What do you get when you cross an emergency-room doctor with an award-winning novelist? An insanely-twisted thriller that’s more connected than the vascular system.
White Lightning is book nine in the Hope Sze medical thriller series but reads like a standalone. It was my first Yi read but won’t be my last. The premise is simple—the complications are not.
Think of small things that pack a punch, and you’ve got Dr. Sze. Self-described as “five foot two and a quarter because of her ‘Asian genes’,” Hope is anything but diminutive. (And I have to wonder how much of Melissa Yi runs through the fictional veins of Hope Sze). She refers to herself as an “idiot savant sleuth” and definitely shows off her skills in this story.
When Hope and fellow doctors, Tori Yamamoto and John Tucker, take a weekend away from interning in Montreal, Hope’s platinum-haired fiancé, Tucker, insists they stay at the Rumrunner’s Rest, a historic inn in Windsor, Ontario. The Detroit River was once known as “Hooch Highway” as opportunists took to transporting alcohol across it from Canada into the United States during American Prohibition.
Right from page one, we know something’s up when the pragmatic Tori sees a ghost.
I love blended genres and that’s what’s brewing here—a murder mystery/thriller, with a dash of history, and a supernatural twist. Oh, and spiked with Rogue Con – a motley collection of theatrical villains, a stalker, the appearance of Hope’s recent ex-boyfriend (whom she still loves) AND the gruesome discovery of bones in the basement chimney.
But it’s not all fun and games.
Interwoven into the narrative is the story of orphan Edwin Jenkins, a six-year-old English chimney sweep, forced into servitude and early death. Edwin’s tragic tale is one of horror and exploitation. Later that theme replays with the introduction of a teen prostitute from Rogue Con.
Yi is a witty, playful writer who doesn’t shy away from spiking the text with expletives, sexy innuendos, and shots of pop culture. Her reactions to seeing her ex-boyfriend, in the basement at the unveiling of the mysterious bones, are priceless; in fact, the whole scene, wild rogues and all, is a comic tour-de-force. Twisted riddles on the title, White Lightning, are endless (I’ll let you sleuth them out) and the connections make for a meticulous mind-map. We even read a first-person interview with the original White Lightning who worked with the infamous Al Capone.
Technically the works of a medical crime writer, Yi’s Hope Sze thrillers have been recommended by The Globe and Mail, CBC Books, and The Next Chapter as some of the best Canadian suspense novels.
In this high voltage thriller, Yi weaves a tragic tapestry of exploitation, murder, mayhem, and revenge, spiked with comic relief. Don’t miss it.
At its heart, Under an Outlaw Moon is a love story about two kids trying to escape the Depression. Based on a true story, Dietrich Kalteis breathes life into a couple of real-life outlaws. This is not an easy thing to do. An author needs space to allow the muse to roam. Kalteis has the facts. But newspaper stories and novels are two very different genres. How does he bring this story to life and make these characters, not only sympathetic but our friends?
In his legendary clipped casual style, Kalteis creates personas from facts and those newspaper names: Bennie Dickson and Stella Mae Redenbaugh (soon to be Dickson). They meet on June 12, 1937 at a skating rink. Stella is fifteen, naïve, and impressionable; Bennie is over a decade her senior, experienced and sporting a criminal record: six years’ hard time for a bank robbery in Missouri. Still, this is love. Their romance boils and simmers while Bennie boxes under the name Johnny O’Malley, and Stella endures the pains of being a poor naïve girl in America. When they marry a year later, she’s already hurt, traumatized, and looking to escape with a romantic hero. She finds one in Bennie. An honourable, sociable, robber, Bennie reads philosophy and writes poetry; plus he’s head over heals in love with Sure Shot Stella. Who wouldn’t fall for Bennie?
These two are classically romantic. They want a house with a white picket fence. It shouldn’t take much—a couple of banks ought to do it. If only J. Edgar Hoover wasn’t the kingpin of the FBI.
