In this final book in the series, Sonny, a former client from Hong Kong, arrives in Vancouver and Helen agrees to meet him. He's in trouble and doesn't know who's after him or why. At least that's what Sonny says. Despite some nagging apprehensions, Helen decides to help him out. But a kidnapping attempt quickly ensues, forcing our heroine into the …

The fifth book in a highly successful series, The Butterfly Effect takes Helen Keremos, Zaremba’s gutsy female detective, to Japan. There she becomes involved in a complex series of crimes that have ramifications from the Far East to Europe and North Amer

In a post-apocalyptic world, Bern and Elena are exiled from their village. Their crime? The two women are no longer of child-bearing age.

Forced to rely upon traditional wisdom for their survival, Elena and Bern retreat from the remains of civilization to a freezing, desolate landscape where they attempt to continue their lives after the end of the …

Kat is thrilled to be competing in a junior tennis championship at Melbourne Park for the first time. But things are off to a horrible start. Her doubles partner, Miri, is sneaking around at night and asking Kat to cover for her. She's also playing terribly, almost costing them their match. Miri's boyfriend, Hamish, one of the top competitors, seem …

Failed or fragile states are those that are unable or unwilling to provide a socio-political framework for citizens and meet their basic needs. They are a source of terrorism and international crime, as well as incubators of infectious disease, environmental degradation, and unregulated mass migration. Canada's engagement with countries such as the …

In Policing the Wild North-West, the first comprehensive social history of provincial police in western Canada between 1905 and 1932, Zhiqiu Lin investigates the complex relationship between the role of policing, the political sphere, and social progress.

This book attempts to analyze the effects on provincial police in Alberta and Saskatchewan of v …

Almost unbelievable. You'll swear it's fiction.

"You haven't read a story like this one, even if your father was the kind of magnificent scoundrel you only find in Russian novels. Béchard is the rare writer who knows the secret to telling the true story." — Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

Growing up in rural British Colum …

One of the most intriguing, and disturbing, aspects of history is that most people in early modern Europe believed in the reality and dangers of witchcraft. Most historians have described the witchcraft phenomenon as one of tremendous violence.

In France, dozens of books, pamphlets and tracts, depicting witchcraft as the most horrible of crimes, wer …

The Act of Killing is a documentary film on the Indonesian genocide that took place between October 1965 and March 1966, during which time an estimated 500,000 to 2.5 million accused communists, including landless farmers, unionized workers, labour organizers, intellectuals and ethnic Chinese Indonesians, were killed. However, much of the film is d …

Shortlisted, Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

On a frigid February evening in 1805, Amos Babcock brutally murdered Mercy Hall. Believing that he was being instructed by God, Babcock stabbed and disembowelled his own sister, before dumping her lifeless body in a rural New Brunswick snowbank.

The Ballad of Jacob Peck is the trag …

The Fence and the Bridge is about the development of the Canada-US border-security relationship as an outgrowth of the much lengthier Canada-US relationship. It suggests that this relationship has been both highly reflexive and hegemonic over time, and that such realities are embodied in the metaphorical images and texts that describe the Canada-US …

This story of discovery, romance, and intrigue is set in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Wall. Anthony Hanbury, a Canadian diplomat pursuing a desultory career, is assigned as consul to Berlin. Having lived in Berlin as a student during the sixties, he asks for this assignment twenty-five years later to renew contact both with the city ­ grip …

Longlisted for the ReLit Award

Best Fiction 2006, Ottawa Xpress

Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit is a singularly Canadian novel featuring crime, culture, and sports. Written in the vein of John Kennedy Toole (Confederacy of Dunces) and JP Donleavy, Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit is set in Vancouver during an early 80s Grey Cup weekend. Tourists and sport …

If you could take just one thing back… Every Little Thing explores how lives are shaped by the butterfly effect of decisions that go desperately wrong. After a shocking family tragedy, Cohen Davies feels isolated, guilty, and numb to everything except the allure of his new neighbor, Allie Crosbie. She’s a free spirit, and he sees in her the per …

The first serious book-length study of crime writing in Canada, Detecting Canada Canada’s most popular crime writers, including Peter Robinson, Giles Blunt, Gail Bowen, Thomas King, Michael Slade, Margaret Atwood, and Anthony Bidulka.

Genres examined range from the well-loved police procedural and the amateur sleuth to those less well known, such …

Two men, each serving time for the same crime, are forced to question the nature of their desires when their pasts become their present.

Venturing into dark and explosive territory, My Fellow Creatures is a raw, honest, and thoughtful portrayal of these men and their virtues, confronting the reader with difficult questions about love, consent, venge …

“I am going to tell you how we are treated. I am always hungry.” — Edward B., a student at Onion Lake School (1923)

"[I]f I were appointed by the Dominion Government for the express purpose of spreading tuberculosis, there is nothing finer in existance that the average Indian residential school.” — N. Walker, Indian Affairs Superintendent …

After saving the Calgary Stampede from a potential terror attack in Glycerine, Detectives Lane and Li find themselves on the hunt yet again, this time following a pair of gruesome killers whose perfectly composed crime scenes match those of an inmate put away by Calgary Police years earlier. As more people come into the line of fire, Lane must team …

Finalist for the 2014 LAMBDA Literary Award for Best Gay Mystery!

