July 2009

Linwood Barclay, Too Close to Home

In a quiet suburban neighborhood, in a house only one door away, a family is brutally murdered for no apparent reason. And you think to yourself: It could have been us. And you start to wonder: What if we’re next?

Promise Falls isn’t the kind of community where a family is shot to death in their own home. No one is more shocked than their next-door neighbours, Jim and Ellen Cutter. They visited for the occasional barbecue and their son, Derek, was friends with their boy, Adam. Suddenly, the Cutters must face the unthinkable: that a murderer isn’t just stalking too close to home...but is inside it already.

Linwood Barclay, Fear the Worst
Sydney Blake’s summer is shaping up to be typical for a 17-year-old teenager: She’s spending it with her father, and she has landed a part-time job at a local hotel. One night, Syd fails to come home from her shift, and her father, Tim, begins to panic after he visits the hotel and the manager claims that Syd has never worked there. As the list of unanswered questions grows, all Tim knows for certain is that he must continue searching for his daughter...no matter how high the stakes become.

Hardcover
Bantam

ISBN: 978-0-553-80716-5

August 2009

$29.95

David Laing Dawson, Don't Look Down
What could possibly happen when four men whose ages range from 18 to 81 and who have murdered share a room together in a locked forensic psychiatry unit? An intriguing adventure that unfolds from the pen of a psychiatrist-turned-mystery-writer whose previous works have been described as "a little bit of Elmore Leonard and a little bit of Seinfeld," as "fiction that's as close to reality as it gets," and as "a sure handed competitor of Robin Cook."

Trade paperback

Bridgeross Communications

ISBN: 978-0-9810037-5-7

September 2009

$23.95

Denise Dietz, Throw Darts at a Cheesecake (new edition)
Diet club leader Ellie Bernstein needs to find the monster who is murdering her diet club members as they reach goal weight. Meanwhile, her members are eating as if their lives depended on it. An Ellie Bernstein/Lt. Peter Miller mystery.

Trade paperback

Wildside Press

ISBN: 978-1-4344-5881-0

July 2009

US$12.95

Denise Dietz, Beat Up a Cookie (new edition)
Diet club leader Ellie Bernstein looks a lot like Hot Lips from M*A*S*H. Unfortunately, that claim to fame might be dangerous. Seems a killer is targeting look-alikes from the show. An Ellie Bernstein/Lt. Peter Miller mystery.

Trade paperback

Wildside Press

ISBN: 978-1-4344-5882-7

July 2009

US$12.95

Denise Dietz, Chain a Lamb Chop to the Bed (new edition)

Diet club leader Ellie Bernstein takes off for Aspen, Colorado. She is hoping for a week of R&R at a dude ranch. But a dead body and a black stallion named Satan "kill" that idea. An Ellie Bernstein/Lt. Peter Miller mystery.

Trade paperback

Wildside Press

ISBN: 978-1-4344-5883-4

July 2009

US$12.95

Stanley Evans, Seaweed in the Soup: A Silas Seaweed Mystery
Silas Seaweed is back on the beat as the street-smart Coast Salish cop. Against the backdrop of summertime in Victoria, a gardener is found dead and the prime suspects are two young local party girls. Silas is handed the case that soon takes a bloodier turn when a policeman’s wife is killed. Silas begins to suspect that these murders and other events are related to the recent tide of gang-related crimes that has been sweeping British Columbia.

Just as he draws closer to finding concrete evidence, Silas finds his own reputation in danger and is suspended from the police force. His quest to clear his name and find the killers leads him from Victoria’s loud and steamy nightclubs and bars to the remote and quiet islands of Desolation Sound.

Trade paperback
TouchWood Editions
ISBN: 978-1-894898-92-8
September 2009
$12.95

Barbara Fradkin, This Thing of Darkness: An Inspector Green Mystery
In the seventh of this award-winning series, an elderly, retired psychiatrist is beaten to death one night on the streets of Ottawa’s Byward Market. Suspicion falls on four gang punks caught on a nearby surveillance camera, but the investigation soon uncovers late-night visitors, stolen files, and a rewritten will that disinherits the doctor’s estranged son in favour of several former patients.

Trade paperback

Napoleon & Company/ RendezVous Crime

ISBN: 978-1-894917-85-8

September 2009

$16.95

R.J. Harlick, Arctic Blue Death: A Meg Harris Mystery
Many years ago, Meg Harris’s father’s plane went missing in the Arctic. He was never seen again. Thirty-six years later, her mother receives strange Inuit drawings that suggest he might have survived. Intent on discovering the truth, no matter how painful, Meg travels to Iqaluit and soon finds herself sucked into the world of Inuit art forgery and murder.

