Reena
Shortlisted for the 2009 George Ryga Award.
This is the story of an average family that has never been the same . . . since its eldest child was swarmed and killed by her peers on a moonlit night, November 14, 1997 . . . It is the story of what sudden and horrific violence can do to a family, and how a family somehow remains intact in the face of …
Criminal Artefacts
Attitudes toward crime, criminals, and rehabilitation have shifted considerably, yet the idea that there is a causal link between drug addiction and crime prevails. As law reformers call for addiction treatment as a remedy to the failing war on drugs, it is also time to consider the serious implications of joining legal and therapeutic practices in …
Negotiating Responsibility
The meaning of criminal responsibility emerged in early- to mid-twentieth-century Canadian capital murder cases through a complex synthesis of socio-cultural, medical, and legal processes. Kimberley White places the negotiable concept of responsibility at the centre of her interdisciplinary inquiry, rather than the more fixed legal concepts of insa …
Marked
When Colin accepts the job to clean up the graffiti in an upscale neighborhood he worries that he might be targeted by gangs. But he didn't expect to become a suspect in a series of robberies. Every time he is sent to clean up graffiti, the police are nearby investigating a crime. Colin knows he's done nothing wrong, but even he acknowledges his pr …
Lockdown
Some days it's just easier not to go to school at all. Adam has been slacking off lately, but today he stuck around to see his girlfriend. When Josh, who has been bullied mercilessly, brings a gun to school, the building is locked down and Adam is forced to risk everything to save himself and to find Zoe before Josh does. Calling on reserves he did …
Like a Rock
In 1992, Chuck Cadman was regarded by his Surrey neighbours as a typical suburban couch potato, a man who, despite the ponytail left over from his days as a small-time rock musician, had settled into a nine-to-five job and seemed content to pay down the mortgage, watch TV, drink a few beers and enjoy family life. Then, on October 17, his sixteen-ye …
De nadie más
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 q …
La verdad
Cuando un vecino adulto es brutalmente asesinado durante una fiesta de la preparatoria, todos en la escuela parecen saber quién lo hizo, pero nadie habla con la policía. Jen estuvo ahí, vio el cuerpo y tiene sus propias ideas sobre el posible culpable. Como es la reportera del programa de TV escolar, decide descubrir la verdad y averiguar si un …
What Is a Crime?
We all have notions of what it means to commit a crime. Most of us are very much aware of the behaviours which, by law, constitute crime. Rarely, however, do we stop to consider why certain activities and behaviours are deemed criminal and others are not.
What Is A Crime? examines how we define criminal conduct in contemporary society, and how we r …
Agenda-Setting Dynamics in Canada
Why do public issues like the environment rise and fall in importance over time? To what extent can the trends in salience be explained by real-world factors? To what degree are they the product of interactions between media content, public opinion, and policymaking? This book surveys the development of eight issues in Canada over a decade -- AIDS, …
Securing Borders
Anna Pratt takes a close look at the laws, policies, and practices of detention and deportation in Canada since the Second World War. She demonstrates that although the desire to fortify the border against risky outsiders has long been prominent in Canadian immigration penality, the degree to which concerns about security, crime, and fraud have com …
Two Foot Punch
Nikki blames her brother, Derek, for their parents' death in a house fire, but when Derek gets involved with a gang, Nikki knows she is the only one who can save him. Enlisting the help of a girl named Rain, who uses her athletic abilities to carry out acts of petty thievery, Nikki uses all her gymnastic and free-running skills to stay ahead of the …
Crimes and Mercies
More than 9 million Germans died as a result of deliberate Allied starvation and expulsion policies after World War II—one quarter of the country was annexed, and about 15 million people expelled in the largest act of ethnic cleansing the world has ever known. Over 2 million of these alone, including countless children, died on the road or in co …
Kuroshio
Kuroshio, meaning "black current," is the name given to the Pacific Ocean current that Japanese immigrants believe brought them safely to a new life in North America. In this vividly imagined novel based on a true story that spans decades and continents, Terry Watada explores the dark reaches of Issei, or Japanese immigrant, life in Vancouver prior …
City Making in Paradise
This critical work explores those key choices that made Vancouver one of the world's most livable cities, an international urban poster child-and challenges policy makers and the public to reinvigorate the debate for the next generation of successful, sustainable city building
Time and again, the Vancouver region is recognized internationally as one …
Above the Falls
In May 1936, George Dalziel flew far up the Nahanni River to check on Bill Eppler and Joe Mulholland, who were working one of his traplines. He found their cabin burned to the ground and no sign of them anywhere. What had happened to the healthy young men? Had there been an accident, or was a killer on the loose?
Dalziel, known as The Flying Trapper …
Cobra Strike
After discovering tainted water in the creek near his grandmother's cabin in the Kentucky hills, senior Roy Linden slowly uncovers a connection between his high school team's new star quarterback, his own football future, and the source of the pollution. Roy Linden should be thrilled. His high school football team, the Johnstown Striking Cobras, ju …
I.D.
