Wright Douglas, who was born and raised in Canada and later moved to the U.S., published two series set in Victoria, BC.
The Caitlin Reese novels feature a lesbian Crown prosecutor turned private eye; she lives in Oak Bay and waxes rhapsodic about her neighbourhood’s Tudor buildings and ye olde English atmosphere. She also packs a gun, usually concealed, and acknowledges that in doing so she is at odds with Canada’s strict firearms regulations.
In The Always Anonymous Beast, its title taken from a Dylan Thomas poem, and the first novel in the Caitlin Reese series, the narrator explains how a particularly grim case broke her. In her new life, she seeks justice for people who can’t find it within the law. Her clients–in this book, a closeted and married lesbian television newscaster and her Women’s Studies professor lover–have been approached by a blackmailer who’s stolen a cache of their love letters. Terrified of disclosure, the newscaster hires Caitlin to help.
The books in the Caitlin Reese series are wonderfully titled: The Daughters of Artemis, Goblin Market, Ninth Life, A Range of Maidens, and A Tiger’s Heart.
Wright Douglas’s second Victoria-set series features the author’s passion for animal advocacy: Kieran Yates, also a former Crown attorney, investigates crimes against animals. This series is published under the name Linda J. Wright.
The Landscape of Canadian Women's Crime Fiction 