British crime writer Reginald Hill passed away Jan 12, 2012. A winner of the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in 1995, Hill was the author of over fifty novels, but he was best known for his characters Dalziel and Pascoe. In addition to starring in twenty of Hill's novels, the characters were also dramatized on the BBC.

His most recent novel, The Woodcutter, was published in Fall 2010.

A crime writer I am also a crime reader and probably about 80% of my reading is crime novels. I also like to read books set in Canada whenever possible, and sometimes that makes for a difficult search. Canadian crime writers still have the impression that they have to set their books in the U.S. and pretend to be Americans. There are noticeable exceptions, but despite the success of many Canadian - set mystery books on the world stage, setting a crime book in Canada, with Canadian characters and Canadian issues, is seen as taking a risk.

Fortunately there are a number of excellent Canadian writers prepared to take that risk. One of my favourites of the last couple of years is The Weight of Stones (Dundurn Press) by Ottawa's C.B. Forrest. Weight of Stones is a crime novel in that that protagonist is a Toronto police officer and he is on the trail of some 'bad guys' but (like the very best crime novels) it is so much more. The main character, Charlie McKelvey, is consumed by grief and guilt. Grief over the death of his son, and guilt in what he sees as his part in the death because he threw the troubled young man out of the house. Forrest's portrait of McKelvey's anguish, which has destroyed his marriage and is well on the way to destroying his career, is so heart-rending I was surprised when I met Forrest to find, not a drunk ex-cop with a grudge against the world, but a happy young man in a happy marriage. Excellent writing does that.

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Although the last thing some of us want to consider is winter. Internationally acclaimed crime writer Jo Nesbø's antihero police investigator, Harry Hole, is back: in a bone-chilling thriller that will take Hole to the brink of insanity in The Snowman. We did an article on Nordic crime writers in our March April Newsletter click here to see it. The article is on page 7.

The March / April issue of our newsletter The Bookseller is now available online. The Bookseller is a worthy read for all book lovers. It also highlights events taking place at our Winnipeg, and Saskatoon stores.
Click here to view The Bookseller, Winnipeg.
Click here to view The Bookseller, Saskatoon.