Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this info from via Second Story Press, for blog posting purposes on this blog. No compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it, all opinions are my own
Virtual book launch for book two of the Russell and Leduc mystery series
The Dogs of Winter by Ann Lambert
Reading and Q & A hosted by Anne Lagacé Dowson
Wednesday, October 28, 7-8pm
Second Story Press Instagram Live event: @_secondstory (+ available afterwards)
This latest book follows the success of The Birds That Stay; book one in the Russell and Leduc mystery series which was the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Concordia First Book Prize finalist.
Synopsis:
This latest page-turner begins as a howling snowstorm envelops Montreal, and the body of a young woman is discovered in its wake. The only clue to her identity is the photograph in her pocket, and on it, the phone number of Roméo Leduc, Chief Inspector for Homicide. Meanwhile, Professor Marie Russell and Roméo are busy navigating their deepening relationship, and a student at the college where Marie teaches is the victim of a sexual assault. While Roméo begins to think that the dead woman may be linked to violence against several homeless Indigenous people in the city, the search for justice in both cases is thwarted by societal apathy and ignorance.
About the Book, from the Author:
Montreal is a central character in this topical and timely mystery. “I have always, as a playwright and now novelist, tried to weave individual stories into a larger historical, political and cultural backdrop, hopefully in ways that broaden our experience through the juxtaposition of the personal and political,” said Lambert. In The Dogs of Winter, among other hot button topics we gain insights into current Indigenous issues, from the tragedy experienced by Joyce Echaquan, to disputed calls of systemic racism, to the delayed action of the Viens Commission’s report. Lambert examines all this through the eyes of both Francophone and Anglophone characters, beautifully interweaving a captivating plot with both sensitivity and humour (including fun Québécois expressions). “I have always appreciated the adage: Don’t write what you know, write what you want to understand,” she explained.
For Second Story Press publisher Margie Wolfe, The Dogs of Winter is an engaging, present-day novel. “Great detective novels are much more than ‘who-done-its’. Like the best fiction, the characters are richly evolved, with the story highlighting realities of the culture in which it is set. Ann Lambert here provides the mystery lover with a compelling storyline and reminds us of the injustices which we often aim to ignore,” she said.
A deeply personal novel, Lambert says she wrote the kind of book she likes to read, “I always hope for a murder mystery written for people who welcome greater complexity and depth of story-telling, who appreciate stories where history collides with characters in their daily, ordinary lives, and take them on a tumultuous and unpredictably satisfying journey.” It was also important for her to start the book with the voices of four women who are completely different in terms of age, ethnicity, class, and opportunity; a young Inuit woman trying to turn her life around, a college student going to a party which she thinks will change her life, a successful entrepreneur caught in a terrible dilemma, and Marie, a late middle-aged woman awaiting her life partner as they navigate a big decision about their future together.
About the Author:
Ann Lambert’s first novel, The Birds That Stay was nominated for the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Concordia First Book Prize. She was recently part of Toronto’s The Word On The Street’s Grand Dames of Crime Fiction panel. Along with her novels, Ann has been writing and directing for the stage for thirty-five years. Several of her plays, including The Wall, Parallel Lines, Very Heaven, The Mary Project and Two Short Women have been performed in theatres in Canada, the United States, Europe and Australia. Ann is the former head of The Playwriting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada. She taught English literature at Dawson College for almost thirty years in Montreal, Quebec, where she makes her home. Ann is also the co-founder of Theatre Ouest End and vice-president of The Theresa Foundation, dedicated to supporting AIDS-orphaned children and their grandmothers, the education of Malawian girls, and alleviating food insecurity in several villages in Malawi, Africa.
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