AUTHOR DIANNE SCOTT SETS A MYSTERY SERIES IN THE PSYCHEDELIC 60s

Photo Printed with permission, Courtesy of the Toronto Star Photograph Archives,
Photographer Harold Whyte.

Canadian Dianne Scott lives a short ferry ride from Toronto Island, which is the setting of her award-winning Christine Lane Mystery series. When Dianne is not writing, she is walking Toronto’s neighborhoods, coffee klatching with friends, and cuddling her Bichon Poodle. Learn more about Christine and her books at https://diannescottauthor.com/

Setting a Mystery in the Psychedelic 60s

The setting of a novel is an important choice by an author. Geographical location and time period can inspire plot, characterization and themes. And the setting of Yorkville, Canada does not disappoint as a locale of a mystery book.

 

In the 1950s, the Yorkville area of Toronto was populated by coffee shops and local artists. Young people gravitated to the neighborhood because of its cheap rent and creative sensibilities. Local art hung on café walls and folk and jazz singers would play for their food. Musicians like Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell sang in the music venues that dotted the area.

 

Within a decade, Yorkville had become a mecca for hippies and was crowned the “Haight-Ashbury” of Canada. Thousands of youths converged on its streets to drink coffee, listen to music, smoke drugs, hook up, protest war, and be seen.

 

Clearly, 1960s Yorkville was a fascinating place. But why did I set the third book in my Christine Lane Mystery series there?

 

I blame it on my dad. My father was a Toronto Police officer and had patrolled Yorkville in its hippie heyday. He told me about an undercover operation he had led to catch a persistent purse thief. (Not only did Yorkville have the grooviest music around, but it also had a street of high-end boutiques for Toronto’s carriage crowd to dine and shop.)

 

My father requested a policewoman for the sting. (Note, they were called policewomen in the 1960s, not police constables.) She came dressed to the nines and was asked to walk up and down Cumberland Ave as bait to the purse snatcher. My dad would move in for the arrest when the thief appeared. Unfortunately, the policewoman attracted the attention of storekeepers and interested suitors, so the purse snatcher didn’t approach. 

 

On day two of the sting, another policewoman arrived, tall and athletic, and dressed in simple, plain clothes. After an hour walking Cumberland Ave, a man dashed by and grabbed her purse. The policewoman held tightly onto the purse strap, pulled a brick from her purse and knocked the thief senseless.

 

When I heard that story, I thought, Aha! That’s my main character! Christine Lane would bring a brick to a purse snatcher operation and take control of the situation. My father’s story sparked the idea of setting a Christine Lane Mystery in Yorkville.

 

Yorkville is a rich setting for a mystery. By the end of the 1960s, thugs and motorcycle gangs had overrun the streets. Young people were overdosing on drugs that were toxic. Violence, sexual assault, and hard drug use were on the rise. Politicians were fed up with the simmering, crime-stricken area. It was a perfect place for my protagonist Christine Lane and her officer friends to go on an undercover mission to find a missing teen and the source of the deadly drugs.

 

Another benefit of this groovy Yorkville setting was that it forced my straight-laced protagonist to loosen up. As an undercover youth volunteer, Christine Lane had to be relatable, sociable and sometimes flirty as she chatted with the local youth.

 

The last advantage of the Yorkville setting is that I could easily incorporate themes such as social justice, friendship and community that are important to my series. 

 

So when a book’s setting is rife with crime, allows opportunity for character development, and easily integrates important themes, then it becomes a mystery writer’s go-to locale. Unfortunately, as Joni Mitchell sang, they paved over Yorkville’s paradise of cafes and music venues and put up parking lots, boutiques and high-end art galleries. The groovy Yorkville setting of the 1960s is no more, except in the pages of books.

 

Lost and Found

A Christine Lane Mystery, Book 3

 

A drug-ridden Village. A missing daughter. An undercover cop way over her head.

