loading . . . Our Top Fiction of 2025 The only thing better than this wide-ranging list of excellent Canadian fiction is that every single title on it is up for giveaway! Head to our giveaways page for your chance to win! (Giveaways close on January 1 2026.) ***** Blue Hours, by Alison Acheson (Freehand Books) About the book: A novel about fatherhood, grief, unanswerable questions, and the small, magical moments that make up life. Keith has always striven to break rules as he navigates full-time parenting and supports the career of his successful photographer wife. Her unexpected illness and death leaves both him and his son Charlie in bits. When they take a road trip, a journey begins that does not end when they return home. Keith must deal with revelations that complicate his grief, even as Charlie's response is unsettling. Together, father and son connect with loved ones, strangers, and each other. Life's magical and mystical moments emerge. Is it enough to heal, though? Check out Alison Acheson's "Fathers and Sons" * The Saltbox Olive, by Angela Antle (Breakwater Books) About the book: Caroline Fisher sets out to solve the mystery of why her grandfather burned his brother Arch’s wartime letters. The Saltbox Olive follows the wartime route of Arch, Tombstone, Slade, and Garl, members of the 166th British Army (Newfoundland) Artillery Regiment. After surviving the battles of the Sangro and Cassino, they are all but forgotten by British HQ in the mountains between Florence and Bologna, where war loses all semblance of logic, where their loyalties are tested, and where they encounter acts of brutality, revenge, and loneliness. Weaving their stories with those of Caroline and Min Fisher, war photographer Barbara Kerr, and partisan Lucia Capponi and her son Cosimo, The Saltbox Olive explores the role of individual responsibility in wartime, how photography influences our understanding of truth, and how sins committed in times of duress as well as declarations of love can ripple outward for generations. The Saltbox Olive is about the connections of the past to the present and the conflict between the simple truths we desperately crave, and life’s complex realities. Check out Angela Antle's essay, "Lisa Moore's February: This Book Made Me" * Born, by Heather Birrell (Coach House Books) About the book: What happens when an English teacher goes into labor during a high school lockdown? High school English teacher Elise loves teaching Shakespeare. She is also very pregnant and trapped in a classroom with her Grade 12 students during a lockdown. Anthony, the cause of the lockdown, is roaming the halls with a knife in search of some solace, consumed by thoughts of his best friend Samantha’s suicide attempt. Maria, the school’s counsellor, is second-guessing her decision to turn him in. As the lockdown drags on, Elise can no longer deny that she’s going into labour. And she’ll have to rely on the students to get her through: Shai-Anna and Faduma end up acting as midwives, and the others do what they can. This isn't your typical lockdown story. With clear-eyed empathy, Born explores the many pitfalls and utopian possibilities of the school system, motherhood, and caregiving, and the sometimes fraught, sometimes transcendent nature of the student-teacher relationship. Check out "Radical Care: The Chat with Heather Birrell" * When We Were Ashes, by Andrew Boden (Goose Lane Editions) About the book: When the grey bus came to take Rainor Schacht and his friends in the ward for disabled children to a remote hospital called Trutzburg, they had no idea what dark reality awaited them. No one would tell them what to expect — not Nurse Hilde; not Peter Berger, the kind bus driver; not Dr. Lutz, who ran the Nazi hospital with ruthless efficiency. Years later, with Berger’s coded diary in hand, Rainor sets out to find Emmi, a fellow survivor of Trutzburg, who looked past Rainor’s disfigurement and elicited the magic that gave purpose to Rainor and solace to Emmi and the other children. Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, Andrew Boden’s When We Were Ashes takes us to the chilling depths of Aktion T4, one of the darkest chapters in the history of Nazi Germany. In this hauntingly poignant novel, Rainor is led on an illuminating journey to learn the truth about his past and the even more extraordinary truth about his present. Check out Andrew Boden's "Fiction to Savour This Winter" * The Tiger and the Cosmonaut, by Eddy Boudel Tan (Penguin Canada) About the book: A noirish page-turner about a mysterious disappearance and a moving portrait of a Chinese Canadian family navigating insecurities, expectations, and simmering anger in their small BC town. Casper Han grew up the dutiful son of immigrants who never felt entirely welcome in their remote corner of British Columbia. Now an adult, living in Vancouver with a boyfriend whose privilege he quietly resents, Casper rarely returns to his hometown, the site of a grief his family doesn’t discuss: the loss of his twin brother, Sam. Over twenty years have passed since Sam went missing, and a crisis brings Casper and his siblings back. Their father has vanished, only to be