Trade paperback

Napoleon & Company/ RendezVous Crime

ISBN: 978-1-894917-87-2

September 2009

$16.95

Jerry Langton, Biker: Inside the Notorious World of an Outlaw Motorcycle Gang
Set in the a rust-belt city called Springfield, USA, Biker traces the career trajectory of Ned “Crash” Aiken, a small-time high-school drug dealer who rises quickly through the ranks of a major biker gang. He sees the wisdom in migrating to the ranks of the Sons of Satan, a powerful outlaw motorcycle gang that is busy expanding their territory, either by patch-over or by killing the competition. Aiken proves himself a natural leader and in a few years is overseeing business involving millions of dollars and life-and-death decisions.

Biker is frank and realistic, conveying a brutal reality, but one that continues to be sought after, idolized, and read about because it is a world that continues to fascinate those on the outside looking in.

Trade paperback
John Wiley & Sons Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-16058-9
September 2009
$23.95

Alex Markman, Payback for Revenge
Payback for Revenge tells the story of one man determined to avenge his daughter, killed by members of an international prostitution crime syndicate. Dynamic and intriguing, the book brings the reader to war-torn Yugoslavia, where an American journalist, risking her life, reports on war, crime, and anarchy. Based on factual material, this is a saga about value of love, value of life, and value of revenge.

“It’s a story of love and loss, of gangsters and their greed for money, of innocent girls lured into drugs and prostitution in the guise of freedom. It’s a grim story of worldwide repercussions of what can happen when ideologically repressed societies are cast adrift on the sea of life, without anchor or moral compass.” – Ben Antao, writer

Louise Penny, The Murder Stone: A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery

It’s high summer, and isolated Manoir Bellechasse is hosting a reunion. When bitter rivalries boil over and a body is discovered, Gamache knows the murderer is trapped. But a cornered predator is always the most dangerous…

Mass market paperback
Headline/McArthur & Company
ISBN: 978-0-7553-4896-1
September 2009
$10.99

James Powell, A Pocketful of Noses: Stories of One Ganelon or Another
Join four generations of private detectives as they struggle against crime in their colourful principality on the French Riviera. The first Ambrose Ganelon was an armchair detective, the second preferred scientific reasoning, the third belonged to the two-fisted breed, leaving the fourth – his predecessors having all but eliminated crime from their homeland – a detective of the penniless sort. These stories include, among other matters, the Ganelons’ battles with the Eurasian evil genius Dr. Ludwig Fong and his descendants. The publisher describes the book as a wondrous combination of Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade, Fu-Manchu, and The Prisoner of Zenda.

Crippen & Landru

Signed, limited, hardcover edition:
ISBN: 978-1-932009-78-1
US$42.00

Trade paperback edition:
ISBN: 978-1-932009-79-8
US$17.00

July 2009 (both editions)

Peter Robinson, Strange Affair: An Inspector Banks Mystery
When Banks receives a disturbing telephone call from his brother, Roy, he abandons the peaceful Yorkshire Dales for the bright lights of London to search him out. But Roy has vanished into thin air. Meanwhile, DI Annie Cabbot is called to a murder scene on a quiet stretch of road just outside Eastvale. A young woman called Jennifer Clewes has been found dead in her car, and in the back pocket of her jeans, written on a slip of paper, police discover Banks’s name and address.

Howard Shrier, High Chicago: A Jonah Geller Mystery
Arthur Ellis Award winner Howard Shrier's second novel uncovers corruption and murder in construction and development.

"Shrier's first mystery was terrific; High Chicago is even better." – Linwood Barclay

"A fast-paced, entertaining read." – Jose Latour

"A crackling good mystery.... Often funny, sometimes violent and always thoughtful, with a powerful sense of place throughout. Toronto may have found its Spenser in Jonah Geller. I can’t wait for his next case." – Sean Chercover

"A fast-moving and violent tale that proves your deadliest enemy is probably the person sleeping right beside you. I hope Geller returns for a third book." – Lee Goldberg

Caro Soles, Drag Queen in the Court of Death

While cleaning out his dead ex-lover’s apartment, staid professor Michael Dunn-Barten makes a grisly discovery – a mummified corpse in a trunk. Suddenly, Michael must travel back 25 years to find answers. Back to the 1960s, to the troubling time when his wife threw him out and his family disowned him for falling in love with his male student. Back to uncover disturbing answers amidst drag queens and murky memories…and to reveal whether or not his first real love was truly a twisted killer.

