True North Stories
True North Stories is a compelling radio series featuring in-depth interviews with Canada's most intriguing literary voices—authors who have previously appeared on the renowned House of Mystery Radio Show. From bestselling crime novelists to award-winning poets, memoirists, and emerging storytellers, this show shines a spotlight on the diverse and dynamic talents shaping Canadian literature today.Hosted with curiosity and warmth, each episode offers listeners an intimate conversation with a Canadian author—exploring their inspirations, writing process, cultural influences, and the stories behind their stories. Whether you're a passionate reader, a fellow writer, or simply fascinated by the creative journey, Cana...
Sam Wiebe - Guns Across the River
Sam Wiebe’s gripping sixth Wakeland novel delivers a taut, atmospheric mystery that dives into corruption, crime and family secrets deeply rooted in Vancouver’s underworld.
On a dark night in False Creek, a distraught young woman jumps from the Granville Bridge. PI Dave Wakeland rescues Nicola Havoc from the water. Yet what seems like attempted suicide is even more sinister: Nicola is running away from someone. But who?
Soon Wakeland and his partner Jeff Chen are pulled into a case that leads from Vancouver’s back alleys to the hills of the Fraser...
Maria Jane - Perfect Secrets
Lawyers assume their clients don’t tell them everything.
Elle Moore assumes she’ll never escape her past.
Desperate for a fresh start, Elle jumps at the chance to work for Watson Clarke, a prestigious law firm offering a near-free path through law school. It’s everything she’s ever wanted.
There’s one complication: Tanner Clarke, the firm’s magnetic young heir.
Elle’s mother has spent years warning her daughter about lawyers, and her own ex proved those warnings right. Tanner should be the last ma...
A.L. Jensen - Hygge and Homicide
Escape to the charming small town of Lakewood in this delightful Scandinavian-inspired cozy mystery!
When talented interior designer Minna Halonen returns to her idyllic northern hometown after decades away, she's ready for a fresh start. Recently divorced and with her daughter grown, Minna eagerly takes over Nordic Cozy, her mother Elsi's beloved home décor shop, embracing the hygge lifestyle and peaceful natural surroundings she'd forgotten she missed.
Partnering with her lifelong friend Christie, a creative event planner with an eye for detail, Minna pours her heart into transforming an old lakeside property into Hygge H...
Dwayne Brenner - The Laundryman
In the frozen heart of the 1883 Canadian frontier, a single death unveils a darkness that could consume a town—and the men sworn to protect it.
Corporal Belvedere, a Mountie scarred by a brutal past, and Surgeon Virgil Montgomery, a newcomer haunted by his own doubts, are drawn into a murder investigation in the isolated settlement of Prince Albert. As winter’s grip tightens, the killing exposes a web of secrets buried beneath the snow, threatening to unravel the fragile order of the North-West Territories.
In a community steeped in mistrust, Belvedere’s unyielding quest for ju...
Robyn Harding - Stranger in the Villa
From the international bestselling author of The Drowning Woman, a psychological thriller about a couple rocked by infidelity who moves to a villa in Spain’s Costa Brava to rebuild their relationship, only to welcome a pair of visitors who have no intention of leaving.
Sydney Lowe’s life in New York is shattered when her husband, Curtis, admits to a meaningless affair with a client. Begging for forgiveness and vowing to prove his devotion, Curtis suggests the couple retreat to a remote hilltop house in Spain to repair their marriage.
High above the Medi...
Harper Carr - The Shadow Man
DARK FAMILY SECRETS. A HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE. A GIRL WHO SEES THE DEAD. WELCOME TO FEROZ ISLAND.
Seventeen-year-old Gracelyn Lassiter has been hiding in her aunt’s house for four years—since her mother plunged from the cliffs at Feroz Lighthouse, leaving her without her home, her best friend, or answers. Now, her father’s burned to death in his sailboat and left a confession:
“Your mother didn’t jump, I pushed her.”
The trauma triggers Gracelyn’s ability to see spirits so real she can’t tell who’s human and who’s a ghost—except for t...
J.M. Clarke & C.J. Thompson - Rune Seeker
The Everfail will rise. His enemies will fall.
Hiral is the Everfail, the weakest person on the flying island of Fallen Reach. He trains harder than any warrior. Studies longer than any scholar.
But all his people are born with magic powered by the sun, flowing through tattoos on their bodies. Despite having enormous energy within, Hiral is the only one who can’t channel it; his hard work is worth nothing.