Things I love about this book. Kalteis’s legendary writing style. He spins us around his short, clipped phrases and keeps us wanting more. Not many authors today write omniscient (given that agents and publishers warn us against it). But Kalteis is a literary rebel. Embracing the omniscient point-of-view, he provides us access to the thoughts of whoever has the most pertinent information at the time. The personalities of the characters shine in the dialogue. Bennie and Stella are constantly sniping at each other. Love banter. And Stella is cheeky. “You gonna call yourself unkillable again, I think I’m gonna throw up.” She loves her man; there’s no doubt about that. But she’s also spending hours and hours on the run with him, stealing cars, crossing state lines, sleeping wherever, and all in the first year of their relationship. I think she’s earned some cheeky rights. The bulk of the story spans two years: 1937-1939.
A few times, Kalteis spotlights the pursuers. Remember, this is the Depression—the days of Bonnie and Clyde, Ma Barker, Machine Gun Kelly, J. Edgar Hoover and his relentless G-men. We know it can’t end well, and yet, we don’t want it to end. Sitting in the back seat of Bennie and Stella’s stolen coupe is too real and we’re too invested. It’s hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys. A good writer is much easier to spot. You’ll find one here. And though he’d tell you he’s writing crime, in Under an Outlaw Moon, Kalteis is also writing a big-hearted romance.
I stumbled upon this intense crime novel while searching for books set in Minnesota. Why you might ask? My latest romantic suspense novel is set there and I was looking for comparable titles. Is it comparable? In some ways, yes.
Both our stories are set in the wilds of Minnesota on Anishinabe territory and include some references to culture. Both involve romance and mystery. Both involve heroes and corrupt sheriffs. And, in both our books, the landscape is a major character that affects the plot and the behavior of the characters.
But Krueger’s novel is definitely a crime novel, beginning with the murder of a prominent judge, and the story chronicles retired sheriff, Corcoran O’Connor’s obsession to find the killer along with a missing boy, Paul LeBeaux.
I read this book twice as I sometimes do, especially with a crime novel. The first time I need to know what happens; the next time I want to pick up the nuances of how the writer unravels the mystery.
First published in 1998, Iron Lake was Krueger’s debut novel and he won awards for it:
a Barry Award, a Best First Novel (1999), and a Minnesota Book Award (1999). I understand why. Krueger is a craftsman. Unique memorable characters, mythical references, and a setting to die for, all propel the story to a suspenseful climax and resolution.
The story begins with a flashback to a bear hunt and foreshadows the appearance, or at least the involvement, of the mythical Windigo—a powerful monster who devours its victims. In this story, when the Windigo calls your name, you’re destined to die.
Cork O’Connor is part-Irish, part-Anishinabe, while Krueger is not. He credits two Anishinabe people: Barbara Briseno of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and Alex Ghebregzi who helped with language and culture. And his research includes books by ethnographers, Francis Densmore and storyteller Basil Johnson, both of whom I read back in the nineties when I was studying at Trent.
Iron Lake takes place during a winter blizzard and this unique atmosphere draws you in. The lake is deep frozen, except for an area of open water, snow-covered, and the playground of snowmobilers and ice-fishermen. It reminds me of my time living beside Lake Scugog in Ontario.
This is a book to snuggle with on winter nights, knowing you’re not out on that frozen lake being hunted by the killers you’re trying to catch, or the ravenous Windigo. According to Krueger’s website, there are now eighteen books in the Cork O’Connor Mystery Series. That’s a lot of Minnesota adventure to catch up on. I look forward to coming back to this series time and time again.
In the sixth installment of the Rockton series, Kelley Armstrong takes us back to the town’s beginnings, so much so that I felt regrettably this might be the end. Her website says otherwise. Since she is contracted for seven books, the series “will be at least that long,” Armstrong assures us. Still, there is a lingering sense of finality at the conclusion of this book that gives me a pang of sadness. I’ve loved this series since the beginning.