 

Policewoman Christine Lane was accustomed to the easygoing pace of Toronto Island patrol. The lake view was gorgeous, the locals friendly and the crime nominal. Then Lane and her officer friends are handed a risky undercover assignment: stamp out the illegal drug trade poisoning the hippie neighborhood of Yorkville Village in downtown Toronto.

 

Not only is Christine inexperienced in dealing with gangs, bikers and drug dealers, but she’s assigned a secret mission to find a missing Village teen. Immersed in subterfuge, Christine desperately searches for the girl while trying to ascertain the heroin pipeline. Can she rescue the teen and expose the drug kingpin before her cover is blown?

 

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#CRAFTS WITH ANASTASIA--A NEW CRAFTING MYSTERY BY AUTHOR BARBARA EMODI

A Lobster Rope Wreath (example of a typical Gasper's Cove craft
 (image courtesy of www.madeinthemaritimes.com)

Barbara Emodi writes sewing and craft-related cozy mysteries based in Nova Scotia, Canada where she lives. She also travels frequently and writes in Austin, Texas and Berkeley, California in the winters. For many years Barbara led a double life. Publicly she was a journalist, radio commentator, government strategist, and public relations professor. In her private life she wrote, sewed, and published two books about garment construction. Often when Barbara sewed, she thought of the people she’d met and the stories she could tell; of the things she knew, and the things she suspected. Crafting for Murder is the first book in her Gasper’s Cover Mystery Series. Learn more about Barbara and her books at her website. 

Barbara’s Story Behind the Story

I have taught sewing classes for many years, and it has always struck me how interesting crafters and sewists are as people. Those who make things are resourceful, independent, and curious—exactly the kind of folks who would try to solve a crime. So, I felt I had the perfect cast of characters in my head to write cozy mysteries.

 

I write about small communities in Nova Scotia which are, by definition, stranger than fiction, anyway, so are they’re the perfect setting for my writing. Interestingly, some of the people and events my editors thought were the most implausible were based on reality. One even wrote to say that maybe I had too many relatives in my stories. I read her email on the way out the door to the wedding of my niece to my son-in-law’s nephew. I had no idea what she was talking about.

As is clear, Valerie and I have a lot in common. We are both empty-nest mothers of three children and we both teach sewing classes. As a result, the scenes where Valerie gets fed up and retreats to her sewing room to regroup and recharge were particularly easy for me to write. However, the central theme of her personal story, of someone who is resilient and determined to make a life for herself in her second act, is inspired by women I have known in the sewing and crafting communities. In the end she does manage to recreate herself just like so many women do. I’m proud of her.

The real Gasper's Cover

These days sewing is a parallel activity to my writing; I often plot while I sew and have my laptop set up behind my machine. My sewing never stops and my extended family, aged three months to ninety-five, keep me busy. I love sewing for them as much as sewing for myself.

 

I have already written the next in the series and have outlined two more. You’re not going to believe what happens next. I almost don’t myself. The Gasper’s Crafters have a lot going on. Was that a treasure from WW II that washed up on the shore? Who double-booked a wedding at the same venue as a crafter’s retreat? Did the signs the crafters made for a municipal election get one of the candidates killed?

 

My plan is to write two longer novels a year and to release some shorter novellas in between, each written from the point of view of one of the secondary characters. I thought this would help readers get to know the whole community better. 

Crafting for Murder 

A Gasper’s Cover Mystery, Book 1

 

Seamstress, crafter, and empty-nester Valerie Rankin has plans to open a crafter’s co-op that will put Gasper’s Cove, Nova Scotia on the tourist guide map. But one month before the opening day photo shoot, she still has to pin down a venue, patch up the family business, iron out corruption in town council, and unravel why anyone who tries to help her ends up dead. It’s a lot, even for a woman who’s used to making something out of nothing. But with the help of her Golden Retriever, an ex-con who loves cats, and a community of first, second, and third cousins, she just might pull it off.