Until it isn’t.
In a moment of danger, Hiral unlocks an achievement with...
Sebastien de Castell - Our Lady of Blades
'A spirited swashbuckling fantasy about family, revenge and the price of justice' - Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican Gothic
Two sisters: divided by tragedy, united by steel. The incredible new novel in the Court of Shadows series by the bestselling author of TRAITOR'S BLADE and THE MALEVOLENT SEVEN!
Blood Week may have been banned in Rijou, but the streets still run red - and now murder is being sanctioned by the courts. Only a reckless fool would believe they can beat the system. But then, the Greatcoats have always been more t...
J.M. Shaw - The Ascension: First Novel in The Callum Walker Series
A hidden war is spilling into our world.
Two realms. One veil. A conflict that won’t stay buried.
Callum Walker never asked for power — and he certainly never asked for destiny.
Born with arcane abilities he barely understands, Callum is drawn into a secret magical world of monsters, ancient factions, and uneasy alliances. As his uncontrolled power grows, it attracts the attention of two ruthless brothers locked in a centuries-old war — one a sorcerer, the other a necromancer.
When an ancient prophecy names Callum as the one destin...
Angela van Breemen - Revenge is not Enough
Revenge can’t undo what was done.
When young psychic Emma Jackson experiences a terrifying vision of a teenage girl being raped, she is shaken to the core. As her husband, David Harris, tries to comfort her, his worry increases when her shattered voice whispers, “Her name was Maggie.” David questions the wisdom of his team of investigators using the paranormal to solve cold cases.
Emma and David, and Bryan, a retired police office and his wife, Laura, have been working together with New Elgan Police Service to solve cold cases.
They l...
Joel Nedecky - The Broken Detective
Sam Wiebe’s Invisible Dead meets John McMahon’s The Good Detective in this gritty detective novel that centers around a man’s struggle to solve a crime that will guarantee the safety of his loved ones, while he faces life changing consequences of his family’s alcoholic past.
Private investigator Jake Joelsen is going to prison for assaulting his sick mom’s abusive boyfriend, but thanks to a suspended sentence, he has two weeks to earn as much money as possible so he can financially support his mom when he’s inside.
Enter Nia Rowe, who hire...
Tara Hodgson - At Least I'm Trying
When the volleyball hits the floor mere inches from Reese’s hands, her dreams of playing
college ball shatter.
After consecutive failures on the court, in the classroom, and in her relationships, she’s done
playing the part of perfect daughter, perfect student, and perfect athlete. It’s time for a new life.
Enter Cassie Brentwood.
Bold. Reckless. Free. Cassie is everything Reese isn’t yet longs to be. They quickly become
friends and Cassie introduces her to Liam, a mysterious guy from Snapchat. Blinded by his l...
Lynda Williams - The Beauty and the Hell of It
A woman comes face to face with her rapist at his engagement party. A teen reluctantly celebrating the first Christmas after her mother’s death gets caught cutting her wrists by a stranger. A student hands in a box of Kraft Dinner as her final assignment, and a bipolar art teacher grieves her divorce by online shopping. The Beauty and the Hell of It & Other Stories is a collection of stories about women (and one man) who quietly resist and the resulting moments of transition, acceptance, and vindication. Whether they wrestle with grief, growth, trauma, or all three, these characters don’...
Thomas Mark McKinnon - In Spite of Thunder
FBI agent Frank Adler’s life is upended when his daughter vanishes on what should have been the trip of a lifetime. No witnesses. No demands. No trace.
Refusing to wait for an investigation from the sidelines, Frank breaks protocol and follows a trail of clues that lead him into a shadowy underworld. As he digs deeper, he finds himself caught in an interconnected web of lies, cartels, cover-ups, corporate greed, and dangerous players who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
With the body count rising and time running out, Frank must unc...
Ryan Melsom - Gods of a New World
The trillionaires were powerful enough to reshape the world, but it wasn’t enough. Now they want more . . .
In a world where trillionaires assisted by powerful AIs call themselves gods, a world where miracles are engineered and secret technology is wired into the very air, James Kessler and Maree Shell stumble upon a conspiracy that defies possibility: the new gods’ plan to encode their consciousness into the world and seize control of reality itself, to literally become the gods they have so far only pretended to be.
From the world’s gleaming new AI-crafted cities to the...