When Chris finds a wallet on the street he tries to return it to its owner. In trouble at home and at school, he is struggling to do the right thing. However, as circumstances slowly start unraveling and his whole life appears headed down the drain, Chris realizes that the person who owns the wallet looks a lot like him and has a life he would do a …
Bang
Quentin and JD have been friends forever. Even after JD gets in trouble Quentin stands by him. Hanging out together Quentin learns JD has a gun and when they are caught in a robbery JD uses the gun—with deadly results. Trying to cover up the crime and escape detection, Quentin gets in even deeper than he expected and learns that the only person h …
See No Evil
When Shawn and Daniel witness a gang beating behind the local mall they flee the scene, terrified that they've been seen. They recognize one of the attackers as a locally infamous gang member. When they learn that the kid who was attacked is in critical condition, Shawn wants to go to the police, but Daniel convinces him that they are in more dange …
All-Star Pride
It's the All-Star team, made up of the WHL's young hockey players, just one short step away from the NHL.
Their goal is to beat the Russian All-Stars in a best-of-seven series to be shown as a television special. Hog Burnell, one of the biggest and toughest players in the league, is happy to be part of it. He could use the money that would come with …
Saving Grace
Evie was pregnant and forced to give up the baby. But she can't just leave the child with strangers, especially when she thinks the baby is being neglected. With her boyfriend waiting in the truck, Evie snatches the baby and convinces him to drive her to Montreal where she plans to start a new life with her child. But when the baby won't eat and sh …
Tiger Threat
Ray Hockaday plays center for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Western Hockey League. He's spent his hockey career hiding something from the world. When his new Russian room-mate shows up, Ray is assigned to help Vlad get used to life in Canada. What Ray doesn't know is that Vlad is also hiding something. And that secret could get both of them killed …
Safe House
Northern Ireland. In 1999, one year after the Good Friday peace accord, sectarian violence still runs rampant in Belfast and the hatred between Protestant and Catholic runs deep. Liam O'Donnell's father is a peacemaker to the Catholic community. When twelve-year-old Liam's parents are brutally murdered in front of him, he is frozen in place. But wh …
Charmed
Izzy's mother works far away and leaves Izzy at home, alone with Rob the Slob. Angry at her mother and trying to deal with school, friends and the attentions of charismatic Cody Dillon, Izzy finds her life swirling out of control. Coerced into putting out to help Cody, Izzy finds she is one in a long line of girls ensnared in prostitution, with no …
Dead Man in the Orchestra Pit
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 …
Myways
The fourth and final book in the infamous Ways series of novels as conceptual art?a project by internationally renowned visual artist Rita McBride in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, Printed Matter, Inc., and Arsenal Pulp Press. The Ways pull together some of the world's leading artists, curators, and writers to write "chapter …
Unwilling Mothers, Unwanted Babies
This book traces twentieth-century Canadian criminal justice responses to women who kill their newly born babies. Initially, juries were reluctant to convict these women of murder since it carried the death penalty. The current “infanticide” law was adopted in 1948 to impose uniformity on legal practice and to ensure a homicide conviction. Even …
Snitch
Josh had been living in a group home after being ratted out by Scott, his one-time best friend.
Now Josh has moved in with his brother and overbearing sister-in-law and has been sent to a class designed to teach him to deal with his anger. When an old enemy continues to push his buttons and Scott appears to be up to his old tricks, Josh struggles to …
Home Invasion
Josh is less than thrilled that he has a new stepfather, and finds his personal habits—and his personality—irritating. When his mother leaves town, Josh is left to spend a week alone with Clay. Resenting his new living arrangements and his unorthodox home life, Josh finds himself drawn to the idea of a "regular" family and, on a whim, sneaks in …
Dead Man in Paradise
At nightfall on June 22, 1965, a soldier walked in from the outskirts of a small town in the Dominican Republic and reported that he had just shot and killed two policemen and an outspoken Canadian Catholic priest. It was the opening scene in a mystery that, forty years later, compels J.B. MacKinnon, a nephew of the murdered missionary, to investig …
The Unofficial Guide to Basketball's Nastiest and Most Unusual Records
This irresistible guide serves up sex scandals, crimes, drugs, and financial chicanery that have rocked the world of basketball, and also includes obscure and offbeat stats-based records for the hardcore fan. Wickedly humorous, the book includes candid commentary, amazing anecdotes, comic quotes, fascinating biographical sketches, and little-known …
Crimeways
In the same vein as Heartways and Futureways?the first two books in the Ways series?Crimeways is literature as conceptual art: a unique collaboration between the Whitney Museum of American Art, Printed Matter, Inc., and Arsenal. Crimeways is a faux mystery/crime "novel" in which each chapter is written by a different contributor, all of whom create …
Home Before Dark
Erik and his friends spend all their time on the water, exploring the shoreline and islands off British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. While they all have experience with boats and the outdoors, the unpredictable weather and fickle seas often manage to test their courage and abilities. While exploring a burned-out homestead on a remote island, the teen …
