Shrier nails his first crime novel with the aplomb and impact of a seasoned pro. A completely satisfying read that made me wish Jonah Geller could work cases on my shows. -- René Balcer, Executive Producer, Law & Order; Creator, Law & Order, Criminal Intent
Buffalo Jump offers funny and fresh takes on the private-eye novel and not-so-funny trips into scary moral territory. The novel is set near the Canada-United States border and crosses that border to tell a pair of stories that converge to pack a tough and thoroughly contemporary punch. -- Peter Rozovsky, Detectives Beyond Borders [...]
Pop quiz for all Canadian mystery fans: name the creator (hint: first name Howard) of a fictional Jewish private investigator based in southern Ontario. If you said Howard Engel, it would be understandable. One of Canada’s best-loved crime writers (and member of the Order of Canada), Engel has regaled readers for decades with the exploits of [...]
Jonah Geller would not call himself a nice Jewish boy. He never finished college, he works as a private detective for an agency that largely does surveillance work, he likes ham and eggs for breakfast and doesn’t call his mother enough. He suffers from intense and troubling nightmares about his service in the Israeli army, as [...]
Blunt action, realistically and graphically described and paced with just enough time to catch your breath before the next sudden eruption. Add the right feel for dialogue, a plot and writing that’s just the ideal temperature for a mystery-thriller and you have Buffalo Jump–a debut novel winner by Howard Shrier. Toronto PI Jonah Geller arrives home [...]
Jonah Geller is a man with many troubles. His wife has just kicked him out of their home and he has screwed up a major smuggling case in his role as security officer for a Toronto company. So after recuperating from a gunshot wound, Geller finds himself doing minor jobs for the security firm. And he’s [...]
Contemporary Canadian crime writers are not exactly plentiful in number, and Toronto’s Howard Shrier is a welcome addition to their ranks. Shrier, a former broadcaster, knows his way around genre conventions: his protagonist, detective Jonah Geller, cracks wise at every opportunity about his tenuous employment with investigative firm Beacon Security and his slippery hold on relationships [...]
Buffalo Jump is a great debut novel from Montreal-born Torontonian Shrier, and it introduces PI Jonah Geller in what is certainly going to be a fine series. The plot is tight, the characters engaging, and this one even has a believable - and sympathetic - bad guy. The story opens with Geller, a consultant with Beacon [...]
Guns, knives, bats, and the Don. Welcome to the menacing world of Howard Shrier’s Toronto! Welcome to Buffalo Jump. There’s even a Mafia Don or two thrown in, to balance out the threat of the river. Jonah Geller is a nice Jewish boy who can’t seem to live up to the promise his mother sees in him. [...]
Howard Shrier likes his crime fiction hard-boiled, no chaser. So, after nearly three decades as a writer in one capacity or another, from journalist to corporate communications, when it was time to develop the lead character of his debut novel, Buffalo Jump, it was rough and tumble all the way. "I love the classic American private [...]
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.