found wandering the vast woods beyond the family home, confused and clutching a pair of scissors, seemingly trapped in the memory of that tragic night. In order to move forward, the Han family must finally confront the past and untangle the mystery of what really happened to Sam. Combining the atmosphere and intrigue of a cracking good suspense novel with the depth of a rich character study, The Tiger and the Cosmonaut tells the story of a family whose members have long made themselves small and quiet and obedient—and what happens when the cycle is finally broken. Check out "The Chat with Eddy Boudel Tan" * Milktooth, by Jaime Burnet (Nimbus Publishing) About the book: Sorcha is over the hook-ups and gay haunts of her twenties. At thirty-one what she wants, more than anything, is to have a baby. Then she meets Chris—with her buttoned-up plaid, 90s heartthrob hair, and grand romantic gestures—and things get serious. Fast. Though Sorcha’s friends find her new partner problematic, Sorcha has an explanation for everything. As Chris’s moods turn volatile and Sorcha becomes increasingly isolated, Chris paints an idyllic picture of domestic bliss in Cape Breton. Sorcha is all in: if her conservative religious upbringing taught her anything, it’s how to save. Plus, Chris promises Sorcha the thing she wants most—a baby. But when Sorcha becomes pregnant and Chris’s abuse escalates, Sorcha realizes she must escape the life they’ve built together, just as she escaped her own stifling family years before. When Sorcha’s estranged Aunt Agnes, a retired midwife, messages Sorcha out of the blue, her bothy in the Scottish Highlands seems the perfect place to hide. As the bundle of cells in Sorcha’s belly diligently divides, she daydreams that Agnes will deliver the baby and they’ll stay in Scotland, where Chris can’t find them. And where, just maybe, Sorcha could build the sort of family she’s always ached for. Exploring the clandestinity of queer abuse, the fierceness of friendship, and the magic of found family, milktooth is a bold, inventive, lyrical and darkly funny story about finding the strength to cut away what’s harmed you and create something entirely new. Check out Jaime Burnet's "A Selection from my Bookshelf" * Skin, by Catherine Bush (Goose Lane Editions) About the book: Now, for the first time, a blistering book of short fiction from one of Canada’s most loved novelists. In Skin, Catherine Bush plunges into the vortex of all that shapes us. Summoning relationships between the human and more-than-human, she explores a world where touch and intimacy are both desirable and fraught. Ranging from the realistic to the speculative, Bush’s stories tackle the condition of our restless, unruly world amidst the tumult of viruses, climate change, and ecological crises. Here, she brings to life unusual and perplexing intimacies: a man falls in love with the wind; a substitute teacher’s behaviour with a student brings unforeseen risks; a woman becomes fixated on offering foot washes to strangers. Bold, vital, and unmistakably of the moment, Skin gives a charged and animating voice to the question of how we face the world and how, in the process, we discover tenderness and allow ourselves to be transformed. Check out "Relishing Short Fiction: The Chat with Catherine Bush" * The Immortal Woman, by Su Chang (House of Anansi Press) About the book: Longlisted, 2025 Toronto Book Awards A sweeping generational story of heartbreak, resilience, and yearning, revealing an insider’s view of the fractured lives of Chinese immigrants and those they leave behind. Lemei, once a student Red Guard leader in 1960s Shanghai and a journalist at a state newspaper, was involved in a brutal act of violence during the Tiananmen Square protests and lost all hope for her country. Her daughter, Lin, is a student at an American university on a mission to become a true Westerner. She tirelessly erases her birth identity, abandons her Chinese suitor, and pursues a white lover, all the while haunted by the scars of her upbringing. Following China’s meteoric rise, Lemei is slowly dragged into a nationalistic perspective that stuns Lin. Their final confrontation results in tragic consequences, but ultimately, offers hope for a better future. By turns wry and lyrical, The Immortal Woman reminds us to hold tight to our humanity at any cost. Check out Su Chang's "Feminist Fiction" * All Things Under the Moon, by Ann Y.K. Choi (Simon & Schuster Canada) About the book: In 1924, Korea is an occupied country. In Seoul’s secret, underground networks and throughout the countryside, rebellion against the Japanese Empire simmers, threatening to boil over. Kim Na-Young lives a simple life in the rural village of Daegeori, where she watches the moon rise and set over the pine-wooded mountains, tends to her household alongside her best friend, Yeon-Soo, and cares for her sick mother. But the occupation touches every Korean life—even Na-Young’s. In the wake of a tragedy that stuns the village, Na-Young’s father arranges her marriage to a man she’s never met, and Na-Young and Yeon-Soo decide to flee, taking their fate into their own hands. That decision sets them on their own