MYSTERY REVIEW

THE DROWNED MAN
By David Whellams
ECW Press

Chief Inspector Peter Cammon is having a tough time with retirement. He’s still trying to come to terms with his brother’s death while his wife copes with siblings who are near the end of their struggles with cancer. When Scotland Yard calls, the opportunity to get back into action is a no-brainer.

He’s asked to go to Montreal to escort home the body of a murdered colleague. It should be straightforward enough but his cop instincts take over and Cammon finds himself all to quickly deeply enmeshed in the search for a mysterious woman who may hold the key to the police officer’s death.

And then there’s the matter of the theft of three letters, one of them reportedly signed by John Wilkes Booth, that shed new light on the political situation north of the 49 during the US Civil War. The British Ambassador in Montreal wants those letters. So does a Separatist professor and any number of private collectors. Were they the reason for the murder of the Scotland Yard detective?

As Cammon travels to Washington in search of the missing woman, the body count starts building. Soon the Surete de Quebec, the FBI and local police forces are chasing the same prey. The stakes are higher than even Cammon realizes. And the game players will stop at nothing to kill the girl and claim the prize.

Whellams’ second Peter Cammon crime novel borders on thriller with several threads and sub-plots crisscrossing throughout the story. There’s history, travel, police procedural and suspense, something to catch the attention of every crime reader. His detective is a well-balanced hero, with a devotion to home and family along with the drive to do what's needed in the pursuit of justice. David Whellams lives in Ottawa. Maybe he'll bring Peter Cammon here for a visit at some point.

MYSTERY REVIEW

Bonus Interview!
Fradkin’s latest a masterfully-written page-turner

WHISPER OF LEGENDS
Dundurn

By c.b. forrest

An apprentice author takes comfort in beholding the fruits of a life dedicated to the craft of writing. To see P.D. James release one of her best recent works (Death Comes To Pemberly) at the age of 92. To behold as Cormac McCarthy’s writing somehow, almost impossibly, grows closer to the bone as he nears 80. Checked out any James Lee Burke lately?

All of this to say, while Barbara Fradkin is not anywhere near 80 or 90 (like maybe half that – cheques made payable to ‘cb’, thanks), she does have a considerable oeuvre in her Inspector Green mystery series. And so it was a pleasant surprise as a reader to see Fradkin take a big risk and move her protagonist from the known urban environment of Ottawa to the wild and tangled Northwest Territories. And it was an even more heartening as a fellow writer to see her reach a whole new level with Whisper of Legends, the ninth in the Green series (Dundurn Publishers, $17.99).

The premise for the story is every parent’s nightmare: Green’s daughter Hannah goes missing while on a canoe trip to the mind-bogglingly massive Nahanni River (30,000 square kilometres, 600 grizzlies, and countless insects to drive the city boy Green crazy). A canoe believed to belong to her four-party group is found onshore, but the local Mountie detachment isn’t convinced the teens qualify as “missing” yet, and it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack at any rate. Ever the pragmatist, Green decides to do the job himself. He turns to his reliable and longtime friend, Staff Sergeant Brian Sullivan, to accompany him to the Northwest Territories to find Hannah and bring her home.

Things get more tangled than the woods of the Nahanni when Green finds out that Hannah’s boyfriend on the trip has unclear motives for failing to register their expedition with park authorities. The ensuing search allows Fradkin to richly describe the park and the river in turns of phrase that will transport you there to the point where you begin to scratch at imaginary mosquito bites.
‘Green slept fitfully, disturbed not so much by the tandem snoring of the other two men nor the by the eerie grey of the northern night, but by fragments of dreams lurking at the borders of his consciousness.’

Green’s city-boy-goes-wild offers new opportunities for Fradkin to mine the soul of this man and his feelings for his loved ones in new and deeper ways than ever before. After nine novels, that’s saying something about Fradkin’s respect for the reader, her craft, and her protagonist. Green is vulnerable, he has no jurisdictional authority, and so we see the evolution of new thinking and problem-solving from this cop who has supposedly “seen it all”.

