The Grimmer by Naben Ruthnum is pretty stellar YA novel. I don’t want to give any of the twists away, but it’s about a bookish kid from Kelowna named Vish who stumbles into a world of supernatural horror. The ending is terrific and surprising; I guessed none of the reveals correctly. The book’s world of bookstores and heavy metal shows in ‘90s Kelowna rings true. I enjoyed the hell out of The Grimmer.
Brent Butt’s Huge, set in the world of stand-up comedy, is the best thriller I’ve read all year. The last one I felt this strongly about was You Will Know Me by Megan Abbott—a similar combination of well-rounded characters, a gripping situation, and a world the author knows inside and out. Three comedians on a tour of ‘hell gigs’ in the middle of nowhere: a headliner on his way down, a support act on her way up, and a lumbering psychotic opener driving them.
It’s a strange fact that the Corner Gas Animated writers room has produced three stellar crime novelists, more than any Canadian mystery show I can think of. Huge, Charlie Demers’s Property Values and Meredith Hambrock’s Other Peoples Secrets are all terrific.
Next year I have a new book coming out, a standalone Pacific Northwest crime thriller called Ocean Drive. Here’s the pitch:
Ex-convict Cameron Shaw infiltrates a cross-border crime syndicate, while the murder-by-arson of a young student leads small-town detective Meghan Quick to investigate the same organization. The pair soon find themselves unlikely allies against a sinister conspiracy reaching from the streets to the upper echelons of society.
Between Ocean Drive and my pal Nolan Chase’s A Lonesome Place for Dying, next year should be pretty exciting!