After a long series of professional and personal upheavals, Detective Lane begins his latest adventure happy, at peace, and enjoying life with his partner Arthur, their children Christine and Matt, and his able new co-worker, RCMP officer Keely Saliba.

But when the body of a young boy …

With the traumatic events of Foxed behind him, Detective Lane has been promoted to the head of the Calgary Major Crimes Unit, a position that brings new responsibilities, as well as a new partner in the form of headstrong rookie Nigel Li.

Lane and Li’s first case, an investigation into the death of a migrant worker, points them in the direction of …

The 1920s were one of the wildest decades in Canada’s history, a time of frivolous fads, shocking crimes, and political and social changes that definitively yanked the country out of the 19th century and into the modern age. In Strange Days, Ted Ferguson revisits dozens of stories that could only have happened in the ’20s — tales of serial ki …

When Vancouver psychiatric social worker Chris Ryder spots an abandoned cell phone during his afternoon jog, the innocent discovery drags him into the psychotic games of Ray Owens, a former patient at the centre of a high-profile kidnapping and murder case.

As the violence increases, Owens’ intricate web of lies threatens to ensnare the lives of R …

Prisons have always existed in a climate of crisis. The penitentiary emerged in the early decades of the nineteenth century as an enlightened alternative to brute punishment, one that would focus on rehabilitation and the inculcation of mainstream social values. Central to this goal was physical labour. The penitentiary was constructed according to …

“Of all the crimes to which Palestinians have been subjected through a century of bitter tragedy, perhaps none are more cruel than the silencing of their voices. The suffering has been most extreme, criminal, and grotesque in Gaza, where Ghada Ageel was one of the victims from childhood. This collection of essays is a poignant cry for justice, fa …

“Our voices scrubbed out and forgotten. There are those who research and write about sex workers who often forget we are human.” —Amy Lebovitch

Shawna Ferris gives a voice to sex workers who are often pushed to the background, even by those who fight for them. In the name of urban safety and orderliness, street sex workers face stigma, racism …

Enrique Tomás lives a quiet life with a large, loving family in an unnamed South American country. But Enrique has secrets. When his second eldest son, Hector, and Hector’s beloved friend Nadia uncover one of Enrique’s secrets, the course of Hector's life is irrevocably altered. Exiled by his parents to the isolated countryside, Hector is accu …

When a series of murders threatens the lives of an entire community in Vancouver, RCMP Corporal Paul Blakemore and Inspector Coswell team up once again to solve the case. What begins as an array of hate crimes suddenly culminates into a conspiracy against an American politician, and the lines between Canada and the United States become blurred as s …

Florence Nightingale on Society and Politics, Philosophy, Science, Education and Literature, Volume 5 in the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, is the main source of Nightingale’s work on the methodology of social science and her views on social reform. Here we see how she took her “call to service” into practice: by first learning how …

The Montreal Massacre: A Story of Membership Categorization Analysis adopts an ethnomethodological viewpoint to analyze how the murder of women by a lone gunman at the Ecole Polytechnique in Montreal was presented to the public via media publication over a two-week period in 1989. All that the public came to know and understand of the murders, the …

Can war ever be just? By what right do we charge people with war crimes? Can war itself be a crime? What is a good peace treaty?

Since the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, many wars have erupted, inflaming such areas as the Persian Gulf, Central Africa and Central Europe. Brutalities committed during these conflicts have sparked new interest in t …

People who have high levels of H are sincere and modest; people who have low levels are deceitful and pretentious. The “H” in the H factor stands for “Honesty-Humility,” one of the six basic dimensions of the human personality.

It isn’t intuitively obvious that traits of honesty and humility go hand in hand, and until very recently the H …

Suffering from a divided membership, the United Nations is at a crossroads, unable to assure human or national security. The UN has been criticized as irrelevant by its most—and least—powerful members alike because it can’t reach consensus on how to respond to twenty-first-century challenges of global terrorism, endemic poverty, and crimes ag …

On a May morning in 1939, eighteen-year-old Velma Demerson and her lover were having breakfast when two police officers arrived to take her away. Her crime was loving a Chinese man, a “crime” that was compounded by her pregnancy and subsequent mixed-race child.