 

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--AN INTERVIEW WITH SGT. WINSTON WINDFLOWER FROM AUTHOR MIKE MARTIN'S SGT. WINDFLOWER MYSTERIES

Today we sit down for a chat with Sgt. Winston Windflower from the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mysteries by author Mike Martin.

What was your life like before your author started pulling your strings?

I liked my life, but it wasn’t as interesting as it is now. It seems there’s a lot more people in my life. Even an occasional ghost.

 

What’s the one trait you like most about yourself?

I am kind. I have a soft heart, and I think that makes me a better person. And even a better police officer.

 

What do you like least about yourself?

I am impatient. Not a great trait for a Mountie when most police work is actually spent waiting. My children are teaching me patience, though.

 

What is the strangest thing your author has had you do or had happen to you?

Oh boy, so many things. Mostly silly stuff with my kids like being a judge on their American Idol game. Or falling down a mine shaft in the middle of nowhere. Actually, he inflicts a lot of injuries on me. I hope you feel sorry for me.

 

Do you argue with your author? If so, what do you argue about?

All the time. I tell him my story and how he should write it. Then he asks other characters for their opinions. Often the story turns out completely different from the one I planned.

 

What is your greatest fear?

It used to be getting shot. But now it’s if something were to happen to my wife and children. I still don’t want to get shot, by the way. Please tell my author.

 

What makes you happy?

I am a simple guy. My ideal day would be a picnic with my family or going fishing with my friend. I am grateful for what I have and that makes me happy. Usually.

 

If you could rewrite a part of your story, what would it be? Why?

I don’t think so. I have a great life and it just keeps getting better. One person who read one of the books called me Canada’s friendliest Mountie. I like that.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one bugs you the most? Why?

I actually like most of the other characters. But I occasionally butt heads with the higher ups in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They don’t understand life at the working level. And the criminals are pretty creepy. But most of them are sick people so it’s hard to get too mad with them.

 

Of the other characters in your book, which one would you love to trade places with? Why?

I like Herb Stoodley’s life. He runs the Mug-Up café with his wife in Grand Bank and knows a lot about trout fishing and classical music. He’s teaching me about both.

 

Tell us a little something about your author. Where can readers find her website/blog?

Mike Martin was born in St. John's, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer, and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada, the United States, and New Zealand. Learn more about Mike and his books at his website.

 

What's next for you?

I’m telling my author the story for the next book in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. I’d tell you about it, but then I’d have to kill you. Just joking!!

 

Safe Harbor

A Sgt. Windflower Mystery, Book 10

Sgt. Windflower in a special assignment in St. John's and adjusting to life in the big city. He is navigating traffic, a difficult boss at work, and what seems like an epidemic of missing girls. He becomes more interested when he discovers that one of the girls is from Grand Bank. Then a girl approaches his RCMP van one night and he is pulled into the underlife of the capital city. But he still manages to enjoy all of the good things in life. His family, old and new friends, and the love of living so close to the Atlantic Ocean.

 

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#COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR JEANNETTE DE BEAUVOIR

Although Jeannette de Beauvoir grew up in Angers, France, her American mother kept the home well-stocked with Golden Age mystery novels, and everything that has happened since can probably be traced back to reading them at a very young age. She writes historical and mystery fiction (often combining the two.) Learn more about Jeannette and her books at her website. 

Poutine… With a Side Order of Murder!

“Poutine,” says Martine LeDuc, PR director for the city of Montréal, “is Québec’s unique contribution to the hardening of the world’s arteries: crisp French fries, mixed with cheese curds and smothered in chicken gravy. It’s horrible. It’s heavenly.”

Martine doesn’t exist in real life—she’s the protagonist of my novels Asylum and Deadly Jewels, in which she’s very busy solving murders that aren’t exactly part of her job description—but poutine very much does exist, and she’s absolutely right on both counts: it’s not the world’s healthiest food, but it’s certainly one of the most wonderful.

