We Were the Bullfighters, based on Ernest Hemingway's four-month stint as a staff reporter at the Toronto Daily Star, is a masterful blend of fact and fiction. After researching Hemingway's newspaper coverage of Norman "Red" Ryan's daring 1923 escape from Kingston Penitentiary, Toronto author Marianne Miller decided that the facts didn't capture the emotional hearts of Hemingway or Ryan. An entry that Hemingway made in a notebook saying that he was considering writing a novel about Ryan convinced her to turn her hand to fiction to depict the men behind the characters. The result is a page-turner, and my favorite read of 2024!
“A window into Canada's role in the making of Ernest Hemingway in clear, clean prose.” — Lee Gowan, author of The Beautiful Place. Sent to cover bank robber Red Ryan’s daring prison break, a young Ernest Hemingway becomes fascinated with the convict.. In 1923, Ernest Hemingway, struggling with the responsibilities of marriage and unexpected fatherhood, has just made a big mistake. He decided that for the baby’s first year he would interrupt his fledgling writing career in Paris and move his family to North America. No longer a freelancer, he now has a gruelling job with a difficult boss, as…
Just before the outbreak of the Second World War, 14-year-old Violet McPherson and her parents visit the legendary Sulphur Springs Hotel, famous for its healing waters. Violet begins to suspect something devious is going on behind the hotel’s luxurious façade, and she unknowingly becomes party to a murder. Now, at the age of 84, Violet wants to make peace with her ghosts. She returns to the hotel, which is now in ruins, searching for clues to the past. Part mystery, part coming-of-age story, The Sulphur Springs Cure is filled with nuanced characters, intrigue and wry humor. With its focus on character rather than on plot and its octogenarian sleuth, it is a sharp departure from Jeffrey Round’s gritty Dan Sharp mysteries, displaying the author’s range and versatility. I’m a sucker for local settings, and The Sulphur Springs Cure is set in a favorite haunt of mine: the Sulphur Springs Trail near Ancaster, Ontario, where the real-life Sulphur Springs Hotel closed in 1910 after being ravaged by fire.
"An extremely satisfying reading experience." - Toronto Star
In 1939, fourteen-year-old Violet and her parents arrive at the Sulphur Springs Hotel, drawn in along with other desperate guests by legends of the waters' restorative properties. Here, curious young Violet strikes up an instant friendship with the hotelier's worldly daughter, Julia. Together, they attempt to solve the mysteries behind the hotel's luxury facade - including the cases of the brownie thief, the secretive hotel director, and the flirtatious gardener.
But when one of Violet's investigations leads her to commit an act of treachery, she unwittingly aids a murderous plot. Seventy years…
March Roars is the fourth mystery in Maureen Jennings’ Paradise Café series. The Toronto newspapers have reported the arrest of two Black teenagers in a burglary, but did the pair commit the crime? Not according to Olivia Brodie, who was running an errand on the morning of the robbery when she saw two men behaving suspiciously near the burgled home. Two white men. Probably best known for her 1890s-era Detective Murdoch Mysteries on which the Murdoch Mysteries TV series is based, Jennings focuses on Toronto in the late 1930s in her current series. Those were years when the world was still reeling from the War to End All Wars and in the grip of the Great Depression. The books describe the poverty and the racial tensions in Toronto. The settings aren’t pretty, but they bring the city I live in to life. I’m fascinated by the glimpse into its past that they provide. Protagonist Charlotte Frayne is a unique character for the times. She’s over 30, unmarried and supporting herself in her chosen profession. A woman well ahead of her times. Looking forward to the fifth Paradise Café mystery!
“A grave injustice.” Those are the words in the letter sent to Charlotte Frayne, P.I., on a cold March morning.. The newspapers have reported on the arrest of two Black teenagers in a burglary, but did the pair actually commit the crime? Not according to the letter’s sender, Mrs. Olivia Brodie. A resident of the Toronto House of Industry — “the poor house” — Mrs. Brodie was running an early morning errand when she witnessed, on the morning of the crime, two men behaving in a suspicious manner near the burgled home: two white men.. Meanwhile, Charlotte is investigating another…
It’s Pat Tierney’s chance to run her own business, the way she wants to run a business. Without anyone breathing down her neck. She’s found a small financial planning practice that looks like a good fit, and its purchase means taking out a large loan to finance the deal. It’s risky, but she’s willing to proceed.The one thing she hasn’t factored in is a murder. Dean Monaghan, the business’s vendor, is found stabbed to death in his office shortly after the document of sale is signed. Attempting to maintain her business’s good reputation, Pat searches for Dean’s killer—and the reason why he was killed.When Dean’s son, Lukas, tries to put her out of business, Pat finds herself living her worst nightmare. She’s ventured into uncharted waters that are teeming with sharks.
