Canadian Crime Fiction

I spent a lovely week in Toronto once. I had great fun there and had a constant smile on my face when listening to the local accent. I know that Canadians and Americans do the same when they come to Ireland so I should really be forgiven - but I had this constant feeling that I was in an episode of 'Northern Exposure' that quirky Cohen-brothers-style series that was around maybe a decade ago...

Anyhow....

I spent an afternoon in a bookshop on Front Street there - Nicholas Hoare's to be precise - and found a wonderful smattering of Irish and British thrillers and mysteries. It was just delightful to find books by both well-known and lesser-known Irish and British authors. I didn't see any of my old out of print stuff there, sadly, but my ego survived the event in any case...

So, Canadian bookstore memories apart, and acknowleding the wonderful works of Peter Robinson, that displaced (or rather well placed) Geordie now a resident Canuck, I was wondering what Canadian Crime has to offer these days...

To the right here you'll see C.B. Forrest's Slow Recoil, which follows Detective Charlie McKelvey from Toronto's version of 'The Sweeney' or Flying Squad.

In this tome, his follow-up to The Weight of Stones, Forrest takes us on a melting pot tour of Toronto with a wee sojourn in the Balkans as he investigates the death of an immigrant.

Well worth a gamble in my humble and dark opinion...