collision course with the occupying forces, resulting in a violent encounter that will alter both of their lives forever—in shockingly different ways. Taking us from a small village to the bustling corridors of Seoul, where women and girls can learn to read and write in multiple languages and members of the revolution pass coded messages through the back rooms of teahouses, Ann Y. K. Choi weaves a masterful tale of a woman taking command not only of her own identity but her own destiny. A sweeping journey through historical Korea and an utterly compelling portrait of one woman’s remarkable life, All Things Under the Moon is both a stunning literary achievement and a beautifully written tribute to the sacrifices women make for each other. Check out Ann Y.K. Choi's "Double or Nothing: Celebrating the Second Novel" * Small Ceremonies, by Kyle Edwards (McClelland & Stewart) About the book: Part coming-of-age novel, part searing examination of a community finding itself, Small Ceremonies is a tantalizing and heartbreaking debut. “I fear for our friendship, for the day it will end, wondering when that day will be . . .” Tomahawk Shields (a.k.a. Tommy) and Clinton Whiteway are on the cusp of adulthood, imagining a future rife with possibility and greatness. The two friends play for their high school’s poor-performing hockey team, the Tigers, who learn at the start of the new season that the league wants them out. Their annual goal is now more important than ever: to win their first game in years and break the curse. As we follow these two Indigenous boys over the course of a year, we are given a panoptic view of Tommy and Clinton’s Winnipeg, where a university student with grand ambitions chooses to bottle her anger when confronted with numerous micro- (and not so micro-) aggressions; an ex-convict must choose between protecting or exploiting his younger brother as he’s dragged deeper into the city’s criminal underbelly; a lonely rink attendant is haunted by the memory of a past lover and contemplates rekindling this old flame; and an aspiring journalist does everything she can to uncover why the league is threatening to remove the Tigers. These are a sampling of the chorus of voices that depicts a community filled with individuals searching for purpose, leading them all to one fateful and tragic night. Ferociously piercing the heart of an Indigenous city, Kyle Edwards's sparkling debut is a heartbreaking yet humour-flecked portrayal of navigating identity and place, trauma and recovery, and growing up in a land that doesn't love you. Check out English-language winners and nominees of the 2025 Governor General's Literary Awards * A Dark Death, by Alice Fitzpatrick (Stonehouse Publishing) About the book: Kate Galway is looking forward to a quiet summer working on her latest novel at her home on Meredith Island. For a place hardly anyone has heard of, her sleepy Welsh island is attracting a lot of visitors, including a conman posing as a psychic and group of archaeology students who believe they’ve unearthed evidence of a Roman temple. Part-way through the dig, however, the students make an even more startling discovery: a body ritualistically laid out in their trench. While intrigued by the murder, amateur sleuth Kate decides to leave this investigation to the professionals. However, when she learns that both the island mechanic and her university friend’s son are prime suspects, she and hedonistic artist Siobhan Fitzgerald feel they have no choice but to get involved. Check out Alice Fitzpatrick's "Female Amateur Sleuths of All Ages" * Inside the House Inside, by Rosalind Goldsmith (Ronsdale Press) About the book: Excluded from society, the characters in these short short stories are outcasts, cut off from each other, from their future, from their own lives or from sanity and meaning. In Rosalind Goldsmith's remarkable debut collection, cutting-edge prose, rich in compassion, captures lives lived in the margins. Homelessness, climate change, depression, anxiety, disease, or the trauma of abuse has pushed her characters beyond their limits. They survive outside the norm, living within the structures they have built within their own minds. We meet a drug-addicted woman living on the street, a boy on the run from his father; a young woman obsessed with a text message, an old woman trying to reassemble a language and a world that have both fallen apart, a woman pursued by her own life and another dancing to save hers. In concise, unflinching prose, each story is linked by visceral imagery of the contemporary world, an intense, heartbreaking world, where lives are lost to exclusion. These stories offer the raw vibrancy of clarity based on understanding and empathy. * She's a Lamb, by Meredith Hambrock (ECW Press) About the book: A darkly comic suspense in the vein of All’s Well and Yellowface, She’s a Lamb! is an edgy and incisive novel that marches toward showtime with a growing unease about the dangers of magical thinking and the depths of delusion. Jessamyn St. Germain is meant to be a star. Not an actor who occasionally books yogurt commercials and certainly not a lowly usher at one of Vancouver’s smallest regional