Trade paperback

MLR Press

ISBN: 978-1-608200115
July 2009
US$14.99

Jon Wells, Vanished: Cold-Blooded Murder in Steeltown

A man rages in his home on April 4, 1999, breaking furniture, dishes. A woman had wanted to leave him. "You're not going anywhere," he told her. Later that day, a police officer reports to the house and finds some human tissue and organs in a bag left out for garbage. The person of interest in the case is a steelworker named Sam Pirrera, who lives in the house. But who is the victim? Sam's current estranged wife, Danielle? Or perhaps his first wife, Beverly? Or is there a third missing woman involved?

Detectives pursue a calculated and deliberate murder, led by veteran homicide detective Peter Abi-Rashed, who had once chased a young Sam Pirrera on the streets of Hamilton's east end many years before. The outcome is shocking…and a mystery remains.

Trade paperback
John Wiley & Sons Canada
ISBN: 978-0-470-15549-3
August 2009
$19.95

Older releases by new CWC members

And now a book published in 2008 by an author
who recently joined the CWC.

John Smith, The Wolf and the Sheepdog
The Wolf and the Sheepdog takes the lid off of policing in Canada, showing the internal politics, the struggle with the court system, and the effects of critical-incident stress from the experiences that the author, a police officer, has gained.

The book is composed of a series of short stories, with each narrative based on an actual call that the author attended. The writing format allows the reader to experience the call through the author’s eyes, getting a first hand glimpse of the sights, sounds, and smells associated with the situation.

Authorhouse

Trade paperback edition:
ISBN: 978-1-434355126
US$13.60

Hardcover edition:
ISBN: 978-1-434355133
US$17.60

November 2008 (both editions)

E-books

To accommodate the increasing interest in e-books, Cool Canadian Crime will now include e-book listings.

Alex Markman, Messenger of Death
A war between two powerful biker gangs has erupted. In spite of a public outcry, politicians and the judicial system can not cope with numerous problems and legality of their approach. In this entertaining novel, assassinations, investigations, and the inside workings of the most secretive organized crime gangs form the background for personal drama and tragedy for innocent people.

E-book
Asteroid Publishing
eISBN: 978-0-9811637-0-3
ASIN: B001SK4J8U
April 2009
US$5.59–US$6.69

Available in Mobipocket and Kindle formats.

Alex Markman, Payback for Revenge

Payback for Revenge tells the story of one man determined to avenge his daughter, killed by members of an international prostitution crime syndicate. Dynamic and intriguing, the book brings the reader to war-torn Yugoslavia, where an American journalist, risking her life, reports on war, crime, and anarchy. Based on factual material, this is a saga about value of love, value of life, and value of revenge.

E-book
Asteroid Publishing
eISBN: 978-0-9731379-3-4
ASIN: B001SK4J8U
May 2009
US$5.59–US$6.69

Available in Mobipocket and Kindle formats.

If you missed any back issues of Cool Canadian Crime, you can find them at:
Cool Canadian Crime, October to December 2005
Cool Canadian Crime, January to March 2006
Cool Canadian Crime, April to June 2006
Cool Canadian Crime, July to September 2006
Cool Canadian Crime, October to December 2006
Cool Canadian Crime, January to March 2007
Cool Canadian Crime, April to June 2007
Cool Canadian Crime, July to September 2007
Cool Canadian Crime, October to December 2007
Cool Canadian Crime, January to March 2008
Cool Canadian Crime, April to June 2008
Cool Canadian Crime, July to September 2008
Cool Canadian Crime, October to December 2008
Cool Canadian Crime, January to March 2009
Cool Canadian Crime, April to June 2009

The books listed in Cool Canadian Crime can usually be found at – or ordered online from – our Crime Writers of Canada member bookstores:

· As the Plot Thickens (Kingston, ON)
www.astheplotthickens.com
Phone: (613) 548-4664
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

· Prime Crime Books (Ottawa, ON)
www.primecrimebooks.com
Phone: (613) 238-CLUE
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

· Sleuth of Baker Street (Toronto, ON)
www.sleuthofbakerstreet.com
Phone: (416) 483-3111
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it