Remember if you will that poutine originated in Québec, a province known for long, very cold winters, and you’ll immediately see the appeal. Coming in off the snowy street to a warm café, and having a steaming bowl of something hot, filled with carbs, and delicious set in front off you… yes: that’s heavenly.

(In fact, many people believe that it originated in the 1950s in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, where a great deal of the action in Deadly Jewels takes place, and where Martine and her detective friend share another memorable meal of fish and chips.)

In fact, it’s fair to say that Martine pretty much eats her way through the mysteries she solves. Whether it’s herding her stepchildren away from fast food (but giving in when it comes to St. Hubert rotisserie chicken), enjoying her husband Ivan’s signature dish of Hungarian stew, meeting a friend over red meat in a hotel steakhouse, piling up pancakes at Chez Cora, hanging out at Schwartz’s for the smoked meat, or entertaining possible suspects over elaborate dinners at l’Orignal with fresh high-end game, fish, and oysters, Martine is always on the lookout for something to get her through the day.

She loves to eat, and she lives in the right place: Montréal has more than enough choices to keep her happy. Martine happily eats her way from quartier to quartier. And when you visit Montréal, you will, too: it’s the best French food outside of France (some would say even better); be sure to try the Breton crêperies, and eat pasta in Little Italy, smoked meats at Schwartz’s, amazing Vietnamese noodle soups in Chinatown—there’s something here for every taste. And Martine says that Montréal’s bagels (at St. Viateur rather than Fairmount) are better than New York’s!

But in both Asylum and Deadly Jewels, Martine comes back to poutine. Feeling down? Have some poutine. Feeling great? Have some poutine. There just doesn’t seem to be a time when it’s not appropriate. And there are wide variants on the theme as well, as Wikipedia points out: “Some restaurants offer poutine with such toppings as sausage, chicken, bacon, or Montreal-style smoked meat. Some poutineries even boast dozens of variations of poutine. More upscale poutine with three-pepper sauce, merguez sausage, foie gras or even caviar and truffle can be found, a pre-Millennium trend that is credited to David MacMillan of Joe Beef and Globe restaurants fame.”

Whatever your take on it, try some poutine next time you’re in Montréal… or if you can’t wait, Martine’s added her own recipe for it below. Bon appétit!

Poutine

Ingredients:

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

1 (10.25 ounce) can chicken gravy

5 medium potatoes, cut into fries

2 cups cheese curds

Heat oil in a deep fryer or deep heavy skillet to 365 degrees F. While the oil is heating, begin to warm the gravy.

Place the fries into the hot oil, and cook until light brown, about 5 minutes. Make the fries in batches if necessary to allow them room to move a little in the oil. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Place the fries on a serving platter, and sprinkle the cheese over them. Ladle gravy over the fries and cheese, and serve immediately.

Deadly Jewels

When Martine LeDuc, publicity director for the city of Montréal, is summoned into the mayor's office, she's pleasantly surprised to find the city is due for a PR coup: a doctoral researcher at McGill University claims to have found proof that the British crown jewels were stored in Montréal during WWII.

Martine is thrilled to be part of the excavation project, until it turns out that the dig's discoveries include the skeleton of a man with diamonds in his ribcage and a hole in his skull. Is this decades-old murder leading her too far into the dangerous world of Canada’s neo-Nazi networks, or is there something going on that makes the jewels themselves deadly? Is history ever really completely buried?

With pressing personal issues crowding into her professional life, Martine needs to solve not only the puzzle of the jewels, but some more recent crimes―including another murder, a kidnapping, and the operation of an ancient cult in Montréal―and do it before the past reaches out to silence her for good.

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BOOK CLUB FRIDAY--GUEST AUTHOR LOU ALLIN

Lou Allin is the author of the Northern Ontario Belle Palmer series and the RCMP Corporal Holly Martin series set in Canada's Caribbean. Learn more about Lou and her books at her website/blog. www.louallin.com

Toddlers and Typewriters, not Tiaras

It’s never too early to put a child on the road to a profession. With only one child, all my parents’ efforts focussed on me. Not until I began sifting through their pictures from 1950 did I notice the trend.