Sentenced to a home for wayward girls, Demerson was then transferred (along with for …

A Booklist Editors’ Choice and a Society of School Librarians International (SSLI) Honor Book

Street gangs have exploded worldwide. Tattoos, baggy pants, tagging, gangsta style, the unspoken threat -- it's all just around the corner in most of the world's major cities. From the streets of Los Angeles to the shantytowns of Cape Town, hundreds of th …

Some days, it doesn't pay to be a lapsed pretend Buddhist . . . particularly when you're charged with a lengthy list of war crimes. Vida Zankovic has done many things to stay alive. A wily young man caught in the insanity of the Balkan wars, Vida has dealt drugs, been forced to join the army, and then deserted when he tried to save a young boy trap …

Hot on the heels of Douglas Glover's Governor General's Award for fiction for his riotous novel, Elle, Goose Lane brought back into print Glover's hilarious novel, The South Will Rise at Noon, originally published in 1988. At the centre of this story of a modern-day knight errant is Tully Stamper, a bankrupt, a liar, a tippler of corn juice and a d …

An introduction to slavery in the world today, in rich and developing nations alike. Clearly and concisely written for young adult readers.

Twenty-seven million people — young and old, men and women — are locked in bondage worldwide. Slavery Today traces the products created by this inhuman system from the jungle and farm through the global mark …

This book examines the meaning of law from a global perspective and the many connections between law and law enforcement. An excellent introduction to the subject for young adults.

Most of us in liberal democratic countries think that we live under the rule of law. Governments make the rules, we live by them and the police enforce them if we try to …

How is it that corporations are able to behave irresponsibly, criminally, and undemocratically? Wealth by Stealth is a scathing introduction to the operations of the modern corporation, written by a corporate lawyer. Many writers point to the growth of undemocratic corporate power. Glasbeek takes these observations further and outlines clearly how …

Rarely a week goes by when juvenile delinquency or the Young Offenders Act are not discussed in the dominant media. Are we witnessing a moral panic over youth crime or a spate of “child-blaming” driven by the politics of law and order? Sangster traces the history of young women and crime and in so doing punctures dozens of myths surrounding the …

Winner, Canadian Authors Award for Canadian History, Jeanne Clarke Memorial Local History Award, and Prince Edward Island Book Award for Non-Fiction

Is it possible to reach back in time and solve an unsolved murder, more than 170 years after it was committed?

Just after midnight on April 21, 1842, John McLoughlin, Jr. — the chief trader for the Hud …

At 2:21 am on September 8, 1896, authorities in Nova Scotia killed an innocent man. Peter Wheeler — a "coloured" man accused of murdering a white girl — was strung up with a slipknot noose. The hanging was state-sanctioned but it was a lynching all the same. Now, a re-examination of his case using modern forensic science reveals one of the grea …

Fiona’s dad comes home after sixteen months and eight days in jail. Along with her mother and family friends, she awkwardly welcomes him home. Uncle David is there, because he picked Dad up at jail. Dad’s best friend Simon, his wife May and neighbor Elisabeth are also at the house to greet Dad. He’s been away so long, it’s an uncomfortable …

It's an ordinary nightmare of a family trip until Theo realizes that the beautiful girl beside the hotel pool is his childhood babysitter—and his first crush. Theo hasn't seen Ronnie for five years, but when she invites him to go with her—and her toddler son, Zach—on a road trip, he leaps at the opportunity to ditch his parents and head to Ho …

Nick just wants to replace the TV his sister accidentally broke before their foster parents find out.

To repay the debt, the sixteen-year-old has to steal bikes, break them down and rebuild them to sell. But the debt and the violence keep growing. Even Nick’s own beloved fixed-gear bike—the fixie he built with his dad—is up for grabs. Should N …

When Blood Lies is the second novel in a series of mysteries featuring rookie reporter Nicole Charles.

Vancouver Post gossip columnist Nicole Charles is only slightly put out when she discovers she’s been downsized. She figures she’s lucky to still have a job. It just means she needs to get a desk so she can work out of her apartment. But the de …

Simple country handyman Cedric O’Toole relies on his organic vegetable garden to supplement his meager income, so he’s upset when vegetables begin disappearing. After several futile attempts to protect the garden, he stakes it out one night with his shotgun and spots a shadowy figure running into the woods. Cedric follows and finds a young boy …

Dan appréhende l'ennuyeuse sortie scolaire dans une ferme historique éloignée.

Pas tant à cause du fumier que du fait que le fermier élève des porcs. Les porcs s'appellent aussi des cochons et le nom de famille de Dan est Cauchon. Déjà en butte aux moqueries, Dan se cuirasse contre l'épreuve anticipée. Mais il n'a pas prévu l'apparition d …

Evie tuvo una bebita y fue obligada a darla en adopción, pero no puede simplemente dejarla con extraños, sobre todo porque tiene la impresión de que no la cuidan bien. Mientras su novio espera en su camioneta, Evie secuestra a la niña y lo convence de llevarlas a Montreal, donde planea empezar una nueva vida con la pequeña. Pero la niña no qu …

Vancouver city councilor George Hamilton Nash has left his wife of twenty years and moved into a posh West End condo. A wealthy man about town, Nash appears to be enjoying all the pleasures the city has to offer—until he turns up dead. The note left behind indicates suicide, and the police are satisfied with this. But Sebastian Casey, a reporter …