The Next Chapter

3 titles from the Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore that are flying off the shelves

Since 1994, the Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore has been providing customers with crime fiction. Owner of the Winnipeg store Michael Bumsted recommends three recent titles.
Michael Bumsted at the Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore shares some of the titles that have been flying off bookshelves. ( Aaron J. Cohen)

The Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore has been a staple of Winnipeg's literary scene since 1994. Specialising in crime fiction, the store provides customers with the latest in thrilling books.

Michael Bumsted and his family has owned and managed the store since 2007. He recommends three books that have been popular with their customers.

The  Lady Sherlock series by Sherry Thomas 

Sherry Thomas's Lady Sherlock series inverts the genders of Holmes and Watson. (@sherrythomas on Twitter, Berkley)

"Sherry Thomas has inverted the gender of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson. So Charlotte Holmes is the detective who poses as Sherlock Holmes to solve her crimes and her aide, Mrs. Watson, poses as a man. It's a series that balances the typical historical accounts of Victorian women and the way that they have to live versus the adventures that Sherlock Holmes and his companions would undertake."

DreadfulWater by Thomas King

DreadfulWater is a mystery book by acclaimed First Nations author and screenwriter Thomas King. (Hartley Goodweather, HarperCollins)

"Thomas King, who used to write his crime fiction under the pseudonym Hartley Goodweather, is now having his crime fiction reissued under his own name. The series is called DreadfulWater  mysteries, which follows a detective named DreadfulWater. He's very much an Indigenous detective exploring North American Indigenous themes, including a murder that is unsolved called the obsidian murders. King has released a fourth book in the series of books called A Matter of Malice."

The Dark Iceland series by Ragnar  Jonasson

Rupture is the fourth book in Ragnar Jonasson's Dark Iceland series. (Ragnarjonasson.com, Minotaur )

"Scandinavian fiction has been popular in Canada since Stieg Larsson's books were released in English. There is a new crown prince in Icelandic crime fiction. His name is Ragnar Jonasson and he now has two series in North America. The newest of his books is the fourth in his Dark Iceland series, which follows a detective named Ari Thor. He has clear allusions to Agatha Christie while at the same time maintaining a very dark Scandinavian sensibility."

Michael Bumsted's comments have been edited for clarity and length.