The story evolves from a mainstream novel in the first several chapters to a bona fide murder mystery as bodies are discovered and new and very interesting characters are introduced (ie. Elliot the expert tracker) to full effect. There is an unexpected twist ending that again displays Fradkin’s chops in the department of plotting. With Whisper of Legends, Fradkin has written her best work yet and it will stay with the reader like the lonesome call of a loon across a midnight lake.

I managed to catch up with Fradkin for a phone interview while she was on a book tour through the Northwest Territories and Alaska with talented and prolific fellow author, Vicki Delany.


CBF: You took a break between Beautiful Lie The Dead and Whisper of Legends. Did you need to recharge or were you busy with other projects?
BF: A bit of both. I wanted a break because I had something else I wanted to write. Series, even when you enjoy the characters and the place immensely, are constraining. If you want to explore other characters or types of stories, you have to break out. In my case, I wanted to write a biography of my father.

CBF: Taking a series character away from his setting - especially when that setting is an important aspect of the character - is a risky venture. But taking a gritty urban lead out to the middle of the woods is even Riskier. What pros and cons did you weigh when you decided to set the novel in the Nahanni?
BF: None, actually. I just wanted to write the story and I didn't think how risky it might be to the series. I was more focused on how risky it would be to Green, and that was an exciting prospect. Writers are always looking for tension, conflict and novelty, which Green vs. Nahanni had in spades. As I was writing along, I did wonder whether I would lose those readers who enjoy the urban grit and who, like Green, have no interest in wilderness. Time will tell. But I also hope that new readers who passed over the series because of its Ottawa setting will tune in.

CBF: Writing this series represents a significant portion of your adult life. Have you looked way down the road and imagined a time when you wouldn't have an Inspector Green novel on the go?
BF: Yes. I know no series character can go on forever. I don't know when, because I don't plan ahead, but sooner or later Green will run out of cases. But I have a lot of other ideas to pursue, all it takes is courage to break out.

CBF: You are in Yellowknife right now, and were at Malice Domestic a few weeks ago. What are some of the key ingredients a writer needs in order to be successful?
BF: Wine, actually. And at this point I can only think of three ingredients: perseverance, belief in self, and an independent income stream. Rich spouses fit the bill.



C.B. Forrest’s short story, Hangover At Sunrise, will appear in June’s Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. He is nearing the completion of an epic saga about modern organized crime whose title he will not divulge though he believes it will be a best-seller translated into twenty-seven languages, including his own.

CRIME ON MY MIND

Arthur and me!


Okay, not really true. However, I was at the Arthur Ellis Awards banquet on Thurs. May 30th and those Arthurs were handed out. What an exciting event it was. Crime Writers of Canada has come a long way since the first Arthur Ellis Awards in 1984.

It sees major growth each year as more Canadians who write crime and mystery are coming on board. Publishers are getting into the act, too. And the media coverage has helped catapult the association, and the award, into the category of well-respected, major Canadian awards.

It's also a wonderful opportunity to get together with crime writers from across the country who all come out to help celebrate these accomplishments. This week is was an added gala time as the Bony Blithe Award was given out the evening before. Congratulations to Elizabeth Duncan for winning the Bony Blithe for her mystery, A Small Hill to Die On, the fourth in her series.


And, the winners of the Arthur Ellis Awards are certainly to be congratulated, too. They are:

Best first novel: The Haunting of Maddy Clare, by Simone St. James.
Best novella: Contingency Plan by Lou Allin.
Best crime non-fiction: The Devil’s Cinema: The Untold Story behind Mark Twitchell’s Kill Room by Steve Lillebuen.
Best young adult book: Becoming Holmes by Shane Peacock.
Best French book: La Nuit des Albinos, by Mario Bolduc.
Best short story: Switch-blade Knife, by Yasuko Thanh.
Best unpublished novel: Sins Revisited by Coleen Steele.

Also, major congratulations to all the nominees for all of these prestigious awards. Crime writing is indeed alive and well in Canada. See everyone again next year!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

READ AND BURIED
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
A KILLER READ, also available at your favourite bookstores and online.
Agatha Award nomiee, Best First Novel 2012
COVER STORY available for pre-order; coming Aug. 2013.