The discovery of an injured stranger, who only speaks some Germanic language, heralds an investigation into the genesis of Rockton, the outlying settlements, and the hostiles. For those new to Rockton, Armstrong spends the first few chapters reminding us where we are—a strange, somewhat violent town in the Yukon where people apply to live so they can disappear from insurmountable problems in the outside world. This means your neighbours might be killers or victims or just on the run from mistakes and wanting a new start. Rockton is off the radar and puppeted by a council who live outside it, with one rep or spy who usually lives in it.
Casey Duncan, the series protagonist, is a detective. Sheriff Dalton is her mountain man partner, and her sister, April is the town’s autistic physician. Casey’s young Newfoundland dog, Storm, provides comic relief and also is an amazing tracker, something this team needs because someone is always disappearing into the bush.
These books are written with an overarching sense of intelligence. The concept of the hidden Yukon town is clever, but as Armstrong reveals more information as to its genesis through the wily detective, we see a blossoming brilliance in this cold northern darkness. Casey Duncan narrates in the present tense, first-person point-of-view, and we are given ample entrance into her thoughts as she struggles to solve the mystery of the injured stranger and what it might mean to the town and its inhabitants. With that, we learn Casey’s theory of how the hostiles evolved from a splinter group from the second settlement—a settlement that had broken free of the town of Rockton. And so we see these factions which are not so much classes as cultures who strive to navigate “an endless balance of debt and obligation.”
Outdoor enthusiasts will appreciate the riveting action and adventure scenes where Casey and Dalton negotiate with grizzlies, wild boar, wolves, and all the Yukon wilderness has to offer. There is scarcely a moment to eat or sleep or put the book down. No one is who they appear to be, including the injured stranger.
A Stranger in Town is published by Minotaur Books.
One thing stands between fiction and non-fiction. Reality. As a novelist, I’ve written stories about killers and their victims but those characters live only in my imagination. The killers and victims in Warren’s books are real and that raises the stakes considerably. These are not simply characters, but traumatized people whose lives and futures were snuffed out and whose surviving families must live on with that knowledge.
These are people who Warren personally interviews and that impresses me. I know it takes sympathy and understanding to talk with victims affected by crime. Alan Warren jokes that his autism allows him to be poker-faced and unemotional in meetings with killers and the victims’ surviving family and friends, but his altruism and compassion shine through in what he chooses to reveal in his books, what he chooses to omit, and how he approaches each word.
Murder Times Six: the True Story of the Wells Gray Park Murders is a book about “justice.” The question Warren continues to return to is this: should David Shearing, confessed murderer of six, be allowed parole? Shearing has applied for parole before and can do so again in 2021. Warren asks: “Do we want people who commit such violent crimes, like murder and rape, out in free society? Would you want him living next door to you?” This book presents the case against Shearing. Why should he be allowed to live a “normal” life with the wife he married while incarcerated when his victims’ lives were snuffed out for one selfish reason? Shearing wanted two young girls he’d noticed in the bush and become obsessed with. This is a “story of a family trying to live and enjoy their lives.” It’s not a story intended to glamorize David Shearing. You will not find graphic details here. This is a book that honours the victims and survivors.
In August 1982, three generations of a Kelowna family went camping at Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia — Bob and Jackie Johnson and their daughters, thirteen-year-old Janet and eleven-year-old Karen, along with Jackie’s parents George and Edith Bentley. None of them ever returned. Many people know that their charred bodies were discovered later — the remains of four adults piled into the back seat and the two young girls (sisters) in the trunk.
Forty years later, Warren interviewed David Shearing at Bowden Institution, a medium-security prison in Alberta. He also interviewed Shearing’s wife, Heather. One thing I appreciate about Warren’s book is the detailed research he’s done into subjects such as hybristophilia: an intense love and sexual attraction for a man who’s committed heinous crimes. This “potentially lethal disorder” is more common than we think and there are several prison dating sites that enable it. Warren also explains the Canadian prison and parole system and discusses pedophilia and cutting-edge “treatments” as this topic relates to Shearing’s motives for murdering this family.
