The third Jonah Geller novel by Arthur Ellis-winner Howard Shrier is the best so far. Shrier has a great eye for location and a good ear for dialogue. Add those to solid characters and an intriguing plot and you have a winning combination for any mystery lover. PI Jonah Geller nearly had his brains fried in High [...]
A thousand books pass through The Jury Box every year. Of those, only a handful are chosen for review each month. I was asked how I select the books I review. Like any other mystery fan, I pick books that grab my attention. I look for themes among the books. And I try [...]
Canadian crime writer Howard Shrier is on a roll. Making his debut in 2008 with Buffalo Jump, he introduced readers to Jonah Geller, a gutsy Toronto-based Jewish PI with friends in low places. The book netted Shrier that year’s Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. The sequel, High Chicago, earned him a second Arthur Ellis, this time for [...]
In the acknowledgments for Boston Cream, Howard Shrier writes that he reread all the novels of Dennis Lehane, the early novels in Robert B. Parker’s Spenser series, and other old favourites “to deepen my sense of crime in Boston.” It’s a rich tradition to live up to in dropping his Toronto-based private detective, Jonah Geller (whose previous [...]
Toronto PI Jonah Geller hasn’t played hockey for a while, but he is seeing a sports medicine physician who specializes in the after-effects of concussion. It wasn’t an errant hockey stick that laid him low, but a deliberately-wielded barbell, one of the hazards of his trade. But he should probably have followed Sidney Crosby’s example and [...]
There is absolutely nothing wrong and a whole right about the happy relaxation a well-written private dick story can give the reader. I’ve certainly had decades of delight from them, ever since I was twelve or thirteen or so and noticed that there was this Mickey Spillane fellow whose books seemed to take up most of [...]
From start to epilogue, Boston Cream is a mystery thriller of insight, compassion, with an infectious sense of urgency that drives to a conclusion both real and satisfying. Author Howard Shrier masterfully links the dialogue to the pace, the setting and the plot with an energy that makes readers feel they’re absorbing the story at a [...]
Howard Shrier has quickly cemented his reputation as one of Canada’s most gifted thriller writers. His debut, Buffalo Jump, introducing PI Jonah Geller, took the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel, and his follow-up, High Chicago, walked away with the best novel award in 2010. He’s back with Boston Cream ($19.95, [...]
When Dr. David Fine, a gifted young Boston-based, Orthodox Jewish transplant surgeon, vanishes, his Canadian parents are frantic. Toronto PI Jonah Geller agrees to take the case. He and his partner Jenn Raudsepp, tracing David’s path on the day he was last seen, soon uncover bizarre links among the Irish mob, a local congressman, and a [...]
Boston serves as the backdrop for Shrier’s explosive third crime novel featuring Jonah Geller, a Toronto PI with a penchant for cases south of the border. When the Brookline, Mass., police are unable to find David Fine, a “transplant fellow” and devout Jew who’s disappeared from Boston’s Sinai Hospital, Fine’s parents hire Geller to investigate. Aided [...]
Howard Shrier is a two-time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award, Canada’s highest prize for crime fiction. The author of the acclaimed Jonah Geller series and other works, he publishes new stories and helps emerging authors finish their books, all on this site.