Judy Penz Sheluk - Midnight Schemers & Daydream Believers
Desire or desperation, revenge or retribution—how far would you go to realize a dream? The twenty-two authors in this collection explore the possibilities, with predictably unpredictable results.
Featuring stories by Pam Barnsley, Linda Bennett, Clark Boyd, C.W. Blackwell, Amanda Capper, Susan Daly, James Patrick Focarile, Rand Gaynor, Gina X. Grant, Julie Hastrup, Beth Irish, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Jim McDonald, donalee Moulton, Michael Penncavage, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Peggy Rothschild, Debra Bliss Saenger, and Joseph S. Walker.
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Desmond P. Ryan - Dangerous Assumptions
Detective Mike O'Shea is spiraling—consumed by painkiller addiction, alcohol, and the crushing weight of unresolved grief. As his personal demons threaten to take control, he’s pulled into a chilling case: a woman is found dead, her son rotting beside her, discovered only when neighbors are alerted by the unbearable stench of decay.
Meanwhile, O'Shea’s obsession with the killer of his former partner, Sal, continues to haunt him. The elusive murderer has evaded justice for years, but O'Shea has always suspected something more—an untold truth buried beneath the surface. As he digs further, he uncov...
Tara Hodgson - Chasing Through Time
In the tumultuous world of high school, Emma grapples with a devastating breakup, a damning social media scandal that threatens her reputation, and an overwhelming sense of isolation. Her parents are distant, she has no true friends, and her despair deepens with each passing day.
One fateful night during a sudden snowstorm, Emma forges a connection with Sarah, a girl who navigates the treacherous high school terrain of 2001. In this improbable friendship, they bond through the digital ether, supporting each other's struggles at the same school, in the same town, while separated by two decades.
<...Robert J Sawyer - L. Ron Hubbard Award Winner
“An imaginative restructuring of a phantasmagoric life into an alternative phantasmagorical story. Oppenheimer fans will be intrigued.” —Martin J. Sherwin, co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the basis for Christopher Nolan's movie Oppenheimer
While J. Robert Oppenheimer and his Manhattan Project team struggle to develop the atomic bomb, Edward Teller wants something even more devastating: a weapon based on nuclear fusion — the mechanism that powers the sun. But Teller’s research leads to a terrifying discovery: by the mid-21st century, the sun will eject its outermost layer, destroyin...
Edo Van Belkom - Death drives A Semi
Keep one eye on the road ahead and another on the rearview mirror.
Because, like the legendary phantom semi of this book's titular story, these stories will creep up on you and overtake you without warning.
Edo van Belkom twists his unique perspective and droll, black sense of humor into twisted observations of the sad, violent, and ironic sides of life in this special 25th anniversary release of a compilation of his most beloved horror stories.
With a voice and range that has drawn comparisons of Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson and Stephen King...
Richard H Stephens - Windwalker
'The White Witch had foreseen Pecklyn’s death at Grim Watch Tower. If the Queen of the Fae was to be trusted, Pecklyn wasn’t coming back.'
Maturing into a confident leader, prepared to take on the world, the rightful heir to the Willow Throne is faced with a fierce battle if she is ever to assume her mother's place.
Denied by the infamous dragon, Grimclaw, Ouderling seeks the aid of the King of the Dwarfs. Embarking on a journey to a mysterious castle inhabited by ghosts, she experiences a terrifying encounter with...
Daniele Cybulskie - Chivalry and Courtesy: Medieval Manners for a Modern World
A surprising look at how medieval etiquette can improve our lives today, from the author of the popular How to Live Like a Monk
Medieval people are often portrayed as having poor hygiene and table manners―licking their knives or throwing chicken bones on the floor. In the Middle Ages, however, such behavior was not tolerated. Medieval society cherished order in nearly every facet of life, from regular handwashing to daily prayer. There were consequences if you didn’t adhere to the rules of good behavior: you wouldn’t be invited to the lord’s next dinner, you would...
Hannah Mary McKinnon - The Revenge List
They say life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. But all she could see was regret.
The people in Frankie Morgan’s life say she’s angry. Emotionally stunted. Combative. But really, who can blame her? It’s hard being nice when your clients are insufferable, your next-door neighbor is a miserable woman and the cowardly driver who killed your mother is still out living it up somewhere.
Somehow, though, she finds herself at her very first anger-management group session—drinking terrible coffee and learning all about how “forgiveness is a process...
