13 spine-tingling Canadian reads to check out for Halloween
CBC Books | | Posted: October 28, 2020 3:28 PM | Last Updated: October 30, 2020
Halloween is Oct. 31, and why not celebrate with a spine-tingling read? If you like horror, thriller, mystery or crime, there's a Canadian book on this list for you.
Woman on the Edge by Samantha M. Bailey
In Woman on the Edge, Morgan Kincaid's life changes forever when a woman standing next to her on the subway platform says Morgan's name, hands her a baby and jumps. And since no one else saw what happened, Morgan quickly becomes a murder suspect. Can she clear her name and figure out what is going on before it's too late?
Samantha M. Bailey is a journalist and editor in Toronto.Woman on the Edge is her first book.
Watermark by Christy Ann Conlin
Watermark is a collection of gothic short stories. The characters within the book reckon with crises past and present, including a bride who runs from her wedding day, a young woman facing murder charges and a man living in exile.
Christy Ann Conlin lives in Nova Scotia and is the author of two acclaimed novels, Heave and The Memento.
No Going Back by Sheena Kamal
In No Going Back, the latest Nora Watts crime thriller by Sheena Kamal, Nora finds herself trying to protect Bonnie, the daughter she had given up for adoption. Two years previously, Bonnie had been kidnapped by the ruthless Zhang family. She has made an enemy in Dao, the intimidating triad enforcer for the Zhangs. From Canada to southeast Asia, Nora finds herself pursuing her adversary.
Kamal is a Vancouver-based writer of crime novels. Her book The Lost Ones won the 2018 Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. She is also the author of It All Falls Down.
A Deadly Divide by Ausma Zehanat Khan
In A Deadly Divide, the fifth book in Ausma Zehanat Khan's Getty and Khattak mystery series, Esa Khattak and Rachel Getty are sent to Quebec, where a community is reeling in the aftermath of a mass shooting at a mosque. Fuelling tensions is the arrest of a young Muslim man who was reported to be assisting the wounded, while a priest found holding a weapon was let go.
Khan is also the author of the fantasy series the Khorasan Archives, which includes the books The Bloodprint and The Black Khan.
Obsidian by Thomas King
Thomas King's sly investigator Thumps DreadfulWater returns in Obsidian. After the famed producer of a true-crime documentary turns up dead, Thumps is forced to look into an old cold case he had tried to forget: the Obsidian murders. When someone starts leaving reminders of the case around Chinook, Thumps is compelled to confront the incident that left his girlfriend and her daughter dead.
King is a Canadian-American writer of Cherokee and Greek ancestry. He delivered the 2003 Massey Lectures, The Truth about Stories. His books include Truth & Bright Water, The Inconvenient Indian and The Back of the Turtle. The Back of the Turtle won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 2014.
You Will Love What You Have Killed by Kevin Lambert, translated by Donald Winkler
In the surreal and dark comic novel You Will Love What You Have Killed, children in Chicoutimi, Que., are dying untimely and often violent deaths. But their deaths aren't the end of the story: instead, they rise up, go to school, grow up and plot their revenge against the adults who have wronged them.
Kevin Lambert is a writer from Quebec. You Will Love What You Have Killed is his first novel, and the first to be translated into English. He is also the author of the novel Querelle de Roberval.
Donald Winkler is a filmmaker and translator from Montreal. He won the Governor General's Literary Award for French-to-English translation for The Lyric Generation: The Life and Times of the Baby-Boomers by François Ricard, Partita for Glenn Gould by Georges Leroux and The Major Verbs by Pierre Nepveu. Two books translated by him have been finalists for the Scotiabank Giller Prize: A Secret Between Us by Daniel Poliquin in 2007 and Arvida by Samuel Archibald in 2015.
The End of Her by Shari Lapena
The End of Her, a novel set in upstate New York, follows Stephanie and Patrick, a couple adjusting to life with their colicky twin babies. While Stephanie stays at home to take care of them, Patrick works 9-to-5 to pay the bills. Their life is turned upside down when a woman from Patrick's past pays an unexpected visit, raising questions and suspicions about his late first wife, who died in a supposed car accident many years ago. With the woman threatening to go to the police, his livelihood is put at risk. As the police start digging, Stephanie's trust in her husband begins to unravel, as does their marriage.