theatres. No, she is bound for greatness, and that’s why the part of Maria in the theatre’s upcoming production of The Sound of Music is hers. Or it’s going to be. Jessamyn may have been relegated to the position of childminder for the little brats playing the von Trapp children, but it’s so obvious she’s there for a different reason—the director wants her close to the role so when Samantha, the lead, inevitably fails, Jessamyn will be there to take her place in the spotlight. This must be it. Because if it isn’t, well, then every skipped meal, every brutal rehearsal, every inch won against a man attempting to drag her down will have all been for nothing. Sharp, relentless, and darkly funny, She’s a Lamb! is a cutting satire about the grotesque pall patriarchy casts over one woman’s delusional quest to achieve her dreams and the depths she will sink to for a chance at the life she’s convinced she deserves. Check out Meredith Hambrock's "Essential Settings" * Detective Aunty, by Uzma Jalaluddin (Harpercollins Canada) About the book: When her grown daughter is suspected of murder, a charming and tenacious widow digs into the case to unmask the real killer in this twisty, page-turning whodunit—the first book in a cozy new detective series from the acclaimed author of Ayesha at Last After her husband’s unexpected death twelve months earlier, Kausar Khan never thought she’d receive another phone call as heartbreaking—until her thirty-something daughter, Sana, phones to say she’s been arrested for killing the unpopular landlord of her clothing boutique. Determined to help her child, Kausar heads to Toronto for the first time in nearly twenty years. Returning to the Golden Crescent suburb where she raised her children and where her daughter still lives, Kausar finds that the thriving neighborhood she remembers has changed. The murder of Sana’s landlord is only the latest in a wave of local crimes that have gone unsolved. And the facts of the case are troubling: Sana found the man dead in her shop at a suspiciously early hour, with a dagger from her windowfront display plunged into his chest. But Kausar—a woman with a keen sense of observation and deep wisdom honed by life experience—senses there’s more to the story than her daughter is sharing. With the help of some old friends and her plucky teenage granddaughter, Kausar digs into the investigation to uncover the truth. Because who better to pry answers from unwilling suspects than a meddlesome aunty? But even Kausar could not have predicted the secrets, lies, and betrayals she finds along the way . . . * The World So Wide, by Zilla Jones (Cormorant Books) About the book: Felicity Alexander should be charming audiences at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, not under house arrest in Grenada in October 1983, as rumours swirl that United States troops are preparing to invade. Born and raised in Winnipeg, the daughter of a Grenadian woman and an absent white father, Felicity is blessed with enviable beauty and an extraordinary singing voice. Arriving in London to study opera in 1965, she finds early success and joy on stage, as well as a sense of belonging in the arms of the charming Claude Buckingham. Members of the West Indian Students Association, Claude and his friends are law students and activists. They plan to return to Grenada to overthrow the corrupt dictator, “Uncle” Percy Tibbs. Felicity and Claude’s intense affair cannot survive their diverging destinies. Claude brings revolution to Grenada and becomes a minister in the new Black Pearls of Freedom government; Felicity devotes herself to music, conquering the racism and sexism of the opera world to rise to international stardom. The brighter she shines, the more she struggles to find her place and purpose in life. Her career in ascendance, Felicity accepts an invitation to perform in Grenada. The red sky of revolution calls to her almost as much as the hope of Claude’s embrace. But their reunion is interrupted by a coup. Surrounded by soldiers and guns, Felicity’s voice is born anew. Check out Zilla Jones's recommended reading list * I Remember Lights, by Ben Ladouceur (Book*hug Press) About the book: The first novel from award-winning poet Ben Ladouceur, I Remember Lights depicts a time when the world promised everything to everyone, however irresponsibly. In summer 1967, love is all you need…but some forms of love are criminal. As the spectacular Expo 67 celebrations take shape, a young man new to Montreal learns about gay life from cruising partners, one-night stands, live-in lovers, and friends. Once Expo begins, he finds romance with a charismatic visitor, but their time is limited. When the fireworks wither into smoke, so do their options. A decade later, during the notorious 1977 police raid on a gay bar called Truxx, he comes to understand even more about the bitter choice, so often made by men like him, between happiness and safety. I Remember Lights is a vital reminder of forgotten history and a visceral exploration of the details of queer life: tribulation and joy, exile and solidarity, cruelty and fortitude. Check out "Expo Love in Queer Montreal: The Chat with Ben Ladouceur" * Victor