Steve Urszenyi - Perfect Shot
A former Army sniper must fall back on her Special Ops skills when a friend’s death uncovers a global nuclear threat, in Steve Urszenyi's Perfect Shot, the first in an electrifying new series featuring Special Agent Alexandra Martel.
Special Agent Alexandra Martel has put her days on the battlefield behind her. Charming and disarming, relentless and lethal, she earned a reputation as one of the most renowned and decorated Army snipers in the service before stepping away. But when Alex, now an FBI special agent on loan to Interpol, learns that an old friend, an MI5 o...
Bruce Hornidge - Logger Heads
“For a decade, the issue of forest and land use in British Columbia raged like a forest fire . . .”
Shamed by demonstrators as a “tree-killer,” Clayoquot Sound tree faller Bruce Hornidge faced soul-searing losses of identity and family livelihood. This gripping, irony-laden memoir of a life spent harvesting in the beauty of the forest deals frankly with the nearly invisible human fallout of the inevitable move away from a resource-based economy and the impact on one man’s psyche.
Hornidge recalls his career as a faller in the West Coast forestry industry from the unique and sometimes ir...
Joel McKay - It Came from the Trees
Winner of the 2025 BookFest silver award for horror and the 2024 Global Book Awards bronze metal for short fiction, It Came From the Trees and Other Violent Aberrations is your retro-pulp style collection of afternoon reads!
Tree planters on the run from parasitic insects. A physicist who has become the target of a murderous airline. Teenagers trapped in a museum with an eldritch horror. An escaped pit fighter thrust into a desperate stand at a sagging mountain fortress. And a luckless cowboy sailing across a sea of grass to the bloody resurrection of an elder god. Welcome...
Matthew Hughes - A God in Hiding
In a far-future world of wizards and walled cities, Lieve Reder has risen from being a small chandler’s daughter to become the captain of a riverboat owned by House Bernaglio in the oligarch-run city of Exley. She has ambitions to rise higher and when her employer, the widow Philaria Bernaglio, asks her to travel to the remote desert town of Ur Nazim to retrieve a mysterious item her dead husband, Nulf Bernaglio ordered, she signs on to the quest.
Accompanied by Dai, an artificial human created by one of the mad thaumaturges of Olliphract to be...
Don Sawyer - The Burning Gem
The Burning Gem spins from chance meeting of a woman ready for adventure after years in a loveless marriage and a mysterious artisan who will show her another world.
Barbara has always had an uncanny ability to read others, but her full empathic skills emerge only after a part of her soul is crystalized into a flaming red gem. Desperate to escape her soul-crushing suburban life and to reconnect with the mysterious man who made her gem, she makes her way on foot through the terrifying NY subway tunnels to find an abandoned station.
Zoltan i...
Ivanka Fear - The Dead Lie: A Blue Water Mystery
Book 1:
You can run. You can hide. But in the end, the past catches up with you.
Lana, a young mother who suffered a traumatic event 11 years ago, has been living under an assumed name. When she visits her hometown to check if it’s safe to reclaim her identity, Lana suffers several mishaps. Then, her parents are killed in a car crash. Lana blames herself and her past mistakes until she discovers her mom and dad weren’t who they claimed to be, leading her to suspect their secrets may be responsible for their deat...
Judy Penz Sheluk - Larceny & Last Chances (A Superior Shores Anthology Book 4)
Larceny & Last Chances
Sometimes, it’s about doing the right thing. Sometimes, it’s about getting even. Sometimes, it’s about taking what you think you deserve. And sometimes, it’s your last, best chance. Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk and featuring stories by Christina Boufis, John Bukowski, Brenda Chapman, Susan Daly, Wil A. Emerson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, Molly Wills Fraser, Gina X. Grant, Karen Grose, Wendy Harrison, Julie Hastrup, Larry M. Keeton, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Gregory Meece, Cate Moyle, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Kevin R. Tipple, and Robert Weibezahl.
Judy Pen...
