National Network for Equitable Library Service

After the conclusion of The Silver Anklet, Taras triumphant return to Morni is short-lived. Taras deceased former stepmother, Kali, seeks revenge through her daughter, Layla. And so begins a series of carefully orchestrated events to cast suspicion on Tara: a dead dog in the village temple, contaminated well water, and whispers that Tara is still possessed. Layla fuels the villagers blind superstitions and fears. Soon all of Morni is against Tara, even her own family. Death seems to be the only way to stop her evil stepsister. Tara turns to Lord Yama and his deadly conch for help.

Mike Watson's team has just won the Alberta Bantam Provincial box lacrosse championships. The euphoria of victory and plans for next season are short-lived when Mike's father, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, is transferred to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. The transition to life inside the Arctic Circle is a tough one. With temperatures of -30 Celsius, a hulking monster named Joseph Kiktorak threatening him at every turn, and not a lacrosse ball in site, Mike's resentment at moving north escalates.

After a cheap handgun sets Jack on the trail of a heroin importer, he winds up in the lair of one of the largest Yakuza crime families, caught in a deadly clash of criminal cultures. This intriguing, suspense-packed novel is the fourth in the Jack Taggart Mystery series, continuing the story of Loose Ends, Above Ground, and Angel in the Full Moon. This time, the implacable Mountie Jack Taggart goes undercover to follow the trail of a cheap “Saturday-night special” handgun found at the scene of a murder.

Long-listed for the 2011 ReLit Awards Andrew Christiansen, a war photographer turned cabdriver, is having a bad year. His mother has just died; his father, on the verge of a nervous breakdown, gets arrested; and he’s married to a woman he doesn’t love. To make matters worse, Sarah, the gifted actress from his past, storms back into his life, bringing with her a hurricane of changes and the possibility of happiness. Keeping Andrew sane is his beloved camera through which he captures the many Torontonians who ride in his taxi.

Thaddeus Lewis, an itinerant "saddlebag" preacher still mourns the mysterious death of his daughter Sarah as he rides to his new posting in Prince Edward County. When a girl in Demorestville dies in a similar way, he realizes that the circumstances point to murder. But in the turmoil following the 1837 Mackenzie Rebellion he can get no one to listen. Convinced there is a serial killer loose in Upper Canada, Lewis alone must track the culprit across a colony convulsed by dissension, invasion, and fear.

When zoology professor Cordi O’Callaghan reluctantly accepts an invitation to be a lecturer aboard the Susanna Moodie, a vessel ferrying tourists through Canada’s Arctic, she figures it will be a breeze. Seasickness aside, Cordi becomes entangled in the deaths of two of her fellow passengers, both members of a close-knit fiction-writing group. The fatalities are ruled accidental, but Cordi suspects they’re anything but. However, she lacks evidence and credibility, according to Martha Bathgate and Duncan McPherson, her sometimes reluctant sidekicks who try to keep her grounded.

2011 Red Maple Award — Shortlisted Fourteen-year-old Sam McLean is less than thrilled with the prospect of moving to a collection of old mansions on the northern fringe of a small town called Ringwood. A nobody at his old school, Sam is desperate to be accepted by the cool kids and latches on to Cody Barns, aka Maniac. Cody’s claim to fame is performing wild stunts — the crazier the better — and posting them on his blog.

John Munin is a rational man, a gifted Montreal psychiatrist who believes that the soul and psyche are interesting only in dissection. Even relationships are ripe for analysis, and Munin has identified "six elements that are necessary for love." His wife, Cynthia, an aspiring artist who paints only self-portraits, remains unconvinced taht love can be so quantified.

It’s late 1969 and Communist China has successfully launched its first satellite. Inspired by this feat, a group of college students in Laguna Beach, California, set out to put their own satellite into orbit in homage to the recent Woodstock Festival.A young Canadian graduate student at the University of California finds himself at the centre of the mayhem when he and his friends break into a mothballed missile silo and commandeer everything they need, including a nuclear warhead, to blast the Woodstock Nation into the space age.

Meet Little Jane Silver, the twelve year-old granddaughter of notorious Treasure Island pirate Long John Silver. Growing up on the Pieces of Eight, the pirate ship of her parents, Captains Bonnie Mary Bright and Long John Silver II, Little Jane is increasingly frustrated with being thrust below decks whenever any real pirating action takes place. Desperate to be taken seriously as a member of the crew, Little Jane vows to become a real pirate, but every attempt she makes to prove herself onboard seems to backfire.