writer and artist who was born in India. With a doctorate in Political Science and two decades of Canadian public service experience, Anubha has been awarded for her leadership work for diverse communities. Her short stories and poems have been published in several Canadian magazines and journals. Peacock in the Snow is her debut novel. As I consider my ever-changing “to be read” stack of books, there is currently a predominance of literature written by, and about the immigrant experience on both sides of the globe, starting with the old, established way of life then moving on to the stark reality of trying to adapt to life in a new country thousands of miles from home.…
Update 03/09/19: In the Wake has won “The Very Best!” Book Award for Best First Book (Fiction) for 2019!
There must be something in the water in Nova Scotia. Literally. Here is an absorbing debut novel by Nicola Davison, a Dartmouth resident who mentored under no less a personage than that wonderful novelist Carol Bruneau, another Nova Scotian writer that you may have heard of.…
arent Teacher Association is, as the cover states, a “Novel of Suspense” which it very much is. The female protagonist is Lizanne Demeter, a young teacher looking for a second chance in life. She finds herself reborn, recently released from a mental institution to which she was committed after a foolish suicide attempt due to a failed romance. On a new wonder-drug for depression called Zedorn, she feels that her traumatic past is behind her and she wants to move on and start teaching children again.…
“The man continued down the hall, turned right and walked all the way to the back corner of the floor. He approached the door marked Director, Trade, opened it and walked in. The door, very solid, closed behind the intruder and the discrete click alerted the director to the presence of a guest. He swiveled around in time to receive a slug between the eyes.…
