Summer time at The Reader always comes with a peek at some of the novels that have been set within our beautiful shores. Enjoy once again a fictional tour of our province.

In the Land of Birdfishes (M) by Rebecca Silver Slayter two Nova Scotia sisters, Mara and Aileen are traumatized by witnessing their mother’s suicide. In a bizarre attempt to protect them from seeing more devastation, their father blindfolds them, rendering Mara blind. Eventually the sisters separate and years later Aileen seeks out Mara to learn what has become of her life.

Aunt Lily’s death uncovers hidden family secrets in No Lying Quiet (M) by Hugh G. Allison. Unbeknownst to the family, Lily had secrets dating back to the war that connects the family with an underworld boss. The violence and deception go back generations further connecting the present day family with ancestor Roderick MacKay who escaped Scottish jail and fled to Canada in 1773.

That Thing that Happened (M) by Libby Broadbent features Cosy Lefevre who was happily living her life teaching high school is small town Nova Scotia. Her biggest concerns were The Man of Her Dreams and losing those last few pounds until a tragedy struck her high school.

Nova Scotia is home to a Buddhist monastery where Rachel Kentworth expects to engage in serene meditation. In Meditated Murder: a dharma mystery (M) by Sachi Deleg monastery’s peaceful reflectiveness is shattered by the murder of one of the group and, alarmingly for Rachel, all clues point to her guilt.

Analyzing Sylvia Plath (M) by Alice Walsh is set in fictional Jacob’s Ladder Nova Scotia, home of Evangeline University, site of an academic conference featuring a keynote speaker who has written a controversial book about Sylvia Plath entitled, Analyzing Sylvia Plath. The author has amassed enemies throughout her career and now one has apparently attempted to poison her. Her niece investigates to see who might behind this crime.

The early years of the town of Cheticamp are the subject of Jeanne Dugas of Acadia (M) by Cassie Deveaux Cohoon. Jeanne Dugas and her husband Pierre Bois lived in fear of pirates and deportation by the British militia. Eventually they were captured by the British and imprisoned on George’s Island where they suffered the loss of three of their children.

Wake of the Aspy; a novel of Northern Cape Breton (M) by Stewart Donovan has been described as having the rhythm of a dance floor filled with dancers weaving in and out. It is a collection of twelve loosely linked stories featuring Cape Breton culture at its folksiest. The Aspy is a coastal steamer that connected Cape Breton to the world and is representative of a lost way of life.

The Box of the Dead (M) by Beatrice MacNeil features Ivadoile a widow who has been left to run a boarding house in Cape Breton is now ninety-two and she reflects on how her life has progressed, the people who have stayed at her boarding house and tragedies that occurred long ago.

It’s Glace Bay in the 1930’s and sister and brother Annie and David MacDonald’s lives change when orphan Lila moves in next door in Kin (M) by Lesley Crewe. The story follows the three children and their progeny as their lives develop over the next seven decades. Three generations are featured with their hopes, loves, changes and deaths.

Roll Up the Rim (M) by Leo McKay features Owen, a once promising student and now Tim Horton’s employee, whose life was turned upside down by the death of his parents while he was still a teenager. Despite the fact that he is ineligible, he is determined to win the car in the Roll Up the Rim contest, that sure sign that spring is just around the corner. Owen is surrounded by a cast of quirky characters in the witty and humorous story.

Three Crows a Letter and Four Crows a Boy (M) by Vernon Oickle continues his crows series set in Liverpool, Nova Scotia. In book three a film producer arrives in Liverpool where her friend has died. Three crows follow her around as more deaths occur. In the fourth in the series four crows arrive in town at the same time as four children worrying residents as they recall murders past.