"Charles Pearson Brandt," Nina said, "was an independent financial advisor who ran a Ponzi scheme in Hudson and the West Island for fifteen years or so. About three years ago, though, he disappeared with his assistant-cum-accomplice-cum-girlfriend and fifty million or more of his clients' money, although he'd probably scammed half again that amount. Small potatoes, I suppose, compared to the hundreds of millions Bernie Madoff stole, but a whack of money none the less. Brandt's victims were mostly elderly: widows, widowers and retirees, referred to him by his other clients, who believed he was making them a shitload of money. I guess they'd never heard, or had forgotten, that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is... He left nearly a hundred elderly people, people who trusted him, completely destitute."

For Joe Shoe, the return to his family home in north Toronto is more than just a trip down memory lane; it's also a visit to a crime scene. No sooner has Shoe arrived in his old neighbourhood than he discovers that police are investigating a murder in the ravine near his home. And the murder victim is a man who lived in the neighbourhood 35 years earlier - and who moved away while still a suspect in a series of rapes that occurred in the very ravine in which he was ultimately murdered. The police investigation, and Shoe's own inquiries, becomes intensely personal, as old friends, girlfriends, and even family members seem to have a connection to the murder victim, and reasons to want him dead. Compelling, deeply emotional, and at times even disturbing, The Dells is an accomplished novel by one of Canada's rising stars of crime fiction.**

Someone walked up to Joe "Shoe" Schumacher's best friend, Patrick O'Neill, in a Vancouver restaurant and shot him dead. It looks like a professional hit, but who wanted O'Neill dead? Was it, as police believe, a "settling of accounts"? Was it Victoria, O'Neill's beautiful but damaged wife? Or was it O'Neill's boss, industrialist William Hammond, with whom O'Neill had a falling-out and with whom Victoria had once had a short-lived affair? Former cop, chauffeur, and bodyguard Joe Shoe sets out to find Patrick's killer, and along the way he uncovers dark secrets going back years -secrets some people will kill to keep.

Photographer Tom McCall's only regret about accepting an assignment from the beautiful Anna Waverley to photograph her boat for a potential buyer is that he has double-booked himself and needs to hand the assignment over to his partner, Bobbi.Little does he know how much of a regret it will become. En route to the assignment, Bobbi is brutally beaten and left for dead.As his partner lies in a coma, Tom searches for an explanation for the attack. Learning that Anna Waverley doesn't actually own the boat she was supposedly interest in selling, and in fact that the woman claiming to be Anna Waverley may have been an imposter, Tom believes he knows where to start his investigation.**

Just when Vancouver commercial photographer Tom McCall thought he'd got his life back on track, a complete stranger shows up dead on the roof deck of his floating home. No one seems to know who he is, he has no ID, and there's not a mark on him. If that isn't bad enough, a prospective new client seems to have had one Botox injection too many, his ex-wife wants to take his daughter off to Australia for a year; and someone's leaving mutilated dolls on his front step.And, of course, he's in lust again.No wonder he's feeling a little overexposed.

When Vancouver photographer Tom McCall's former lover walks back into his life, he knows trouble can't be far behind. She's stolen from him in the past, taking much more than his heart. Now she needs his help. Can McCall resist? No. But when she disappears a few days later, McCall is left facing far worse danger than he'd ever imagined. He's not the only one she has ripped off. Others are out to get her and they're sure McCall knows where she is."Michael Blair's If Looks Could Kill is, by turns, as darkly evocative as film noir, and as breezy as a spring day on Granville Island. There are many pleasures here: a witty hero obsessed with a woman as dangerous as she is lovely, a white knuckle mystery, and a lively cast of West Coast characters." – Gail Bowen, author of the Joanne Kilbourn mystery series.