“Still Waters is both an assured debut in the mystery category and offbeat in the charming way only a newbie can be … This is the kind of mystery in which the detectives themselves are intimately involved with the crime, to the point of placing their own lives in jeopardy. Now I know this sounds like another case of literary flourishes and subplots distracting from the good, clean fun of solving gruesome homicides. Yet it works really well. At first, the cops seem hopelessly self-obsessed and unreal as they swap prolonged personal cracks over dead bodies, but eventually you get drawn into their lives in a way that makes solving the crime even more vital. If anything, Moss’s character-driving writing in Still Waters reminds me of the involving work of the British writer Reginald Hill in the famed Dalziel and Pascoe series. Sure, it’s not quite realistic: do we think modern police officers are intimately connected with all their cases? No, but it makes for entracing fiction … I really want to know what hot water Quin and Morgan get into on their next case.”

From Tim Hortons to Old Navy, gift cards for retailers remained a popular present this year. If you’re still debating on how to use that Chapters gift card you received over the Holidays how about one or two of Dundurn’s many titles that made it on the media’s many top ten year end lists.

Caribou the North by Monte Hummel, President Emeritus of WWF- Canada and Justina C. Ray, Executive Director of Wildlife Conservation Society, received a nod from NOW Magazine  who described the book as “a gorgeous, thoroughly researched and, more important, passionate book”. It was also featured in Animal Literature’s “Top Animal Books of 2008“, the Times-Colonist, and the Winnipeg Free Press, which called it “a fascinating and often troubling look at a resilient animal and its importance to far northern cultures and the increasing threats it faces.”

Bookgasm.com included two of our fiction titles on their list of “10 That Were Great in 2008″.  Twelve Trees by J.D. Carpenter was ranked number 6 on their list and Don Easton’s latest Jack Taggart mystery Angel in the Full Moon rounded up the list at number 10.

Dundurn’s mysteries were also well represented in print media with Dundurn’s newest addition to its CastleStreet Mysteries, Still Waters,  included in mystery critic Don Graves of the Hamilton Spectator top 10 Canadian mysteries.  Click here to view Don’s list. And Maureen Jennings’  second Christine Morris mystery The K Handshape was featured in the Packet & Times Best Books of 2008 to Warm Your Winter’s Eve.

Happy Shopping!

“… John Moss is off to a good start, and Morgan and Quin are promising and appealing protagonists worth following in future books.” – Sarah Weinman, Quill and Quire

“Still Waters is for mystery readers who like to take things slow, which is a great change-up from most new releases.”  – Bruce Grossman, Bookgasm.com
To read what else Bruce had to say click here.

“Recommended as a read for any mystery buff who enjoys those added touches that will keep you reading. Talented author John Moss has crafted a tale you will remember and have you looking for others of his work.” - Anne K. Edwards, New Mystery Reader. Read Anne’s full here.  

And for those of you in Toronto, John is one of the featured authors at this Tuesday’s (December 9) Mystery Reading Series at Casa Loma. John will be reading from Still Waters and answering questions from the audience. For more information click here. If you find yourself Christmas shopping at the Chaptersin Peterborough on Saturday, December 13th, be sure to take a break to meet John who will be signing copies of Still Waters from 11-2pm.

Still Waters, the newest addition to Dundurn’s Castle Street mystery line, by noted academic John Moss has been receiving great reviews from mystery critics since its publication last month. The witty verbal sparing between Still Waters’ detective duo David Morgan and Miranda Quin are reminding the critics of Reginald Hill’s Dalziel and Pascoe and Hammett’s Thin Man duo Nick and Nora Charles. And Moss’ writing has been described as being a la Robertson Davies and Ross Macdonald. Not too shabby! And here’s a neat coincidence for you – this Spring Dundurn is publishing a new biography on Robertson Davies. 

What follows is a round up of what the critics have said so far about this noir crime novel that’s sure to be a hit with mystery readers.

“Mosses’ writing is as lush as the Canadian fall setting and as exotic as the Koi themselves. The book is brimming with imagery and he writes wonderfully clever dialogue between Quin and Morgan. They put me in mind of Reginald Hill’s Daziel and Pascoe, or perhaps the clever cocktail commentary of Hammett’s Thin duo, Nick and Nora Charles … I look forward to another Quin and Morgan mystery …”
- Merrill Young, Reviewing the Evidence, October 2008

“Their relationship is well beyond anticipation, each knowing the other’s interest, inclinations, experiences and thoughts, as much as they know themselves, making for a lot of witty and insightful banter and affecting the investigation of the case.

It’s Ontario Gothic a la Robertson Davies with catacombs and dark passages every bit as foreboding as the familiar rain-slicked streets … Like Davies, there’s enough Jungian psychology and Freudian banter in Still Waters to fill a decent textbook, with ample opportunity to consider the nature of memory, loss and the role of the subconsicious in fateful decisions. Even more chilling is that, like Ross Macdonald, Moss visits the sins and crimes of his characters onto their children, ensuring the doom of succceeding generations, but if you don’t like thinking such thoughts and prefer mysteries as entertaining escapes, Moss provides all the bells, whistles and satisfying endings appropriate to the happiest of Canadian crime fiction. That may be what I find most chilling of all in this dark little tale.”
- Kerry J. Schooley, Murder Out There, October 27, 2008

“Moss spins a mystery that sparkles with dynamic setting – from the Rosedale mansion’s murky basement corridors to a world class collection of koi. The mystery is both simple and chillingly realistic … with vivid pictures, resonant insights and a spin on mystery storytelling that is as multilayered as it is beautiful, Moss teases us down the path to resolutions. Still Waters is a mystery told by a storyteller par excellence and is not to be missed.”
- Don Graves, The Hamilton Spectator, November 1, 2008

Long lost relatives?