March Mood Reads – What to Pick Up Based on Your Vibe

For When You’re Feeling Atmospheric…
(thrillers & neo-noir reads)

Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne (Baraka Books)

A neo-noir novella set in a gritty and unforgiving Saint John, a town where few people are prepared for its secrets, least of all Frank Cain.

Malory Fleet’s son was killed by bikers and now she’s worried about his missing girlfriend, Amanda. But that case was closed shut by the police a year ago and Frank Cain, the private investigator she?s hired, is reluctant to take it on. On the sometimes seedy streets of uptown Saint John, no one wants to talk, even fewer have anything to say, and the police have cast a blanket of fog over everything. As Frank searches fruitlessly for clues, he learns more about Malory than about Amanda, and begins to grow wary. Throughout, Detective Stuart Boucher is following Frank and making little effort to hide it, leading Cain to conclude that the officer may have more to do with the case than he’s letting on. For Frank Cain, as unmoored as a lost ship in the harbour, in unravelling this case he risks unravelling himself.

Find Saints Rest here on All Lit Up.

Satellite Image by Michelle Berry (Wolsak & Wynn)

The night before they move from the bustling, expensive rat race of the city to a sleepy, innocent, affordable small town two hours away, Ginny and Matt decide to look up their new home on a satellite image website. When they see what appears to be a body lying in their new backyard everything changes and an uneasy chain of events is set into motion. Little do they know they have bought a house with a baffling history and life in their new town is not all it’s meant to be. Odd neighbourhood dinner parties and a creepy ravine just out their back door have Ginny and Matt quickly questioning their move. Michelle Berry is the master of literary page-turners with unexpected endings, and Satellite Image is sure to delight new readers and long-time fans alike.

Find Satellite Image here on All Lit Up.

For When You’re Feeling Cozy…
(cozy mysteries with charming characters)

Victor & Me in Paris by Janice MacDonald (Turnstone Press)

When retired academic Imogene Durant finds herself in Paris with Victor Hugo as her guide, a series of disturbing discoveries are made in local hotels. While Imogene hopes to settle in, read, and write a follow up to her acclaimed book, Fyodor & Me in Russia, she’s drawn into the mystery by her new friend and neighbour, the police detective assigned to the case.

Find Victor & Me in Paris here on All Lit Up.

Who by Fire by Greg Rhyno (Cormorant Books)

Dame Polara spent her childhood picking locks, tailing suspects, and helping her hard-boiled PI father solve cases. She knows all the tricks of the trade, but long ago ran from her father’s shady, often dangerous profession. What Dame wants now is simple: her safe job preserving heritage buildings, adequate care for her aging father, and to start a family of her own. But you can’t always get what you want. 

After serving her an eviction notice, Dame’s landlord offers her an alternative: she can keep her apartment if she investigates his mysterious—and possibly unfaithful—wife. When the investigation uncovers a serial arsonist burning down the very buildings Dame fights to preserve, she finds herself pulled back into the seedy underworld of her father’s profession. Now, a target, she must deploy all the skills he taught her if she’s to protect herself and the people she cares about most. 

Find Who by Fire here on All Lit Up.

For When You’re Feeling Daydreamy…
(magical worlds & lyrical prose)

Deep Sea Feline by Dave Hurlow (Latitude 46)

When the time comes for humanity to be its own salvation, will we rise to the occasion? Or let greed and selfishness stand in our way?

Deep Sea Feline follows Charlie Potichny, a failing musical artist living in Toronto, when a mysterious creature from another world visits him in his deceased mother’s painting, gifting him with a song that will turn his life and musical career upside down. Charlie, not understanding the power and implications of the other world, upsets the delicate balance between ancient forces. Slowly, Toronto falls into chaos: the seasons go through drastic change, people are disappearing, and birds threaten to overtake the city.

To restore equilibrium and save their city, Charlie and a colourful cast of artists and musicians must uncover the mystery of Charlie’s mothers mysterious suicide at her Cabin in Algonquin park, face their darkest fears, stage an epic opera, and navigate the strange and wondrous realms of the ancient gods.

Find Deep Sea Feline here on All Lit Up.

Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery (Gordon Hill Press)

Fantasies are places we briefly visit; we can’t live there. The stories in Widow Fantasies deftly explore the subjugation of women through the often subversive act of fantasizing. From a variety of perspectives, through a symphony of voices, Widow Fantasies immerses the reader in the domestic rural gothic, offering up unforgettable stories from the shadowed lives of girls and women. 

Find Widow Fantasies here on All Lit Up.

For When You Need a Little Sunshine…
(funny & uplifting reads)

Wildwoman by Kat Sandler (Playwrights Canada Press)

As the young newlywed of King Henry II of France, Catherine de Medici thought her life at court would be a fascinating forum of political discourse. Instead, the palace is a cruel and disturbing place where her singular function is to be a baby-making machine for male heirs. Even the other women at her side, a scheming lady-in-waiting and the king’s power-hungry mistress, seem to mostly fend for themselves. The only kinship she finds is with the paperback-romance hot, head-to-toe hairy wildman kept in the dungeon as one of the king’s collection of caged oddities. His friendly and feral presence gradually awakens Catherine’s own wild side, and once she unleashes it, no one is safe from her vengeful wrath.

Based on the shocking true story that inspired Beauty and the Beast, Kat Sandler brings her trademark rapid-fire wit to this salacious saga of an infamous bad girl who could not be tamed. A viciously funny and sexy thrill ride, WILDWOMAN is about what happens when we let the monster out. Being bad never felt so good.

Find Wildwoman here on All Lit Up.

Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction, 2024-1984
by Gary Barwin (Assembly Press)

A new collection of stories by Scotiabank Giller Prize finalist Gary Barwin that puts the fab in fabulist.

Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction, 2024–1984 couples brand new and uncollected stories with selections of the most playful and ambitious of Barwin’s previous collections, including Cruelty to Fabulous Animals, Big Red Baby, Doctor Weep and Other Strange Teeth, and I, Dr. Greenblatt, Orthodontist, 251–1457. Known as a “whiz-bang storyteller” who can deliver magical, dream-like sequences and truisms about the human condition in the same paragraph, Barwin’s trademark brilliance, wit, and originality are on display in this can’t-miss collection of short fiction.

Find Scandal at the Alphorn Factory here on All Lit Up.