Shari Lapena is a novelist. She is author of bestselling thrillers, including The Couple Next Door, A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest and Someone We Know.
Never Forget by Martin Michaud
The latest in Martin Michaud's ongoing Victor Lessard detective series finds Lessard and his partner Jacinthe Taillon on the trail of a deadly killer in Old Montreal. Never Forget begins with a homeless man jumping to his death, an incident that leaves behind baffling evidence — two wallets. One belonged to a dead psychiatrist, who was murdered in a bizarre ritual, the other to a missing corporate lawyer. As the bodies begin to pile up, can Lessard and Taillon crack the case before the next murder?
Michaud is a Montreal-based writer, musician and former lawyer. His Victor Lessard series has won the Arthur Ellis award and the Prix Saint-Pacôme for Crime Fiction. The book series is also the basis for the critically acclaimed French TV show Victor Lessard.
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Mexican Gothic is a gothic horror novel set in 1950s Mexico. It tells the story of a young woman named Noemi who is called by her cousin to save her from doom in her countryside home, the mysterious and alluring High Place. Noemi doesn't know much about the house, the region or her cousin's mysterious new husband, but she's determined to solve this mystery and save her cousin — whatever it takes.
Mexican Gothic is in development to become a TV series for Hulu.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a Canadian author, who was born and raised in Mexico. She is also the author of the novels Signal to Noise, which won the 2016 Copper Cylinder Award, Gods of Jade and Shadow and The Beautiful Ones. She is also a critic and has edited science fiction anthologies.
Hurry Home by Roz Nay
In Hurry Home, Alexandra Van Ness lives a perfect life tucked away in a resort town in the rocky mountains with her handsome boyfriend, Chase. She works in child protection, dedicating herself to helping those at risk. But, when Alexandra's long-lost sister turns up out of the blue, Alexandra is forced to confront the memories of their fraught past.
Roz Nay is a B.C.-based writer. Her debut novel, Our Little Secret, won the Douglas Kennedy Prize for best foreign thriller, and was nominated for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize for Mystery and the Arthur Ellis Best First Novel Award.
All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penny
All the Devils Are Here is the latest Inspector Armand Gamache novel from bestselling mystery writer Louise Penny. Gamache is in Paris, enjoying a family trip, when his elderly godfather is attacked on the street — and Gamache is convinced it's not a random attack. It turns out that his godfather knows many secrets and Gamache must figure out the web of deceit and lies before it's too late.
13 years ago, Penny was a CBC broadcaster and journalist. Now, she's an award-winning author who has sold more than four million books and has won armloads of prizes, thanks to her Inspector Armand Gamache mysteries. Her mysteries include Still Life, Bury Your Dead, A Trick of the Light and Glass Houses. In 2013, Penny was named to the Order of Canada.
The Residence by Andrew Pyper
In the thriller The Residence, the White House is haunted by the dead son of the president. It's 1853 and president-elect Franklin Pierce's son Bennie dies tragically in a train accident. Pierce and his wife Jane grieve as they transition into their roles as president and first lady. But the ghost of their son won't let them rest. When Jane tries to end the haunting with a seance, it instead opens a barrier between this world and the world of the dead, and now all of America is at risk.
Andrew Pyper is known for his spine-tingling novels like Lost Girls, which won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel in 2000, The Demonologist, The Only Child and The Homecoming. He currently lives in Toronto.
Your Life Is Mine by Nathan Ripley
Your Life Is Mine is a page-turning thriller about Blanche, the daughter of a notorious murderer and cult leader. Her father killed himself after a shooting spree more than 20 years ago, but when Blanche learns her mother was murdered, she must return home. She learns there's more to her family's story than she could have ever imagined — and that the cult her father founded might be making a comeback.
Nathan Ripley is the pseudonym of Toronto writer Naben Ruthnum. He won a Journey Prize. Find You in the Dark was Ripley's first thriller, which was an Arthur Ellis Awards finalist for best first novel. Your Life Is Mine is his second thriller.