The book is divided into three parts. First, the story of the family, their excitement about going camping together, their disappearance and gruesome discovery, and finally Shearing. Next, police interviews with Shearing, his changing stories and confession, subsequent trial, and incarceration. And finally, tributes to the family and victim impact statements that will break your heart.
Warren documents a long list of references — everything from parole hearing reports to the genetic predisposition of humans to kill each other — but what makes this book are the personal words and touches along with Warren’s own insights into Shearing and the people he destroyed. The city of Kelowna continues to mourn the loss of this family — three generations gone because one man wanted two young girls who’d not even set foot in high school. He wanted them and he took them.
Alan R. Warren is a host and producer of NBC news talk radio show House of Mystery which reviews True Crime, History, Science, Religion, and Paranormal Mysteries. He is also the best-selling author of several True Crime books and can be found at www.alanrwarren.com
In an age where murder is sensationalized through television drama, the reality of a real cold-blooded “murder times six” by a ruthless and selfish killer, begs to be heard and acknowledged. Warren does important work and I applaud his dedication to sensitively bring justice to the victims of violent crimes.
What do you do when your new lover is accused of murder and you’re not really sure of his guilt or innocence? The evidence against ex-convict Mason Burke may be circumstantial but it’s so compelling even Deputy Jess Winslow doubts her lover’s innocence.
In the captivating sequel to Deception Cove, Burke and Winslow barely have time to take a breath before a body washes up on the Pacific shore. The Victim: Bad Boyd. A local celebrity who played pro hockey, Boyd isn’t just bad, he’s wicked. This heinous bully has fought, terrorized, and murdered dogs over the years, and he’s destroyed people. All for his own sadistic pleasure. Still, he’s never been caught. Until now.
The Accused: loveable, dependable Mason Burke. With his fifteen-year-stint in the Chippewa penitentiary for murder barely behind him, Burke is the last person seen with Bad Boyd. And they were fighting. Mason loves his pit bull. Boyd killed pit bulls. The altercation was inevitable.
With their newfound love belching puffs of mistrust and doubt, this high octane thriller tests the limits for both Burke and Winslow. Should he turn himself in or abandon his little family and run for it? And who will find the real killer with Burke in jail? Worse, if he runs, he’ll lose everyone he loves.
Lone Jack Trail sees us traversing more epic West Coast terrain. It’s obvious Laukkanen’s travelled these trails. His 3D sensory descriptions take us there. The small coastal town of Deception Cove is a familiar character but the surrounding wilderness is a dangerous haven for meth cookers and killers.
Laukkanen’s writing is emphatic but precise and controlled, though his feelings fleck the surface like fish for flies. When Burke visits Bad Boyd’s vacated dog-fighting barn, I thought I might have to skip a few pages. There are things I can’t read and don’t want to know. But even something so close to Laukkanen’s heart as animal cruelty is treated delicately and we feel Burke’s pain (and Laukkanen’s) in the spaces between.
What draws me to Laukkanen’s writing besides his engrossing narrative style is his ability to write ordinary heroes doing extraordinary things. Burke’s clever young sidekick, Chris Rengo, is a homeless former meth cooker, but he often comes up with the right information at the right time. Deputy Tyner Gillies, named for a real live police sergeant and author, is fearless — a warrior and one of the good guys in a town known for corrupt cops. And then there’s Jess Winslow and Lucy. Jess is an ex-Marine suffering from PTSD and her service dog, Lucy, is based on Laukkanen’s own rescued pit bull. Lucy is as much a hero as anyone in this cast of eccentric characters.
In the exhilarating climax on Lone Jack Trail, we discover just how much of a team these three really are — Burke, Winslow, and Lucy, the dog. With its satisfying ending, Lone Jack Trail will leave you smiling and wanting more in this series.
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