I left Fergus on a cool spring night and traveled to marvelous Montreal. Je t’aime la belle ville. I determined that McGill University Bookstore would provide me with my next opportunity for a contest entry and a purchase of international crime. As I strolled along the modern and charmant McTavish Street in downtown Montreal, I noticed the young charmant university students lounging on stoops. I so wanted to linger but I daren’t stop. Inside the bookstore, I went upstairs to find myself entangled in crime scene tape. Quelle damage? I’ve been caught! Non, c’est display. C’est criminal. My kohl-ringed eyes immediately lighted upon a book titled Murder in the Marais set in Paris. The book stars Aimée Leduc, a Parisian private investigator, who is fearless and is constantly running, hiding, fighting and risking her life—all while dressed in vintage Chanel and Dior and Louboutin heels. She is my kind of woman. I am satisfied and fatigued, it is time for a café latte in a bistro as I must start reading this book. Where am I headed next, is a mystery…

TO BE CONTINUED

Thursday afternoon I had the pleasure of joining Joy Fielding at Zoomer Magazine headquarters for the Writers Bloc webcast. Upon arrival, the lovely Zoomer team greeted us with tasty treats and whisked Joy away for hair and makeup. (I’ll admit that I’m always a bit jealous watching people get their makeup done professionally.) The webcast was a live show, and with a bit of time before it was to start, we fawned over the latest photographs of Joy’s gorgeous grandson. Shortly before they went live to air, we were brought down to the concert lobby, where the webcast team, made up of various members including a floor director, a sound engineer and several camera operators, scurried around us. Microphones on. Ear pieces in. Final primping. And ACTION!

Joy and editor/host Athena McKenzie sat in two casual chairs on a lush cream faux fur carpet and began the show. Joy’s book trailer introduced her new novel Now You See Her and her daughter Shannon Micol’s music was incorporated. Athena was a wonderful host, guiding Joy through various questions that were pre-submitted by fans and some that were sent during the live taping. As a publicist you hear lots of questions, many that are versions of the same. And as Joy publishes a book a year I’ve had the chance to get well acquainted with her answers. But some of the more original questions asked at this taping included a fan wanting to know if Joy keeps a notebook on her bedside table for great ideas she gets in the night? And what the secret to her 37 year long marriage was. To find out the answers, you’ll have to watch the podcast!

Frankfurt is a great city for a murder, as illustrated in Kismet. My time at Book City had proved satisfying, but I woke up one morning in Fergus, Ontario with a need to feed my hunger for more crime. Don’t ask me how I got there. It was a tip that I decided to follow and it led me to #152 St. Andrew St. West. My eye was drawn immediately to a book in the window called The Ghosts of Belfast. I’ve long had an intimate relationship with ghosts and so I was intrigued by this crime novel that promised to read like a collaboration between John Connolly and Stephen King. It gives me goose bumps just anticipating a long night alone with this story. But first I must enter Roxanne’s Reflections Book Shop.

I am greeted by a very friendly and fine-looking man who encourages me to enter to win 7 crime novels packaged in a Soho Press tote bag. He informs me they will be drawing the winning name on Friday April 8th. Oh, I so want to be the winner! He further enticed me with an offer to buy 3 books and get the 4th free. Oh, what delicious delights! I eventually leave this sociable shop and stumble along the street reveling in my purchase. Where I’m headed next is a mystery …

TO BE CONTINUED

From Henning Mankell, author most recently of the bestselling, internationally acclaimed thriller The Man from Beijing - comes the first Kurt Wallander mystery in more than a decade: the much-anticipated return of the brilliant, brooding detective. Suspenseful, darkly atmospheric, psychologically gripping, The Troubled Man is Henning Mankell at his mesmerizing best.

The Troubled Man will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on March 29, 2011, but we’ve got a sneak peek for you:

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For 2011, we’re dishing on our favourite detectives in our monthly MysteryBooks.ca newsletter. This month, we’ve got the details on Jo Nesbo’s Detective Harry Hole.

DETECTIVE HARRY HOLE
CURRICULUM VITAE

Personal details:

• Born in Oslo, Norway, circa 1970
• Unmarried. No children, but on occasion a kind father-figure to Oleg, Rakel’s son
• Lives in Sofies gate in Bislet, Oslo

Appearance:

• 6’4”, athletic and lean
• Spiky blonde hair and a large, bumpy head
• Fair-skinned with a prominent nose, faded blue eyes and full, seductive lips

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It was a dark and stormy night as I, a fetching femme fatale, strolled into 501 Bloor Street West in an area of Toronto called simply, The Annex. I found myself drawn to a display of crime novels in Book City - a city without streets - where books I’d never seen before were calling to me. As I stroked the covers, I was approached warily by a bookseller and advised of a contest; they were offering me a chance to win a tote bag full of these very crime novels. Hot diggidy dog.

“That’s swell”, I said in a low voice, while inside I was screaming with delight. The swarthy young man took my breath away as I entertained the variety of crime novels before me. I languidly filled out a ballot to win the prize bag, concealing my inner excitement. This was my chance - I was feeling lucky. I finally made my decision and purchased a copy of Kismet, a brilliant novel about organized crime, immigration, the fallout from the Balkan wars, and the madness of nationalism from one of Europe’s finest crime writers, Jakob Arjouni. As I stumbled out the door, dizzy with delight, I vowed that next week I would travel to a new city in search of another ballot to win the prize. I do love prizes and I adore crime novels from around the world. Where I’m headed is a mystery…

To Be Continued.

Flavia de Luce is back on the case, her third in this sweet mystery series by Alan Bradley. In A Red Herring Without Mustard, Flavia comes to the rescue when a gypsy is charged with the abduction of a local child. Flavia must draw upon her encyclopedic knowledge of poisons — and gypsy lore — to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice, and to solve a greater and far more personal mystery: What really happened to her long-vanished mother?

A Red Herring Without Mustard will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on February 8, 2011. But we’ve got a sneak peek for you:

“You frighten me,” the Gypsy said. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.”

She cupped her hands around the thing, as if to shield my eyes from the horrors that were swimming in its murky depths. As her fingers gripped the glass, I thought I could feel ice water trickling down inside my gullet.

At the edge of the table, a thin candle flickered, its sickly light glancing off the dangling brass hoops of the Gypsy’s earrings, then flying off to die somewhere in the darkened corners of the tent.

Black hair, black eyes, black dress, red- painted cheeks, red mouth, and a voice that could only have come from smoking half a million cigarettes.

As if to confirm my suspicions, the old woman was suddenly gripped by a fit of violent coughing that rattled her crooked frame and left her gasping horribly for air. It sounded as though a large bird had somehow become entangled in her lungs and was flapping to escape.

Click here to continue reading the first chapter of A Red Herring Without Mustard. And if you love Flavia de Luce as much as we do, join the Flavia Fan Club!

P. D. James turned 90 in 2010, and to celebrate this milestone Vintage Canada began reissuing fourteen classic novels by the grand dame of detective fiction. The project started in June 2010 and we wrap up in June 2011. Thanks to a lovely series of covers from Faber & Faber UK, we will have a gorgeous new look to unify Baroness James of Holland Park’s backlist in Canada.

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I love an underdog. I love making a little book big. I have a passion for Hans Fallada’s Every Man Dies Alone. I promoted that book without any money and with a dead author - I should be able to do wonders with one who’s alive and healthy and living in my town!

Last fall I read the manuscript of The Debba (before its final edit) over the course of two nights not without a few gasps of shock and surprise. The images have stayed with me ever since.

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