 On this Christmas morning photo, my mother wrote on the back, “This probably turned you off ironing.” My expression says, “What’s with this padded dressing gown? I’m not in a Thirties film.” My dad was a movie booker, and I went to private screenings with him from the age of five. If I had to be Myrna Loy, couldn’t I be Nora Charles and help solve cases? Yet strewn around my feet in this photo are little evidences of career choices. A blackboard. A tea table.

Here’s my first cutaway dollhouse. I invited my large dolls to examine the little people inside. Would interior design interest me? Women weren’t majoring in architecture yet. Fashion? Why did the Daddy doll have an ugly brown suit? There’s my horse Pegasus in the back. Mom loved mythology. 

Cooking is useful, career or not, and my mother filled her house with homemade pies, cakes, and cookies. I had my own apron, rolling pin, and even a meat grinder! Early Hannibal Lecter? The doll folk are avoiding my glance. Mother writes, “This is why you are such a great cook. Encouragement.” Too true. I rarely eat out.

Here the dolly family examines the fruits of my labours. My smile looks forced. Note how I refuse to stick out my pinky. I do have a politically incorrect brown doll, and is that Betty Boop in the back row? My family is growing. Time for a little birth control. Not long after I will cut their hair and draw anchor and US Navy tattoos on their chests, even my mother’s 1912 cloth baby. Why does my only boy doll get to sit alone at the table?

Every kid loves animals! Women vets were beginning to appear. Here’s my budgie Winky. “Look into my eyes, bird. Stop pooping on the curtains.” Windy was actually very mean and bit everyone except my mother. It had a bad habit of walking on the floor. One day my father, well…..the less said, the better. It was fast. Tekoe and Pekoe replaced Winky but were not allowed to fly the coop. Since we lived in an apartment (before litter boxes), dogs or cats were out of the question. I did raise scores of white mice, two favourites were Errol and Bette.

Time for sports. Here I am with my brand new Schwinn. A light that flashes, a horn that beeps. It’s gigantic, but I will grow into it. No training wheels for me. I graduated to a racing bike at eleven. But few women made sports a profession other than Barbara Ann Scott or Babe Didrikson Zaharias.

Let’s get professional. My aunt was a nurse, and in that headdress, so am I. Check that medicine cabinet and the stethoscope. I have an assistant, so perhaps I was ward matron. I had my own chemistry set, too, but I combined ingredients at will and heated them over my Bunsen burner until they turned black and smelled up the house. I liked lighting candles in closets, and my mother let me. Can you believe it? If we hadn’t been Episcopalians, maybe that habit would have suited me as a nun.

Teaching was the last logical path. Mom made it to vice principal in the Cleveland schools. In my misguided career from 1966 to 2005, I had the same happiness and success as this expression. The dolls seem to be listening, and they’d better, thanks to the punishing pointer, but they were a captive audience.  Although later I was happier teaching English at a community college in Northern Ontario, I can never forget a year in a high school in Portsmouth, a shoe- and pottery-factory town bypassed by time since 1900 and the poorest county in Ohio.

The seniors were very civil, and my mythology class was sweet. But the tenth-grade boys I could line up against a wall and……..where’s my Uzi?

“Why you always sayin’ that I act like a fool?” one lad asked.

“Jim, you don’t have to ACT like a fool,” I said.

“Kiss my ass!” He got it loud and clear.

Off to the principal’s office. Many youthful tears later, parents brought in and more crying. No wonder I preferred being called Coach for my volleyball duties than Doc in honour of my useless PhD in Christopher Marlowe. But for $7500 a year? No thanks.

This last picture should have given me the hint. This can’t be my mother’s Misery-style Remington basher, but it’s no toy. Later on, she will bribe me with money at twelve to teach myself to type. Here I look serene, surrounded by the Internet of the day, an encyclopedia set. Should I have followed my heart and leaped full-time into creative writing? The juvenilia in the next essay will demonstrate my early efforts.

