Called the "Queen of Comedy" by the Toronto Sun, Melodie Campbell was also named the "Canadian literary heir to Donald Westlake" by Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Winner of 10 awards, including the Derringer and the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence, she has multiple bestsellers and featured in USA Today. She is the past executive director of Crime Writers of Canada.
Her publications include over 100 comedy credits, 19 novels, and 60 short stories, but she's best known for The Goddaughter mob caper series. In this podcast, we discuss "The Silent Film Star Murders," the second installment in the Merry Widow Murders series, which was recently released by Cormorant Books.
Joanna is an author, podcaster, and illustrator. Her first two novels, The Unravelling and Dealer’s Child, were both Canadian Book Club Awards finalists. Spy Girls, the third novel in the Jade and Sage thriller series, has received Chick Lit Book Cafe's International Book of Excellence Award for best spy thriller and suspense. Joanna's novels have been published under her own imprint, Ozzy Imprint. Joanna draws upon her 13 years of experience working in the prosecutor’s office and 10 years working in the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner for inspiration for her novels. Joanna is the VP of Memberships for the Sinc-CW. Joanna is proud of her podcast SAM Magazine and the many authors she has interviewed and the short stories she has showcased.
See her work at www.joannavandervlugt.com/
Cheryl Freedman is a long-time freelance editor who edits anything she finds interesting, including crime fiction, academic papers, Jewish mysticism books and articles, memoirs, and more. She was the executive director of Crime Writers of Canada for 10 years as well as the sometime-chair of the Bloody Words Mystery Conference and its successor, the Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award/Bony Blithe Mini-Con.
In 2004, she won the Derrick Murdoch Award, a special achievement award from Crime Writers of Canada for contributions to the genre of crime and mystery writing.
With her interest in ferrets, fairy tales, and folklore, she is currently working on a fairy tale mystery series featuring a half-ogre/half-human PI and a bipedal talking, fedora-wearing ferret.
Robert Rotenberg is a crime author and criminal defense lawyer, recognized for his legal thrillers, many of which are set in Toronto. His debut novel, "Old City Hall," was published in 2009 and became an international bestseller. Since then, he has written seven additional novels in the Ari Green detective series. Additionally, Rotenberg is a screenwriter who has contributed to several episodes of "Murdoch Mysteries." In this podcast, we will discuss his latest novel, "One Minute More."
Laura is a communication specialist and journalist in the Annapolis Valley. She is currently teaching communication to first year kinesiology students at Acadia University, focusing on writing, research and presentation skills. Her first book, Two Crows Sorrow, won the 2020 bronze award for creative non-fiction from the Miramichi Reader. In this interview, we discuss her third book, Footprints in the Snow, a historical true crime story about how a community quickly jumps to conclusions to convict an outsider of a heinous murder.
Amber Cowie is a BC mystery author best known for her captivating psychological thrillers. The talented author graduated from the University of Victoria and has been working as a freelance writer for Salon, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Crime Reads.
Her first novel, Rapid Falls, was a Whistler Book Awards nominee, hit number one overall on Amazon, and was a top-100 bestselling Kindle book of 2018. In 2022, CBC listed her book Last One Alive on their 12 mystery and crime books to keep you on the edge of your seat this summer. This podcast will discuss her newest novel, The Off Season.
Angela Douglas is a Canadian author who lives in the Okanagan (British Columbia) with her husband and kids. She writes thrillers and creative nonfiction. When she isn’t working or hanging out with her family, she hides in her studio with her bulldog Frankie, writing her next book. She is a member of International Thriller Writers and Crime Writers of Canada and was the VP of Communications of Sisters in Crime—Canada West. Angela’s debut psychological thriller, EVERY FALL, was released in January 2025.
EVERY FALL is described as a chilling thriller, perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter and Lisa Gardner, exploring the dark side of police culture and family trauma.
Shane Peacock is an author published in twenty languages in eighteen countries. He has won the Junior Library Guild of America Selection seven times, the Arthur Ellis Award twice, and been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award and the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award. His young adult novels include the Boy Sherlock Holmes series, the Dylan Maples Adventures, The Dark Missions of Edgar Brim trilogy, and The Book of Us. As We Forgive Others is the first of the Northern Gothic Mysteries, his debut adult series. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario with his wife, journalist Sophie Kneisel.
For three decades, Katie has been an award-winning screenwriter and director, collaborating on projects in animation, television and motion pictures. After winning an international novel contest for women writers in 2013, Katie landed a publishing deal for her debut novel. The thriller Dark August is set in the Wellington West neighbourhood where she lives. The novel became an international bestseller and was chosen as an Apple Book of the Month and New York Times Editor’s Choice. It inspired a trilogy including the follow-up, Poison Lilies, which brings Augusta and Levi back for another cold case when a body emerges from a frozen pond, and the final installment, Buried Road, which tumbles forward more than a decade to find Gus and her daughter, Bly, on a precarious road trip to find a missing person. Katie is currently working on a new mystery thriller.
The Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem are a collective of established Canadian crime fiction authors and talented new writers of the genre. Visit their website mesdamesofmayhem.com to watch the CBC documentary about them.
Authors Donna Carrick, Madeleine Harris-Callaway, Jane Burfield, Blair Keetch, Rosemary McCracken, Lynne Murphy, Lorna Poplak, and Melisa Yi join host Erik D'Souza and discuss their newest anthology, The 13th Letter. M is the thirteenth letter of the alphabet, and it begins so many wicked words: malice, Machiavelli, mayhem, and of course, murder. But it also heads up mischief, melody, madcap and mystery. And what could better suit the Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem? After all, thirteen is their lucky number!