In this episode, we speak to Jonathan Whitelaw. His book, The Concert Hall Killer, (HarperNorth/HarperCollins Canada) has been shortlisted for The Whodunit Award for Best Traditional Mystery, sponsored by Jane Doe with a $500 prize
Jonathan Whitelaw is a writer, award-winning journalist and broadcaster.
After working on the frontline of Scottish politics, he moved into journalism, covering everything from sports tomusic to radioactive waste – and everything in between.
He's also a regular reviewer, podcaster, panellist, commentator and in the near future, he will be an official Calgarian.
He is the author of The Bingo Hall Detectives series, The Parker Sisters Mysteries,
and if that’s not enough, he moonlights as Max Nightingale and wrote: Murder in
Tinseltown: A Choose-Your-Own-Story Mystery.
You can hear an earlier interview we had with Jonathan about The Concert Hall Killer, on the CWC website: here.
SCOTT THORNLEY grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, which inspired his fictional Dundurn. As president and creative director of Scott Thornley + Company, a strategic creative firm, Thornley worked with cultural and health science clients in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.
Over time, his love of graphic and typographic design grew to include writing the stories that would bring his client’s products and services to life. Scott lives with his wife Shirley Blumberg in Toronto and in the southwest of France.
Middlemen
is the latest in the MacNeice series, and follows Erasing Memory, The Ambitious
City, Raw Bone and Vantage Point.
Scott is
published by House of Anansi Press, and represented by Westwood
Creative Artists.
Kelly Young has a BA in English from the University of Waterloo and worked as a reporter for many years before becoming a swimming instructor. She has since retired.
A member of Crime Writers of Canada and Sisters in Crime, she is the self-published writer of the Travel Writer Cozy Mystery series, the Travel Writer Day Trips Cozy Mystery series, the Haunted & Harassed Paranormal Mystery series, the thrillers Flurries Ending and The Six Thousand, and more. She lives in Southwestern Ontario.
Janice MacDonald is a Canadian author of mystery novels, textbooks, non-fiction titles, and stories for both children and adults. She is best known for writing seven novels featuring amateur sleuth Miranda “Randy” Craig. The Randy Craig Mysteries were the first detective series to be set in Edmonton, Alberta, where Janice lives and works. The last installment, The Eye of the Beholder, was published in October 2018. A lifelong fan and reviewer of mystery fiction, Janice wrote her MA thesis on the genre, long before popular culture studies were popular.
Janice has launched a new series of mysteries following the adventures of retired academic Imogene Durant. The first installment, Victor & Me in Paris, was published in November 2024 by Turnstone Press.
In recent years Janice has also concentrated on literary short fiction, essays, and creative non-fiction. Confederation Drive, a passion project about her trip across Canada on the 50th anniversary of Expo ’67 in Montreal, was released by Edmonton-based Monto Books in 2017.
She is also delighted to have won the Exporting Alberta Award and the Canadian’s Children’s Book Centres seal of approval for The Ghouls’ Night Out, her Hallowe’en chapter book for eager readers.
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.