MORE CANADIAN CRIME

Money and Murder



After her debut in Safe Harbor last year, Pat Tierney is back. This time, she’s immersed in Black Water. Just released as an ebook on Amazon today and due out as a paperback shortly, Black Water takes Pat into Ontario cottage country where she opens a new branch for her investment firm and finds herself untangling a web of fraud, drugs, bikers and murder.

Pat’s work as a financial advisor has taught her that money isn’t about figures on a spreadsheet. Money is about people—the young couple saving for their first home, the elderly couple worried that they may outlive their savings.
As a financial advisor, Pat needs to know what’s is going on in her clients’ lives to ensure that they’re in suitable investments. She knows which clients have health concerns. She knows how much money they have—or don’t have. And who they plan to leave it to when they die. This insider knowledge gives her an edge as an amateur sleuth.
And she knows that some people can never have enough money, and that this kind of greed is a powerful incentive for theft, fraud and even murder.

Pat is particularly well positioned to spot white-collar crime. The world of finance provides opportunities for people who are clever and greedy enough to challenge the system. In Safe Harbor, red flags go up for Pat when a rookie advisor is given a large investment account to manage. When Pat looks more closely at that account, she sees that a sizeable part of its assets in invested in slowpoke stocks. Things don’t add up. And when thing don’t add up for a financial professional, something is very wrong.

In Black Water, Pat learns that money has gone missing from client accounts at a rival firm, and an elderly man whose sister has been one of the victims has been murdered. Was he killed because he discovered who was behind the fraud? Pat is determined to put the pieces of this puzzle together. The more she delves into the goings-on in a seemingly idyllic rural community, the closer she comes to a long-buried secret and its fatal consequences.

Unlike Pat Tierney, Rosemary McCracken is not a financial professional. Why did she build her mystery series around a character who makes her living managing people’s money?

Well, Rosemary knows a little about the work Pat does. She’s a Toronto journalist who specializes in personal finance and the financial services industry. For her articles, she talks to financial advisors and investment managers. She attends their conferences. She knows the issues they face and the concerns they have. At one point, she considered becoming a financial advisor herself, but decided that she wouldn’t have the stamina. She knew she’d have sleepless night during down markets, and markets have been murder in recent years. But when she set out to write a mystery series and was looking for a central character, an investment advisor was the first thing that came to mind. Pat is an advisor who cares about her clients. She’s a champion of small investors. She’s the one who has sleepless nights during down markets.

Rosemary’s first Pat Tierney novel, Safe Harbor, was shortlisted for Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger in 2010. It was published by Imajin Books in 2012. Its sequel, Black Water, has just been released as an ebook, and the paperback will be available next month.
Visit Rosemary’s website at http://www.rosemarymccracken.com/.
Follow Rosemary on http://rosemarymccracken.wordpress.com/. And on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RCMcCracken and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/rosemarymccracken?ref=tn_tnmn.
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Water-Tierney-Mystery-ebook/dp/B00CWF2X8S http://www.amazon.ca/Black-Water-Tierney-mystery-ebook/dp/BODCWF2X8S

MYSTERY REVIEW

Twilight is Not Good For Maidens
by Lou Allin
Dundurn



This third outing in the Corporal Holly Martin series had me riveted right from the beginning. Here we have the quiet Vancouver Island community of Sooke, not far from the ocean, a vacation dreamland. Sounds ideal, doesn't it? The perfect setting to be marred by an attempted sexual assault, and later, a murder.

That's what mystery authors do. They pick the perfect setting and then turn it on its head by inflicting a crime. The fact that Allin is adept at describing her setting so that the reader actually sees it, adds to the drama. Another aspect of Allin's writing that keeps the reader turning the pages is how she manages to weave reality into the fiction. RCMP Corporal Martin relates what's happening in her small detachment to the broader spectrum of recent police tribulations in the province. It turns the fiction into another story from the headlines.

This time, her constable, the amiable Chipper Knox Singh, is accused of sexual assault by a teenage driver he stopped. Holly believes he's innocent but realizes, because of regulations, she's unable to help him. Then there is another attack at the oceanside campgrounds, this one ending in the murder of a young woman.