and Me in Paris, by Janice MacDonald (Turnstone Press) About the book: When retired academic Imogene Durant finds herself in Paris with Victor Hugo as her guide, a series of disturbing discoveries are made in local hotels. While Imogene hopes to settle in, read, and write a follow up to her acclaimed book, Fyodor & Me in Russia, she’s drawn into the mystery by her new friend and neighbour, the police detective assigned to the case. Check out Janice MacDonald's "Mystery Picks that Carved the Path" * Starry Starry Night, by Shani Mootoo (Book*hug Press) About the book: From celebrated writer Shani Mootoo comes an innovative and revelatory work of autofiction about family secrets, trauma, race, class, and loss. In Starry Starry Night, Mootoo gives us the singular voice of Anju Ghoshal, a young girl living in 1960s Trinidad. Through Anju's innocent and clear-eyed observations, the reader becomes both a witness to and a participant in her negotiations of an unexpectedly new and complex life, spanning from the ages of four to twelve. Set against the backdrop of a politically exciting time in Trinidad's history, just before and after it gained independence, we meet Anju's beloved Ma and Pa and her socially advancing family. While preoccupied with their own dramas, the adults around her often fail to recognize the needs of the children who depend on them. Beautifully crafted and rich with sumptuous detail, this unique narrative coalesces into a portrait of a child who, despite her privileged appearance, must ultimately fend for herself because her safety depends on it. Check out "What We Carry: Fall 2025" * The Pugilist and the Sailor, by Nadia Ragbar (Invisible Publishing) About the book: The Pugilist and the Sailor follows conjoined twins, Bruce and Dougie. Dougie is an ambitious amateur boxer, having dragged his brother into the ring since childhood. Bruce is a bookkeeper who has become smitten with Anka. Unaware of the facts of the twins' physicality an epistolary relationship unfolds between Anka and Bruce, as he wrestles with broaching the topic of separation with Dougie. Dougie's sole focus is the Heavyweight Amateur Boxing title as one half of "The Reuben Beast," though he is trying to ignore his mysterious blackouts and severe headaches. Anka is, specifically, navigating through her grief over her parents' deaths, but also, generally, reconciling her understanding of being a first-generation Canadian without her Guyanese parents as an anchor. A character-driven story with an ensemble cast, told across multiple points of view and time periods, examines the unique relationships between conjoined brothers, parents, crushes, and unexpected mentors. A story about the intertwined nature of longing and belonging, compromise and connection, this is ultimately a consideration of family and finding your unique place in it, and in the world. Check out Nadia Ragbar's "Sibling Dynamics: Grief, Loss, and Love" * A Room in the Forest, by Heather Ramsay (Caitlin Press) About the book: Nineteen-year-old Lily knows she doesn’t belong at a dead-end job in her father’s small-town Alberta furniture store, not when she’s been offered a job in the ancient forests of Haida Gwaii. But her search for a sense of place becomes more complicated when a band of tree planters she meets on the road question her assumptions about whose land she is moving towards. Once at the logging camp, the rugged work and her rough co-workers make her even more uncertain about where she fits in. While measuring trees, Lily sees a mysterious figure who disappeared into the forest years before. Is he a man or a myth? Everyone has a different opinion. With a logging protest looming, Lily’s coworker and sometimes-friend, Chaz—a young half-Haida man whose white father owns the logging camp—ditches his job thanks to his uncle’s influence. As she meets more locals and learns about the community, Lily discovers surprising secrets about her estranged mother’s time in the area—and that her connection to this place may not be what she thought. Do the rumours Lily keeps hearing about a mysterious hermit have anything to do with her? As more and more questions rise to the surface, Lily plunges deeper into the forest to find out. Former Haida Gwaii reporter and freelance writer Heather Ramsay makes her fiction debut with a startling coming-of-age novel about challenging old beliefs and finding one’s place in the world. Check out "Haida Gwaii: Intimate Encounters in a Forest" * Pick a Colour, by Souvankham Thammavongsa (Knopf Canada) About the book: Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. On this summer's day, much like any other, the Susans buff and clip and polish and tweeze. They listen and smile and nod. But beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound depth. