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 eyes—Lew Archer, Raymond Chandler—with a good story,” says the 51-year-old Spadina Village resident. “One where the stakes are high and it’s a good story well told.”
Buffalo Jump introduces readers to 34-year-old Jonah Geller, one of very few fictional crime fighters who are Jewish.
“He’s a restless guy who wants to do something in his life but hasn’t quite found the outlet,” Shrier explains. “He’s backed into a lot of things and became an investigator almost by accident. But now that he’s into it, he really thinks he can do something good.”
In Buffalo Jump, Geller meets a contract killer who can’t stomach his latest job that involves killing an entire family including a five-year-old child, and he wants the detective to uncover the person who ordered the hit.
“I have two young boys, and the original idea in a way was the result of my thinking of the worst things that could happen,” says Shrier. “To me, they involve kids.”
In addition to the mystery and crime element, the story also delves into the little known world of drug smuggling. Not the recreational drugs, such as heroin and cocaine—we’re talking everyday drugs to treat high blood pressure or to lower cholesterol. Drugs that, in the United States, cost three to four times the amount a Canadian would pay.
Shrier put pen to paper while vacationing at a cottage on Georgian Bay back in 2003. Five years of writing, rewriting and editing later, Buffalo Jump hit the shelves to critical acclaim.
The author, who left the civil service in 2005 to work on his writing full time, completed the follow up, High Chicago, in just one year and he’s already well into his third novel.
“High Chicago has the same characters but different circumstances,” he says.
Shrier was born in Montreal and studied journalism and creative writing. He started his career as a crime reporter at the now-defunct Montreal Star and has written everything from government communiqués, to sketch comedy scripts in his career.
He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children. Buffalo Jump, published by Vintage Canada, is his first novel. — Ron Johnson, Village Post
