Cormorant Books,Canada

Reluctant Canadian restaurateur Emmet Argentine is stuck in Khrushchev-era Vilnius, Lithuania, trapped under the tyranny of two equally formidable forces — the Soviet Union, and his staunchly socialist mother.Raised in the kitchens of Toronto’s Royal York Hotel, Emmet’s talent for hospitality catches the attention of a high-ranking architect, who hires Emmet to helm a magnificent new restaurant. The Seaside Café Metropolis, though located neither by the sea nor in a major metropolitan area, aspires toward elegance without pretention, bohemianism without vulgarity. Evading the repressive communist regime through guile, wit, and charm, Emmet assembles the menu and the staff to create a sophisticated and atmospheric fine dining experience in the heart of the Soviet Union — all while KGB operatives listen in on the restaurant from the basement.

Three days after Christmas, the elderly Mrs. Evelyn Massey is found dead in her home, a victim of old age and heart failure. The case looks open-and-shut to Sergeant Alice Morrow, until traces of poison are found in Mrs. Massey’s blood. Then, the remains of a body some sixty years deceased are discovered in her basement.To solve these murders, committed many decades apart, Morrow recruits the help of former NYPD homicide detective Hugh Mercer, with whom she has developed a professional and personal relationship. Together, they unearth stunning truths about Evelyn Massey’s life, a dead lover from her youth, and other disappearances over the past sixty years. Was a serial killer quietly at work in this Ontario town? Could the villain — or villains — still be among its citizens, hidden in plain sight? And is Alice Morrow’s great secret somehow connected to it all?This is the second novel in the Northern Gothic Mystery series.

Embarking on another transatlantic crossing in 1928, merry widow Lady Lucy Revelstoke welcomes new guests aboard the Victoriana, including Renata Harwood, star of the silver screen, and Stella Burke, her bitter protégée-turned-rival. Everyone expects these leading ladies to serve up delicious drama over dinner, but true tragedy strikes when a young woman goes missing. Has she been seduced by a cad? Are they hiding in second class, or has the poor girl thrown herself overboard?Then a crew member is brutally murdered, and questions arise about just who the intended victim may have been.Lucy and her pickpocket-turned-maid Elf set out to investigate intricate relationships and scandalous shared histories, determined to uncover if and how a theatrical rivalry can explode into sensational murder.

Dearest Departed, I do not know when I decided I was going to write. I am not a writer. You are. You were.Honorary twins Ally and Andy, born at the start and end of the same year, have always shared everything — until Ally dies, his passing ruled a suicide by overdose. A year later, Andy starts her first year at college without her other half, writing letters to Ally as she makes new friends who know nothing about him, falls in love for the first time, and strives to embrace her bisexuality and her Indigenous identity. When Andy discovers the poems Ally hid in their room, she pieces together these remaining fragments to make sense of her brother’s life — and his death.A story told through letters and poems, The Fragments that Remain is a heart-wrenching and hopeful debut novel from Mackenzie Angeconeb.

Playing Hard is a tribute to the power of play in all its forms — a searching personal account of how play, games, and sports sanctify life and give it meaning. In this moving and wide-ranging examination, Peter Unwin reflects on life and relationships through countless acts of play and the many unexpected places it is found.Through a shared love of games, the author reconnects with his terminally ill father and is exposed to the complexities of his father’s past, of his experiences with war and violence, and of a different but equally powerful commitment to a life of play.From Snakes and Ladders to shooting pool, from an improbable soccer game in the Sahara to first memories of playing baseball under catalpa trees — Peter Unwin examines the irresistible urge to have fun, reminding us that to live is to play, and to play hard is to live well.