Tag: book-review

  • Back in Print: Val McDermid’s Lindsay Gordon

    My Canada Day treat is this delight: the first volume in Val McDermid’s Lindsay Gordon series, her first set of novels. Report for Murder, first published in 1987, was McDermid’s début; she was a newspaper journalist when she created the UK’s first lesbian detective, an amateur investigator who is also a reporter when the series…

  • The Stratemeyer Syndicate: Comparing the 1930 and 1959 Editions of Nancy Drew #1: The Secret of the Old Clock

    Many readers who have long since forgotten plots and even titles can still conjure up the distinctive branded covers of the most famous Stratemeyer Syndicate series: pale lavender for the Bobbsey Twins, a deep vivid blue for the Hardy Boys, and bright yellow for Nancy Drew. None of these, however, are the original 1920s to…

  • Celebrating the Work of Gail Bowen (1942-2026)

    In March, Canadian crime writer Gail Bowen included in her Newsletter a brief excerpt from her forthcoming–and final–novel in the Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series. It’s entitled Homecoming. Last night Bowen’s many fans across Canada and around the world learned the sad news that she has passed away. Bowen published her first novel featuring Regina, Saskatchewan…