National Network for Equitable Library Service

Winston Patrick reluctantly leads some kids in suing their school when a same-sex partner is refused entry to the prom, but opponents will stop at nothing to make their point, not even murder. Winston Patrick was a successful lawyer who defended the downtrodden of Vancouver’s criminal world. Dissatisfied with his career, he traded in the courtroom for the high school classroom. Winston is barely surviving his first year at a Vancouver high school when his students present a human rights issue.

Meg Harris’s friend has been missing for over two months, but she’s not the only one. Meg Harris returns to her home in the West Quebec wilderness after a trip. Upon her arrival she discovers that a friend’s daughter has been missing from the Migiskan Reserve for more than two months. Meg vows to help find the missing girl and starts by confronting the police on their indifference to the disappearance. During her investigation, she discovers that more than one woman has gone missing. Fearing the worst, Meg delves deeper and confronts an underside of life she would rather not know existed.

2013 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Mystery — Winner When missing persons investigator Dan Sharp attends a wedding, he finds himself investigating more than one murder. Dan Sharp, a gay father and missing persons investigator, accepts an invitation to a wedding on a yacht in Ontario’s Prince Edward County. It seems just the thing to bring Dan closer to his noncommittal partner, Bill, a respected medical professional with a penchant for sleazy after-hours clubs, cheap drugs, and rough sex. But the event doesn’t go exactly as planned.

Rewrite, an intellectual mystery, follows Bruno Leblon, a history lecturer at a Paris university, during a six week long winter break as he tries to do research at the Public Library for his new book—a history of his family, one of the last aristocratic families in France. Bruno is shocked to find out that another library patron—“X”—is manipulating the historical evidence—late 19th century photographs of the Leblon family—that Bruno is using in his research.

In this dark and gritty crime novel, the vacant Skyward Fairgrounds loom in the background as regional police officers pursue a stolen car and its unpredictable driver. A dangerous, high-speed chase unfolds. A few miles from the frozen highways, relentless Detective Kyle McVeigh pushes the boundaries to arrest local troublemaker Stan Hill; McVeigh is convinced Hill is responsible for three abductions that occurred at the Skyward Fair. The peculiar life of the pursued unfolds as he taunts and dares his pursuers, while the single-minded McVeigh moves ever closer to taking down his suspect.

On an October night in 1899 the body of a well-regarded city councilman is found floating under a Halifax wharf. Detective Inspector Culligan Baxter embarks on an investigation that leads from the waterfront, through the city's streets, and out into the surrounding countryside. Aided by the young but surprisingly astute Kenny Squire and an odd assortment of barkeeps, petty thieves, and prostitutes, Baxter's sleuthing takes him into the station's back files and along a path of connections and corruption, linking some of the city's most prominent businessmen.

Linda Moore’s long-awaited sequel to Foul Deeds is another highly engaging mix of art and environmental justice. Finally working a real job as a researcher for the Public Prosecution Service, Roz is on her first paid vacation. She has rented a cottage on Nova Scotia’s beautiful Minas Basin with plans to explore ideas for her next theatre production. Accompanied by her cat and a stack of Beckett plays, she has no sooner settled in than she spots what looks like a woman's body tangled in the roots of a floating tree.

Set in the fictional town of Paddy's Arm, Newfoundland, Alice Walsh's debut mystery novel is at once harrowing and homey, equal parts police procedural and diner gossip. When Claire and Bram?s only child dies suddenly, it at first appears to be a case of crib death. But when the real cause of death indicates homicide and Claire is arrested as the number-one suspect, her friend, lawyer Lauren LaVallee, promises she'll do everything she can to prove Claire's innocence.

She came walking out of the desert, just as the famous poet Rimbaud had centuries before. Now the nameless woman lies horribly scarred and close to death in an asylum deep in the North African desert. An Australian official, a man code-named John Devlin, has come to question her. It is clear that the woman and Devlin share some kind of past, and all kinds of secrets. As the wind calls up a deadly sandstorm, the inhabitants of the asylum discover they are linked by a diary written by Rimbaud. Over the next 120 years, everyone who sees the diary will want it.

His psyche still reeling from having to kill a criminal in the line of duty, Calgary’s Detective Lane flies to Cuba to celebrate the wedding of his beloved niece. While there, though, he finds himself drafted by the local police into investigating the murder of a Canadian tourist. Upon his return to Calgary, links between this incident and the deaths of local elderly pensioners start to make themselves known, drawing Lane and his partner Nigel Li further into a web of conspiracy, politics and big money.