The Landscape of Canadian Women's Crime Fiction

Tag: books

  • Worst New Year’s Eve Party Ever: Louise Penny’s The Madness of Crowds

    I have never liked New Year’s Eve parties, but 29 years ago I went to a friend’s party, under protest–literally dropped off at the door by another friend, with whom I’d had dinner, and ordered to stay for at least half an hour. And I met somebody quite lovely, and talked about Jane Austen for…

  • Pamela Bedore’s Routledge Introduction to Canadian Crime Fiction

    I’ve been drafting a sometimes sprawling book project, adding and subtracting chapters too frequently. It’s been such a big help to have a model and guide for my work, in the form of Pamela Bedore’s 2024 book on Canadian crime writing. In a crucial way, I’m writing in dialogue with Bedore–and with a few other…

  • Murder Ballads and Alice Munro’s “Open Secrets”

    I’m initially veering a little off topic again, the topic being Canadian women’s crime fiction, to speculate about an intriguing musical genre that makes an odd appearance in Alice Munro’s story “Open Secrets.” A murder ballad is a sung story about violent death and its aftermath, including the execution of the murderer. Some of my…