Gardening, sailing, spring-cleaning, whatever you may have on the horizon, make time to read some great books coming out from Canadian authors. In this issue, our core ORB reviewers can help you out in your selection with their insights into the works of five Canadian writers: Robert J. Sawyer, John Metcalf, Jeremy Mercer, Joanna Vander Vlugt and Nicola Winstanley. We hope you enjoy this issue and the fine April weather ..read more

Reviewed by Robert Runté Robert Sawyer is Canada's best known science fiction writer and has a huge fan following. His books are so popular, the trade paperback edition of his latest release, The Downloaded, hasn't even come out yet, but pre-orders are so high, the publisher has already had to go back for a second printing. Reviewing Sawyer's books feels a bit redundant because copies fly off the shelf faster than I can review them. Allow me, then, to address this review to those not already familiar with Robert Sawyer and his work. Sawyer writes the purest form of science f ..read more

Reviewed by Timothy Niedermann Off the Record presents six award-winning Canadian authors describing what led them to be writers. As it happens, all are women: Caroline Adderson, Krysten Dunnion, Cynthia Flood, Shaena Lambert, Elise Levine, and Kathy Page. And though they may not all be household names, each is a prolific writer, having produced both novels and short-story collections. In his brief introduction, editor John Metcalf, a CanLit icon himself, says he wanted to see “what had lured them into this writing life.” To this end, he sent each a series of questions to answer. For the f ..read more

Reviewed by Gail M. Murray Having visited the legendary bookstore in September 2023, I was delighted to come across this memoir by Canadian journalist, Jeremy Mercer. Mercer worked for five years as a crime reporter for The Ottawa Citizen until 1999, when exposing one of his sources in print ended with a threatening phone call that caused him to flee to Paris. Was it fate that, depressed and running low on cash, he took refuge from the pouring rain in Shakespeare and Co. and was invited to stay. After meeting the gruff owner, stay he did for nine months; it changed the course of his life ..read more

Reviewed by Wendy Hawkin Joanna Vander Vlugt believes that all books should be works of art. She’s got a leg up there, being an artist-illustrator as well as a fine writer. Her sketch of protagonist, motorcycle-riding lawyer, Jade Thyme, blasts off the page carried by the energy of the craft. Spy Girls, book three in the Jade and Sage Thriller series, is a rollicking and relentless legal thriller that answers the question: Can justice really prevail? The plot begins when millionaire Chief Justice Chimera—a revolting toad who sexually harasses and abuses young women who have the bad fortune ..read more

Reviewed by Jerry Levy Nicola Winstanley is the author of the delightfully-named children’s books How to Give Your Cat a Bat: In Five Easy Steps, The Pirate’s Bed, and Cinnamon Baby. Smoke is her first foray into the more adult literary genre. Although eminent authors, such as Leo Tolstoy, Mary Shelly, Oscar Wilde, and Gabriel García Márquez, wrote stories for children as well as adults, it’s not always an easy transition from depicting the wondrous and immense possibilities inherent in children’s lives to the disarray and disillusionment, the humdrum, we often see depicted in adult literar ..read more

Reviewed by Jerry Levy In Sickness and In Health is the second of Gold's two novellas published as a flip-book by Guernica Editions. Last month, I reviewed the book's first novella, Yom Kippur in a Gym. In Sickness and In Health is perhaps the more traditional of the two works of fiction in that it focuses on a single protagonist. Lily is an art school teacher who grows up with epilepsy, and now, as an adult, suffers periodically from a mysterious illness that doctors suspect may be Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (though even that seems uncertain, as her doctors seem particularly clueless). This is ..read more

As we experience an unseasonably warm winter in Eastern Canada, it brings to mind the need to review fiction about our changing climate. Well, not quite yet. Instead, we'll dabble a bit longer in the philosophical, forensic, crime, fantasy and well-being, leaving the scary stuff for later. In this issue, we offer our insights into the work of five Canadian writers: Jerry Levy, Gina Leola Woolsey, Douglas Smith, Jackie Elliott, and Nora Gold ..read more

Reviewed by Ian Thomas Shaw Jerry Levy is a writer whose work I have followed for some time and have known for at least a decade. I believe I have read most of his work, from his first and second short story collections, Urban Legend and The Quantum Theory of Love and Madness, to the short stories I edited in The Marginal Ride Anthology, and the forthcoming Green to Grey Anthology. Jerry is also a regular reviewer for the Ottawa Review of Books. So, yes, I am quite familiar with Jerry's work and may have a personal bias in favour of it and its author. That aside, I can say without reservation ..read more

Reviewed by Timothy Niedermann On September 2, 1998, a Swissair jet went down off the coast of Nova Scotia. Rescuers responded quickly, but it soon became clear that all 229 passengers and crew aboard were dead. So, what was supposed to be a rescue operation almost immediately evolved into the slow processes of identifying victims and determining the cause of the crash. What made this difficult were two things: first, that the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner’s office and the RCMP were often at odds with each other while attempting to fulfill their respective mandates; and second, that, due to th ..read more