CRIME ON MY MIND

Cool Canadian Crime!

If you have time for a breather over the holiday weekend, I hope you'll grab a mystery by a Canadian author and just chill out for a while. Since we're celebrating the birthday of our wonderful country, it's a good time to also revel in the accomplishments of so many talented Canadians. I mean the entire gamut of folks who shine in the arts, sports, humanities, medicine, technology, military, yes, even the government. And so many more. We owe them a lot because they make this country so amazing.

I could never list all the Canadian mystery writers out there but you could check the Crime Writers of Canadian website for a fairly extensive list. http://www.crimewriterscanada.com. And there are many others, too. But I'd like to compile a list (yes, another list but different from the Summer mystery reading list -- which I'm hoping to post over the weekend).

I'll start...hope you'll add your favourites in the comments section. In no particular order:

Gail Bowen, William Deverell, Joan Boswell, Peter Robinson, Barbara Fradkin, Mary Jane Maffini, Thomas Rendell Curran, C.B. Forrest, Brenda Chapman, Vicki Delany, Sue Pike, Lou Allin, Pam Curran, D.J. McIntosh, Elizabeth Duncan, Robin Spano, Garry Ryan, Peggy Blair, Anthony Bidulka, R.J. Harlick, Melodie Campbell, Maureen Jennings, Eric Wright, Howard Engel, John Brady, Jose Latour, Janet Kellough, Giles Blunt, Linwood Barclay Howard Shrier, Phyllis Smallman, Rick Mofina, Cathy Astolfo, Brad Smith, Alison Preston, Dave Hugelschaffer, John Moss, John Lawrence Reynolds, David Russell, Janet Bolin, Erika Chase, Deryn Collier, Sylvia Maultash Warsh, Anne Emery, Rosemary McCracken, Janice MacDonald, Jill Edmondson, Alison Bruce, Gloria Ferris, Susanna Kearsley, Robert Rotenberg, Hilary MacLeod...

Okay...I'm all worn out. Your turn!

Congratulations to all our hot writers of cool Canadian crime! Happy Canada Day!

Linda Wiken/Erika Chase

A KILLER READ
Berkley Prime Crime, now available
READ & BURIED, coming Dec., 2012
www.erikachase.com

CRIME ON MY MIND

Cool Canadian crime writers!

Despite all the gloom and doom (and that is a reality, unfortunately) the mystery in a printed format is still alive and well. Yay!

After one & a half years out of the bookselling business, I feel out of the loop in many ways. I would always look forward to those quarterly catalogue sessions with the sales reps when they'd parade the upcoming mysteries, complete with covers and blurbs, in front of my eager eyes. I miss that part of the business.

What I rely on these days are the wonderful digests like Cool Canadian Crime from Crime Writers of Canada. Authors are also good about sending out alerts to new books. And publishers -- bless them -- send out advance reading copies, bound manuscripts and sometimes, a final copy of new books from Canadian authors for me to review.

How great is that!

I now am the proud owner of a TBR review pile. It's harder than I thought, I admit, to combine reading with writing. I'm continuously jotting down notes for my own manuscript, then pick up a book to read and review, only to find I'm drifting back to my own. Maybe I shouldn't admit this. But I do so only to explain why it may take me awhile to actually write a review.

So, to keep authors and publishers happy, at least to some small extent, I offer the titles in my TBR pile. Some are already out there on the bookselves, others are forthcoming, but all are by Canadian mystery writers. If they're not yet out, why not try something from the author's backlist to whet the appetite, unless of course, it's a first-time author.

I truly look forward to reading each and every one of these books. And I will. Just bear with me. So, here they are, in alpha order:

A Green Place for Dying by R.J. Harlick
Lake on the Mountain by Jeffrey Round
Last Dance by David Russell
Red Means Run by Brad Smith
Death Plays Poker by Robin Spano

Cool Canadian Crime writers -- right?! We have a lot of them and I'm certain anyone following this blog is a supporter. It's downright criminal if we don't spread the word!


Linda Wiken/Erika Chase
A Killer Read coming April 3, 2012
from Berkley Prime Crime