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complicated power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities—as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances—will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning. Told over a single day, with razor-sharp precision and wit, Pick a Colour confirms Souvankham Thammavongsa's place as literature's premier chronicler of the immigrant experience, in its myriad, complex, and slyly subversive forms. Check out "Giller Prize 2025: The Chat with Souvankham Thammavongsa" * Runs in the Blood, by Matthew J. Trafford (Arsenal Pulp Press) About the book: A dark and funny short story collection that reveals poignant truths about queer chosen family. A lesbian mother feels out of place taking her daughter to a princess party; a gay couple turns to unconventional means to create their baby; a grieving man winds up on a date with a centaur; an agoraphobic must make an impossible choice before time runs out. This is the unnerving world of Runs in the Blood, Matthew J. Trafford's sophomore story collection, and it pulses with humour, anxiety, and profound disquiet. Darkly satirical and unflinchingly human, the stories of Runs in the Blood unsettle our notions of family, whether biological or chosen. Careening through the space beyond nature versus nurture, its characters—betrayed, wounded, unequipped—wrangle with their own worst instincts and the grotesqueries of the modern world, attempting to create families worth holding on to and to protect the children they love. Delightful and disarming, odd and audacious, Runs in the Blood announces the return of a bold and fearless writer. Check out "In Praise of Queer Family: The Chat with Matthew J. Trafford" * The Riveter, by Jack Wang (House of Anansi Press) About the book: A cross-cultural love story set against the dramatic backdrop of the Allied invasion of Europe in WWII. Vancouver, 1942. Josiah Chang arrives in the bustling city ready to serve his country in the war against fascism, but Chinese Canadians are barred from joining the army out of fear they might expect citizenship in return. So, Josiah heads to the shipyard to find work as a riveter, fastening together the ribs and steel plates of Victory ships. One night, Josiah spots Poppy singing at a navy club. Despite their different backgrounds, they fall for each other instantly and begin a starry-eyed romance that lasts until the harsh reality of their situation is made clear. Determined to prove himself, Josiah takes a train to Toronto where he’s finally given the chance to enlist. After volunteering for the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion and jumping into Normandy on D-Day, he must fight through the battlefields of Europe to make it back to the woman he loves. By turns harrowing and exhilarating, The Riveter explores what one man must sacrifice to belong to the only country he has ever called home. Check out "8 Novels and a Short Story About the Second World War" * Ley Lines, by Tim Welsh (Guernica Editions) About the book: Set in the waning days of the Klondike Gold Rush, Ley Lines begins in the mythical boom town of Sawdust City, Yukon Territory. Luckless prospector Steve Ladle has accepted an unusual job offer: accompany a local con artist to the unconquered top of a nearby mountain. What he finds there briefly upends the town’s fading fortunes, attracting a crowd of gawkers and acolytes, while inadvertently setting in motion a series of events that brings about the town’s ruin. In the aftermath, a ragtag group of characters is sent reeling across the Klondike, struggling to come to grips with a world that has been suddenly and unpredictably upturned. As they attempt to carve out a place for themselves, our protagonists reckon with the various personal, historical and supernatural forces that have brought them to this moment. A wildly inventive, psychedelic odyssey, Ley Lines flips the frontier narrative on its ear, and heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in Canadian fiction. Check out Tim Welsh's "Weird Books that will Stick in Your Brain" * The Last Exile, by Sam Wiebe (Harbour Publishing) About the book: PI Dave Wakeland returns to the streets of Vancouver for his most dangerous case yet. Maggie Zito is being held for murder. The volatile single mother is accused of killing the retired leader of the notorious Exiles motorcycle gang and his wife aboard their million-dollar houseboat. With a mystery witness putting Maggie at the scene, and the Exiles baying for her blood, it’s unlikely she’ll make it to the trial alive. Desperate, Maggie’s lawyer, Shuzhen Chen, calls in a favour to Dave Wakeland: Find evidence of Maggie’s innocence and get her client out of custody. Wakeland reluctantly returns to a changing city, full of unfamiliar dangers. To prove Maggie’s innocence, he and Shuzhen must reckon with the Exiles crime syndicate and their bloodthirsty leader. The bikers are on the verge of a civil war, and an unseen foe is gunning for the top spot. Dave and Shuzhen have to put aside their complicated past to learn the identity of the witness, and find out why Maggie was framed for this killing. To complicate matters, Wakeland’s business partner is nowhere to be found. The security firm they started teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. Even if the case can be solved, and the business saved, can the partners ever trust each other? Check out Sam Wiebe's "Crime Novels: Noir by Northwest" http://49thshelf.com/Blog/2025/12/01/Our-Top-Fiction-of-2025