When a third attack at French Beach results in the victim giving a description of her attacker, the wary police officers are hopeful of putting an end to the crimes. But Holly is a lowly Corporal and the RCMP hierarchy has the Integrated Crime Unit from West Shore in charge of the cases. But it's just a matter of time until she's putting the clues together and ends up as the killer's next target.

An ongoing thread in the three Holly Martin books is the unanswered question of what happened to her Mom who went missing several years earlier. This time around, Holly finally gets some leads and her determination to get some answers sends her on another quest.

The two earlier books in the series are, And on the Surface Die, and She Felt No Pain. They do not have to be read in order but you'll want to start the journey with Holly from the beginning. She's a vulnerable, determined, smart young police officer; a fine addition to the police procedurals set in Canada. I'm already waiting for the fourth!


Lou Allin is the author of two series, the Holly Martin and Belle Palmer mysteries. After teaching for many years at Cambrian College in Sudbury, Ontario, she now lives near Sooke on Vancouver Island. Her Rapid Read novel, Contengency Plan has been shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Best Novella Award this year from Crime Writers of Canada.

MYSTERY REVIEW

THE CHRISTIE CURSE
by Victoria Abbott
Berkley Prime Crime

What kind of work do you look for when you need a job that isn't minimum wage - slave drudgery like telemarketing, your student loans are staring you in the face, and you urgently need a new place to live?

The Christie Curse, the first in Victoria Abbott's new series, introduces Jordan Bingham, a recent English literature graduate with a master's degree, who is facing all of the above. To add to her problems, she comes from a family with a chequered history, and can't put her real surname on her resume.

She finds a Want Ad for the almost-perfect researcher's job. The imperfect part appears to be her new employer, a sour old lady rare-book collector who happens to be the most hated citizen in Harrison Falls, New York.

Jordan is nothing if not resourceful. Once into the job and the great little apartment in her employer's mansion that comes with it, however, she learns some disquieting facts that weren't mentioned during the interview. Her predecessor died while looking for the same rumoured Agatha Christie unpublished play that Jordan has been hired to find.

Her chequered family background and shady relatives turn out to be assets as she leads the reader through a wild chase in search of a play that may or may not exist. The chase includes a possible murder, the usual and unusual suspects, a psychotic cat, and a pug dog.

The mother and daughter team of authors Mary Jane Maffini and Victoria Maffini combine to create a seamless story under the pseudonym Victoria Abbott in this first Book Collector Mystery.


Don't miss this one! Agatha Christie herself would have loved it.


Reviewed by Carole Dalgleish

CRIME ON MY MIND

Getting it done!


I heard on the radio the other day that an expert says that "To Do" lists do not help things get done. Huh? I rely on my list and think it's most effective. Part of that stems from having to write the task down, which helps imprint it somewhere in my brain. And also, I get a great deal of pleasure when I cross an item off the list, although I don't seem to be doing that nearly enough these days.

The expert's reasoning is that it adds to a person's stress, knowing there's this list and therefore you waste time pondering the threat of the list, rather than just getting to the task. She/he recommended doing tasks in blocks of half-hour time slots, then re-assessing or moving onto a new one.

There is sound reasoning behind these claims, I think and could I but ponder it longer, I might even remember some of them. But I have this long list of tasks that I need to get done before the day ends and nowhere does it say, "ponder purpose of no lists".

I enjoy hearing or reading these tips on daily living and sometimes find them quite useful. For instance, free green grapes and add them to a glass of white wine. I'm convinced though, that the only thing that will get me using my time more efficiently is if I hire an executive assistant to take care of all those items on the list, except for the writing novel entry.

That might even allow me to keep on track with this blog and update it as promised. Although, I don't know about that. Life seems to be exceedingly busy these days and it's easy to get sidetracked. And I find that leads to more lists. If it's not written down, it might easily get forgotten.

So it seems I'm not giving up my "To Do" list any time in the near future. Now, I'll just progress to item #1 -- write novel.

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

READ AND BURIED
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
A KILLER READ, also available at your favourite bookstores and online.
Nomianted for an Agatha Award, Best First Novel 2012
COVER STORY available for pre-order; coming Aug. 2013.