East Coast Crime Wave
Tidewater Books and the Sackville Public Library are thrilled to present an evening of mystery with celebrated Canadian authors Mary Jane Maffini and Barbara Fradkin. Coined the “East Coast Crime Wave”, these award winning authors will be reading from their newest thrillers. Come join us for a reading and signing.
Where: Sackville Public Library
When: Thursday, October 20, 2005 at 7 pm
Press Release: Crime Writers to read at Public Library
Two prize-winning Canadian authors, Mary Jane Maffini and Barbara Fradkin, will visit Sackville to read at the Public Library on Thursday evening at 7:00. Both are members of the Ladies Killing Circle, a group of women writers in the Ottawa area who critique each other’s work and edit the Ladies Killing Circle short story anthologies.
Mary Jane Maffini’s 2003 novel, _Lament for a Lounge Lizard_, a comic mystery was short listed for the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis award for best novel. There are four books, and soon to be five, in her popular Camilla MacPhee mystery series, set in Ottawa with a backdrop of Ottawa’s festivals and events. The latest, _The Devil’s in the Details_, takes place during the Gatineau balloon festival.
Maffini picked up an Ellis award for her short story “Sign of the Times” in _Fit to Die_, a Ladies Killing Circle anthology published by RendezVous Press. In 1999 she was a double-nominee: _Speak Ill of the Dead_ was short listed for best first novel and “Kicking the Habit” in _Menopause is Murder_ (General Store) was short listed for best short story. That year her story “But the Corpse Can’t Laugh” made the Top Ten in the Readers’ Choice awards in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.
Prior to that, Maffini was the 1995 winner of the Arthur Ellis award for best short story. “Cotton Armour” in _The Ladies Killing Circle_ and in 1994 won the Ottawa Citizen’s Short Story Contest for “Death Before Doughnuts”. Her short fiction has appeared in many magazines: from Chatelaine and Storyteller to On-Spec , Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and in Canadian mystery anthologies such as The Ladies Killing Circle, Cottage Country Killers, Menopause is Murder, Cold Blood V , The Best of Cold Blood, Over the Edge, Fit to Die,Iced, an anthology of Canadian noir, and Bone Dance, the fifth Ladies Killing Circle anthology and the Osprey summer mystery series. Her latest story is “Cocktails with the Corpse” in _Death Dines In_, a Berkley
Prime Crime anthology.
Barbara Fradkin’s dark, compelling short stories have appeared in various mystery magazines such as _Storyteller_ and _Blue Murder_, as well as in anthologies such as The Ladies Killing Circle series and the New Canadian Noir series. She is a two-time prizewinner in _Storyteller_’s annual Great Canadian Short Story Contest, as well as a triple nominee for the Crime Writers’ of Canada Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story, including “Timber Town Justice” in 2003.
Fradkin’s first novel, _Do or Die_, which launched her police procedural series featuring the exasperating, quixotic Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, was published by RendezVous Press in October 2000. The sequel _Once Upon a Time_, released in 2002, was shortlisted for Crime Writers’ of Canada’s 2003 Arthur Ellis award for Best Novel. The third in the series, _Mist Walker_, came out in 2003, and Fifth Son which hit the book shelves in the fall of 2004, has just won the 2005 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel.
Fradkin draws on both personal and professional experiences in the creation of her works. Her own experience as a hapless graduate student as well as that of her daughter, supplied the rich backdrop and detail for _Do or Die_. Her late husband’s experiences in war crimes prosecutions gave her the impetus, as well a lot of the background and insight for _Once Upon a Time_, while _Mist Walker_ and _Fifth Son_ draw on her own experiences as a psychologist. Fradkin is at work on the fifth novel in the series, scheduled for publication in 2006. Its working title is _Honour Among Men_, and it will deal with the traumatic aftereffects of peacekeeping.