Brenda Chapman - Larceny & Last Chances (A Superior Shores Anthology Book 4)
Larceny & Last Chances
Sometimes, it’s about doing the right thing. Sometimes, it’s about getting even. Sometimes, it’s about taking what you think you deserve. And sometimes, it’s your last, best chance. Edited by Judy Penz Sheluk and featuring stories by Christina Boufis, John Bukowski, Brenda Chapman, Susan Daly, Wil A. Emerson, Tracy Falenwolfe, Kate Fellowes, Molly Wills Fraser, Gina X. Grant, Karen Grose, Wendy Harrison, Julie Hastrup, Larry M. Keeton, Charlie Kondek, Edward Lodi, Bethany Maines, Gregory Meece, Cate Moyle, Judy Penz Sheluk, KM Rockwood, Kevin R. Tipple, and Robert Weibezahl.
Brenda C...
Alison McBain - Author Vs. AI
It's GO time! Author Versus AI has officially started!
To follow along with my journey, check out my "sister" website Author Versus AI. I'll be doing fun things to mark my journey throughout the course of the year, such as posting summaries of the books I'm working on, fun tidbits about genres and tips about writing, as well as updating my word count daily. There MIGHT even be a few silly pictures here and there. You never know.
On top of that, you'll get a sneak preview of the books themselves because I plan...
Jenna Greene - Silencers
On the "Best Young Adult Dystopian Novels" list on Goodreads!
Scona must choose. Protect her father, or embrace the darkness she's been trained to destroy...
Despite warnings from family and friends, Scona Tinay enrolls in Silencers Academy.
To escape a life of poverty and hardship and ensure a stable future, Scona sets her sights on the Silencers, where the students earn a wage. She soon learns her fellow students are cutthroat and the training regimen brutal.
As Scona heads deeper into her training, she begins to question...
Beau Johnson - Chainsaw Noir
I have published before, usually on the darker side of town. Seeing as I'm Canadian, I will always wish you well.
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Brian O'Neill - Twelfth Juror
The true account of the twisted affair between murder suspect Peter Gill and Canada's most famous juror Gillian Guess
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James Bow - The Sun Runners
Lieutenant Adelheid Koning was only twenty-three when the Earth’s long fight against its environment ended in collapse and nuclear war. Earth’s sudden silence leaves the colonies of the inner solar system without lifelines, in various stages of self-sufficiency.
Or, in Mercury’s case, not.
To help her fellow stranded colonists of Mercury survive starvation and a breakdown of order, Adelheid fights some cold equations and makes some hard choices, ending up wearing an iron crown as queen of one of the rail cities of Mercury, constantly moving to stay ahead of the Sun.
F...
Joyce Woollcott - Blood Relations
Belfast, Northern Ireland: early spring 2017. Retired Chief Inspector Patrick Mullan is found brutally murdered in his bed. Detective Sergeant Ryan McBride and his partner Detective Sergeant Billy Lamont are called to his desolate country home to investigate. In their inquiry, they discover a man whose career with the Police Service of Northern Ireland was overshadowed by violence and corruption. Is the killer someone from Mullan’s past, or his present?
And who hated the man enough to kill him twice?
Ryan and Billy once again face a complex investigation with wit and intelligence, al...
Jerry Langton - How It's Done
Dave is like nobody you’ve ever met. Or maybe you have, but didn’t know it. Thrown out of his home at 14, he used his wits, charm and determination to become one of the most successful drug dealers in Canada. But, after the birth of his son, he knew he had to make one last big score before getting out of the game. So, he became an undercover police agent, the first one whose life wasn’t in danger.
Jerry Langton, one of Canada’s best known crime authors, follows Dave’s incredible trip while exposing the inner...
Don Sawyer - Tunnels of Buda
WELCOME TO THE TUNNELS OF BUDA
The Mester is dead or maimed and the black stone used to control his network of gem makers is in Barbara and Zoltan’s hands. But as Zoltan discovered in the ruin bars of Budapest from a former associate, who turned up beheaded and his hands cut off, the Mester was just a small part of a much larger cabal, an ancient Order dating back to Aristotle and beyond. The Order has one goal: to convince the populace that there are masters divinely intended to rule and slaves meant only to ob...
Jonas Saul - The Disappearance
The Disappearance (Sarah Roberts Book Thirty-Four)
On a cold, snowy evening in northern Ontario, Sarah Roberts has gone missing. When the snowstorm clears, a search party begins the arduous job of trekking through the wintry Canadian forests in search of her car.
They find her vehicle in a deep ditch, hidden from the road and covered in snow. The passenger door is open, there’s blood on the steering wheel, and signs that someone was dragged from the car.
Frustrated and panicked, Parkman, Aaron, and Alex band together to hunt for Sarah before sh...