I read Canadian because Canadian writers are among the best in the world. I also review Canadian authors almost exclusively. I once read a post where someone wrote that there were no good Canadian authors. That just set me on a mission to prove them wrong. Still, a Canadian author can’t make the New York Times best sellers list unless they have an ultra rich American publisher who decides to bankroll them. That’s just the way it is. Too often, we Canadians are relegated to the bottom of the pile. For these reasons and more, I read Canadian and love the books I read.
This is a list of books I’ve read in the past year written by Canadian authors. Most have appeared, or will appear, in the Ottawa Review of Books. This is my way of supporting my fellow writers, giving them well-deserved exposure, and sending gratitude out into this beautiful land I love.
I may not read as much next year as I have my own books to write. But if you’re looking for some great Canadian writing, check out this list:
Under an Outlaw Moon, Dietrich Kalteis (crime)
Elements of Indigenous Style, Greg Younging (a must-have writing guide)
The Last of the Gifted series, Marie Powell (YA Welsh historical fantasy)
Hunting by Stars, Cherie Dimaline (YA Indigenous sci-fi)
Blood Mark, JP McLean (supernatural thriller)
White Lightning, Melissa Yi (crime)
Bloody Relations, Don Gutteridge (historical fiction)
A Stranger in Town, Kelley Armstrong (crime)
Wild Not Broken. Sarah Kades (romance)
The Deepest of Secrets, Kelley Armstrong (crime)
The Corpse with the Turquoise Toes, Cathy Ace (cozy crime)
Obsidian, Thomas King (Indigenous crime)
Deep House, Thomas King (Indigenous crime)
The Mother of All Degrassi, Linda Schuyler (memoir)
Cambium Blue, Maureen Brownlee (fiction)
Fenian Street, Anne Emery (Irish historical crime)
Ghost Mark, JP McLean (supernatural thriller)
The Things I Came Here With. Chris MacDonald (memoir)
The Legend of Sarah, Leslie Gadallah (fantasy)
Wolf at the Door, Joel McKay (fantasy)
Murder at Haven’s Rock. Kelley Armstrong (crime)
A Rip Through Time. Kelley Armstrong (time-travel, Scottish historical, crime)
It might seem unusual to be publishing a memoir in your mid-forties but when you’re an old soul with miles of experiential wisdom to impart, it works beautifully.
This is a genuinely inspirational story of perseverance and resilience. Chris MacDonald is a Toronto tattoo artist who’s come a long way from his rural beginnings in Alliston, Ontario, where he ran wild with his brothers. Along the way, his parents divorced and his mother disappeared from his life. He lived the life of an at-risk kid—cutting school, imbibing, starving, skateboarding, playing punk rock—learning his trade, and building relationships along the way.
“I miss my mom all the time. Maybe if I had closure, things would be different. Unfortunately, I don’t. I only have the things I came here with” (257).
Those things are a creative soul, a solid work ethic, and a talent for music and art. Chris’s writing is lyrical and impressive, flowing from his fingers like the tattoos he respectfully etches on his client’s skin.
“Tattooing is a hulking chimerical beast, startling and beautiful when spotted. It’s a shape-shifter: a cosmic, chrome scorpion; a crude, grey-scale beauty; a Zulueta tribal badge” (240).
This page-turner is divided into three parts: early life in the small town of Alliston, surviving Toronto on his own, and finally, becoming a tattoo artist and getting his own shop. Part One flows like poetry as his memories paint the page. Part Two is tougher as he crawls through the underbelly of the city. And Part Three reads like prose. By then, MacDonald is head-down into the business of becoming an entrepreneur so he can support his new family. His poetic soul never leaves, though; it’s just transferred to his art and music.
Through a series of descriptive vignettes, we wend our way through MacDonald’s life. He’s sensitive, caring, wounded, emotional, and most of all, honest. You’ll find yourself rooting for him and identifying with him. An eighties’ kid, his first crush was a “safari-guide figurine” and then he saw Olivia Newton-John.
If you know Toronto at all, you’ll paint yourself into the many places where MacDonald skates and crashes. Poor and starving, he does what he must to survive.
I can only applaud Chris for his perseverance, and for using the talents he came here with.
You can find Chris at Under My Thumb on the “western edge of Little Portugal” in Toronto. You can even book some time with him, enjoy the therapy being tattooed offers, and emerge wearing one of his creations. Go to Instagram and view his work. But first, read this, his first book.
PD TORONTO, ON – MARCH 11 – – Chris MacDonald, owner/operator of Under My Thumb Tattoos poses for pictures in his shop.__The drawing on the left is his. Vince Talotta/Toronto Star
Once upon a time in a house deep in the woods of Northern BC, a strong, thoughtful woman invited all her family and friends to Thanksgiving dinner—her parents and in-laws, convict brother-in-law, divorcing neighbours, and her two children: ten-year-old Tommy and his teenage sister, Charlotte. There were twelve in all, as one couple didn’t appear; at least, not in their human forms. It wasn’t quite “The Last Supper” but close.