Twilight is Not Good for Maidens

A midnight attack on a girl at an island beach galvanizes the quiet Fossil Bay community and calls into question the effectiveness of law enforcement. RCMP Corporal Holly Martin must conduct her own investigation to discover a killer stalking young women in Canada's tourist paradise.

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TRAVEL TO WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA WITH GUEST AUTHOR R.E. DONALD

photo by JustaJeskova

R.E. Donald recently moved to a ranch in the South Cariboo region of British Columbia with a French Canadian cowboy, three horses and two dogs. Although she spent 25 years working in the transportation industry, she has never actually driven an eighteen-wheeler, and probably never will. Today she’s here to talk about Whistler, British Columbia and her newest mystery. Learn more about R.E. and books at her website. 

A Mountain of Mystery

My hero is always on the move. That’s because the sleuth in the Highway Mysteries series drives an eighteen-wheeler up and down the west coast of North America. Even truck drivers need a little R&R now and then, and that’s what brings former RCMP homicide investigator Hunter Rayne to the resort community of Whistler, British Columbia in the third Highway Mystery, Sea to Sky. While Hunter enjoys a few days of downhill skiing, he plans to become better acquainted with an attractive female lawyer he met in L.A. He doesn’t, however, plan to become the prime suspect in a murder on the mountain.

photo by Kevin Arnold

The town of Whistler became familiar to many winter sports fans around the world when it was the site of Alpine events at the 2010 Winter Olympics. It’s a magnificent setting, with the snow covered peaks of Blackcomb and Whistler Mountains towering some 5000 feet above the attractive and upscale Village of Whistler, where you can walk to dozens of shops, restaurants and bars. Yet Whistler is only a two-hour drive from the port city of Vancouver, or four and a half hours from Seattle, the last hour of the drive on the spectacular Sea to Sky highway as it winds its way upward through the coastal rainforest and along the rugged shores of Howe Sound.

Visitors who come to ski can choose either Whistler or Blackcomb Mountain, and skiers or non-skiers can ride over two and a half miles on the Peak 2 Peak Gondola for breathtaking views of both. Parts of the mountain are open for skiing as late as the end of May, and avid skiers can get their ski fix on Blackcomb’s Horstman Glacier up until the end of July. However, the end of ski season does not mean the end of mountain recreation, as it’s a popular place for hiking, mountain biking and wildlife viewing all through the summer months. After a day of outdoor activities, or just a day of relaxing – reading Sea to Sky beside the hotel pool, for example – visitors can indulge themselves at one of the many fine restaurants.

photo by Randy Lincks

Whistler-Blackcomb has become a popular site for various outdoor festivals and events during the summer as well, from the Children’s Festival or the Wanderlust “Yoga and Music” Festival, or a week of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concerts, to the Subaru Ironman Triathlon and the Bull’s Eye National BBQ Championships. Visitors can go on guided Bear and Ecology Tours, or simply set off on the vast network of trails to enjoy nature on their own. Whistler provides a good balance between the Pacific Northwest’s amazing natural environment and its finest civilized amenities. As a travel destination it offers something to appeal to everyone. More information (and even webcams) can be found at the Whistler Blackcomb website.

Tell them Hunter Rayne sent you.

Sea to Sky

Sea to Sky is the third novel in the Highway Mysteries series featuring long haul truck driver, Hunter Rayne. The former RCMP homicide investigator drove the Sea to Sky highway to Whistler’s ski resort for what was supposed to be a pleasant weekend of skiing with an attractive female acquaintance.  Instead, after a murdered man is found riding the chairlift, Hunter finds himself at the top of the suspect list and has no choice but to get involved in the investigation in order to clear his name. In the midst of the investigation, Hunter’s life becomes complicated when the progress of his new relationship is arrested by the appearance of a woman from his troubled past.

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