Testosterone: A Novel by James Robert Baker – A Book Review

Testosterone: A Novel is a book written by James Robert Baker. This book already holds a bit of intrigue even before one flips through its pages as it was published only after the author’s death. James Robert Baker died on November 5, 1997, while the book was published in October of the year 2000.
What is the book about?
The book is not about the best testosterone booster pills, but it is aptly named as it can definitely end up boosting testosterone due to its numerous twists and turns. The story revolves …

Books that Help You Understand and Practice Good Sleeping Habits

Good mattresses & sleep go together. Still it is important that, it would help if you will understand the concept of good sleeping habits through books. If you are also interested in philosophy, science, history, and the theory of good sleep, books are ideal. They are also great to cap off a busy day.
Continue reading to know books that can help you understand the role of your fears and mindset to get quality sleep.
Sleep: Harness the Power of Sleep for Optimal Health and Wellbeing by Petra Hawker
The book makes it easy to …

Thrillers For The Pandemic Era

Pandemic-related thrillers are extremely popular during these coronavirus times. This guide provides the best titles of the sub-genre to get readers started.
From Stephen King to José Saramago, these novels range across different contemporary and classic styles.
I Am Legend
In Richard Matheson’s I am Legend, the entire world has been transformed into vampires and Neville is the last man standing. All the vampires are hungry for his blood.
Neville hunts during the day and creates a fortress in the night. For how long will he survive the war for his blood?
The Plague
The author of The Plague …

Canada’s Most Intriguing Crime Novels

4. John McFetridge – Black Rock (2015)
Black Rock is the first book of the series of Eddie Dougherty. Set in the city of Montreal, in 1970, it is centered around a wannabe-detective named Eddie Dougherty, and a young cop. The 1970s were a turbulent time in Montreal, featuring police kidnappings, bombings, strikes, and protests. McFetridge loves minimalist descriptions and humorous, tongue-in-cheek dialogue.
3. Peter Robinson – Innocent Graves (1996)
The wealthy and powerful man’s daughter has been murdered. Banks investigates the case and discovers that there…

September 2020: The Most Intriguing Thrillers

September 2020 has gifted us with some of the most intriguing mystery, crime, and thriller books ever. Our top picks include The Sleeping Nymph, Next to Last Stand, as well as Mistletoe, Moussaka & Murder.
The Sleeping Nymph – Ilaria Tuti
This sequel is centered on Superintendent Teresa Battaglia. Teresa returns to the Italian force to work on a cold case of a murder investigation. The results from DNA analysis revealed a painting with particles extracted from the heart of a human.
Before Teresa has fully cracked the case, another murder takes place, and a human heart has been extracted displayed as a warning …

Female Crime Writers To Watch Out For

Ausma Khan
Ausma Khan is the British-Canadian author of the Rachel Getty series. The series is based in Toronto, featuring a Muslim detective and his partner who are entangled in crimes of a  vulnerable post 9/11 world.
Khan earned her doctorate in the law of international human rights. She believes that the world is a very political place for minorities and discusses these themes in her books. She intentionally features minorities as the leads in her novels, bringing readers into seeing the world from their eyes.
Janet Kellough
Kellough is a note-worthy author who began with one book that turned into a …

How A Woman Becomes A Lake – Marjorie Celona

This novel is that and melancholy. It opens up in Washington State. Officer Côté discovers Vera Gusey’s abandoned vehicle beside a frozen lake.
Vera had called to inform the station of a boy who was lost. Before she finished the call, she was cut off, and now she had mysteriously disappeared.
The story is artful and filled with tension. It follows the father of the boy and Vera, and the pieced revelation of the mystery is tragically grim.
Celona explores Vera’s fate and the effect it had on all the characters. It focuses on abstract problems such as the duty to those who have died versus the loyalty that …

Last Impressions – Joseph Kertes

Tragicomically tender is a phrase that astutely describes the Last Impressions. Kertes resounds themes that have remained constant during his career.
How do you get over the past? How do you make history right again? How does a family overcome grief, especially when everyone is determined not to speak of it?
Last Impressions is centered on a survivor of the Holocaust, Zoltan Beck. Beck is determined to enjoy his old age and put the past behind him. He longs to preserve his children from the darkness of their past – unfortunately, the past keeps looming above them.
The past trauma easily bubbles to the surface, with …

Never Forget – Martin Michaud; Translated by Arthur Holden

Never Forget is accessible and unique, armed with continuity that is so pivotal for crime writers creating a series. The series increases in intensity, mystery, and perils with each novel, of which Never Forget is the third book of its series.
Never Forget is centered on Victor Lessard. Lessard is a police detective. He investigates the murder of a nameless female, and the story pans out with a homeless man with two wallets, and a cryptic threat to a lawyer.
The story gives hints of the backstory unobtrusively piquing the reader’s interests without providing a distraction from the propulsive happenings in the main narrative…

The Ghost in the House – Sara O’Leary

This novel does a superb job of identifying the characters’ corporeality, eschewing the mind games that usually accompany ghost plots.
The themes are centered on marriage, remarriage, grief, and love.
The story presents Fay’s awakening in her home in Vancouver. Her home looks different and her husband is unable to see her. She quickly discovers that she is dead, and her husband, Alec is remarried. Fay decides to haunt her family, however, she quickly realizes that there is only so far she can go to reinserting herself in their lives.
Alec is anguished, introspective, and frankly, a more interesting …