Welcome To Piney Falls by Joann Keder
“Yesterday morning, as Mrs. Edith Pressbone and her young son, Daltrey, were walking their dog next to our scenic falls, they happened upon a gruesome sight. There, before those tender eyes, were the remains of two women floating the in the water. They were not mere vacationers to our lovely forest by the sea, but rather the matriarchs of our community.”
That section of purple prose is from a 1925 (fictional) newspaper article, but it sets the stage for piano teacher turned author Joann Keder and her dive into a new career as a creator of mystery stories set in the area Americans quaintly call the Pacific Northwest.
In this choice outing, narrator Lanie Anders leaves her perfectly ordered life in Chicago to create something new in Piney Falls, Oregon, where people have been dying at an alarming rate. Murders, cults, and close-mouthed residents abound, leading Anders into an attempt to solve crimes that date back more than a century.
Author Keder spent most of her life in Nebraska before returning to school to receive a master's degree in creative writing. She now churns out quirky mystery novels that have now gained her a number of awards, including the Evelyn Mae Depew Storyteller of the Year award in 2023. You can track down Joann Keder at www.joann keder.com — and you can also listen to our chat with her by going to episode 132 of our talking books and stuff's podcast by way of the LDRIMMER you tube channel.
Blood Mark by JP Mclean
“Jane Walker might have been the only person in Vancouver not afraid to be in a downtown alley at half-past midnight. Shadows clung to fissures and corners, morphing into nightmare shapes as she passed. A warm breeze stirred the scent of rotting garbage along with her gag reflex. Rescuing Sadie was getting old. One of these nights, Sadie's unique way of punishing herself would be the death of them both. And maybe Jane's bike.”
Blood Mark is the first of author McLean's Dark Dreams novels, and it introduces us to Jane Walker, who has been burdened with a lifelong curse that seems to be the only thing keeping her alive. She was born with an intricate pattern of blonde red birthmarks that snake around her body, along with vivid nightmares. Then, she comes to realize that these dreams of real people that are being stalked by a deadly killer.
Intrigued? You should be. We first met up with JP in November of 2021 when we talked with her for episode 131 of our talking books and stuff's podcasts, which can be found by going to the LD RIMMER you tube channel.
JP McLean's childhood nick name was soup bone. She writes addictive fiction and she has created, in addition to the Dark Dream novels, the Thorne Witch series and the Gift Legacy collection. She likes to scuba dive in warm waters and lives with her husband on Denman Island, which is off the east coast of Vancouver Island. You can learn more about her at www.jpmcleanauthor.com . Oh, the first in her Thorne Witch series comes out on Sept. 16 of this year.
1945 – The Year That Made Modern Canada by Ken Cuthbertson
“There has never been another year like it, and it seems unlikely there ever will be again. Not for the world or for Canada.”
Noted historian and author Cuthbertson notes that 1945 was the year when most Canadians began to learn that, for the first time, most of them could live comfortably.
Truer words, those. For instance, there were reportedly 108,031 weddings in Canada in 1945, and that number jumped to 138,088. The vast majority of Canadian veterans who married in the post-war years wed brides who were Canadian born – high school sweethearts or partners the men had met while they were in uniform and stationed in bases around Canada. My birth parents fall into that latter category, and I was the result (along with my brother) of that union. We are baby-boomers, or part of the lucky generation, as I have come to believe.
Cuthbertson also reports in 1945 that it is estimated that Canadian men stationed in the United Kingdom fathered some 22,000 children “out of wedlock”, as we used to say. Take note – one of those 22,000 was famed guitarist Eric Clapton, born in March of 1945, after his Canadian father shipped back home to Montreal. Clapton's mother was just 16 when she gave birth, and so he was raised by his grandparents, growing up to believe his mother was his older sister.
Ken Cuthbertson is a veteran journalist and Governor General's Literary Award finalist, with more than 40 years of experience writing for publications in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Of course, he has a website, which is www.kencuthbertson.com . Of course, we have chatted with him for our talking books and stuff's podcast. His is episode 230. Listen to it by going to You Tube and searching for the LDRimmer channel.
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