Wolf at the Door is a kick-ass tour de force, a brilliantly plotted and masterfully written debut novella that will keep you sitting up in bed with your eyes and ears wide open long after its done. You may never venture out in the dark again.
This enchanting 125-page-story is told in six parts: Before Dinner, Cocktails, The Dinner, Dessert, Second Helpings, and A Late Night Snack. McKay treads the fantasy/horror trail but his psychological deep-dive into the characters of these people-next-door is what impresses most. When I taught English we often gave out an assignment: create a dinner party with several characters. Explain who and why and what transpires during the dinner. In a shorter story, an author must be concise and discriminatory with psychological details, and as I read the carefully selected backstories, personalities, and foibles of Char’s dinner guests, this came to mind.
How will Char and her husband Doug save their family and friends from being the main course for a couple of vicious werewolves equipped with mythic speed, superstrength, razor teeth and claws, and a hinged jaw that opens wide enough to take in Grandma’s whole head? Even the quintessential minivan can’t stand up to this brutality. “The monster’s arms broke through the window next to Owen like a knife through an eggshell. The glass shattered inward, scattering across the seats and floor in tiny square little chunks. Char tried to reach for Owen, but the seat belt locked and held her back” (104). I’ll stop there in case werewolf horror isn’t to your taste.
Joel McKay is a superhero in a suit. Trained as a journalist, McKay made Prince George his home a decade ago when he joined the Northern Development Initiative Trust. He’s now CEO. The Trust works with First Nations, local governments, and businesses to invest in Northern economic development. By day, McKay distributes millions of dollars in grants to create a stronger BC but by night he turns his literary skills to the realm of Sci-Fi, fantasy, and horror. His short story, “Number Hunnerd” was recently published in Tyche Books’ anthology, Water: Selkies, Sirens and Sea Monsters. I honestly cannot wait to read his first novel.
Wolf at the Door is a TV show waiting to happen. McKay’s sensory writing, keen dialogue, relatable characters, and perfect plotting creates a screenwriter’s dream. But don’t wait for that. Read it today, preferably in the daylight hours.
Fans of Thomas King and his serene, sensible, and sly, alter-ego, Thumps DreadfulWater, will be delighted to know his latest DreadfulWater Mystery is out, and it’s one of the best yet—a mischievous, slow-paced, cozy, infused with King’s trademark comedic wittiness, characters who are old friends, and a cup of sugar. Both down-to-earth and defying gravity as an eco-mystery, Deep House follows closely on Obsidian.
The “perhaps” love of his life, Claire, has adopted a young child named Ivory, and Thumps is embracing the idea of fatherhood; the only problem is, Claire doesn’t seem to be embracing Thumps with the same vigor she once did. In fact, she finds his presence “disconcerting.” Oh oh. Add to this, his trepidation around changing his photographic mode from film to digital during a waning pandemic, and Thumps is left facing a true “Thelma and Louise moment.”
King’s always told us his version of the truth, so doesn’t shy away from that “dreadful” subject Covid. As the pandemic “normalizes” people are beginning to gather outside again as they are now. The locals convene at Al’s café for the usual hijinks and witty political philosophizing. King invites us into discussions involving everything from photography to paint shades to prostate problems. And with surprising literary agility, he describes the passing of gas from Pops, the neighbour’s Komondor (big shaggy dog) without ever mentioning the word—“which is when the air on the porch went black … Thumps stumbled backwards, momentarily blinded by the smell that had exploded out of the dog … tried to get his eyes to focus” (100).This takes skill.
Many crime novels are plot driven. This one is not. Yes, Thumps inadvertently photographs a body in the boulders at the bottom of Deep House—a treacherous canyon on the local reserve near Chinook—and unravels a mystery. But what makes this story are the characters. Cooley Small Elk, big-hearted and anything but small, and his grandfather, Moses Blood; Archie Kousoulas, book store owner, who invites everyone to the pre-opening of Pappou’s, his new Greek restaurant; the laconic sheriff Duke Hockney; and the charming “ninja assassin” Cisco Cruz.
But more’s been tossed over the canyon wall into the crater than ancient appliances and a body. Folks have been using it to get rid of their junk for years, and the discovery of several painted panels pushes this eco-mystery into the landscape of corporate conspiracy.
Now the sugar. Fans will remember the disappearance of Thumps’s cat, Freeway. In this story, the cat comes back with a passel of surprises that draw out the man’s sensitive nature, making book six the sweetest installment of the series.
If you’ve never waded into the dry waters of Chinook, this is a great place to start to feel the true genius of the man and his imperturbable crime-fighting personality, Thumps DreadfulWater.
