our Just Launched season of books!

From Sweetgrass Bridge

a novel by Anthony Bidulka

Stonehouse Direct: $22.00 CAD

A nation holds its breath.

On a perfect prairie summer evening, Saskatchewan Roughrider Dustin Thomson goes missing. As the Green & White’s first primary quarterback born in the province and first Indigenous quarterback, Thomson is beloved and celebrated. Mistrusting the police investigation, the family hires Merry Bell P.I. to find the football star. From the dark waters below Sweetgrass Bridge to the lands of Little Turtle Lake First Nation, Merry seeks answers while dealing with her continuing transition, swelling loneliness, a floundering career, well-meaning crossdressing assistant and having to decide whether the people in her life are friend or foe.

In 1999 Anthony Bidulka left his career as a corporate auditor to pursue writing and never looked back. His books have been nominated for several awards and Bidulka was the first Canadian to win the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery. When he isn’t writing or busy volunteering on boards, Bidulka loves to travel the world, collect art, walk his dogs, obsess over decorating Christmas trees (it’s a thing) and throw a good party. His motto: life is short, so make it wide! Please visit his website at www.anthonybidulka.com for further information about Anthony and his books. Anthony lives just outside Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Secrets in the Water

a novel by Alice Fitzpatrick

Stonehouse Direct: $22.00 CAD

Emma Galway’s suicide has haunted the Meredith Island for fifty years.

Back on the island to lay her grandmother to rest, Kate can’t avoid reflecting on the death of her aunt. Learning that her late mother had believed Emma was murdered and had conducted her own investigation, she decides to track down her aunt’s killer. With the help of her neighbour, impetuous and hedonistic sculptor Siobhan Fitzgerald, Kate picks up where her mother had left off. When the two women become the subject of threatening notes and violent incidents, it’s clear that one of their fellow islanders is warning them off. As they begin to look into Emma’s connection to the Sutherlands, a prominent Meredith Island family, another islander dies under suspicious circumstances, forcing Kate and Siobhan to confront the likelihood that Emma’s killer is still on the island.

Alice Fitzpatrick has contributed short stories to literary magazines and anthologies and has recently retired from teaching in order to devote herself to writing full-time. She is a fearless champion of singing, cats, all things Welsh, and the Oxford comma. Her summers spent with her Welsh family in Pembrokeshire inspired the creation of Meredith Island. The traditional mystery appeals to her keen interest in psychology as she is intrigued by what makes seemingly ordinary people commit murder. Alice lives in Toronto but dreams of a cottage on the Welsh coast. To learn more about Alice and her writing, please visit her website at www.alicefitzpatrick.com.

Sunset Lake Resort

a novel by Joanne Jackson

Stonehouse Direct: $22.00 CAD

When Ruby’s father passes away, but fails to leave her the millions some expected, Steve, her husband of 35 years, moves out. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the condition of the property and rumours it is haunted, Ruby decides to move to Sunset Lake Resort, determined to find out why her father bought it, and why he left it to her.

Joanne Jackson is an award winning author of three novels. Her most recent, 'A Snake in the Raspberry Patch,' was the winner of Best Crime Novel set in Canada for 2023, and short listed for Saskatchewan Book Awards 2023. Her first novel, 'The Wheaton' was released in 2019, and her forthcoming novel, 'Sunset Lake Resort', is set to be released spring of 2024. Joanne lives in Saskatoon with her husband, Tom, and an old border collie named Mick. If you keep your eyes peeled you will see Joanne and her dog walking come rain, shine, snow, or whatever weather Saskatchewan throws at them. Website: https://www.joannejackson.ca.

Hekate’s Daughter

a novel by Mirjam Dikken

Stonehouse Direct: $22.00 CAD

Knowing what people think feels more like a curse than a blessing to Kathy van der Laan. After all, how do you deal with discovering your employer is a pervert, your father's replaying scenes from the car accident that killed your mother, and suspecting the guy ahead of you in the department store to be the reason for the latest amber alert? Unable to explain the source of her knowledge, Kathy reduces her interactions, sends anonymous tips to police and tries not to remind her father about a loss they both can’t get past. Then she receives an offer from the Syndicate, a shadowy organization which purports to shape policy within the EU, and where she discovers her mother worked till her death. To find out more about her mother, can she risk joining a group that seems to know too much about her dangerous gift?

Mirjam Dikken was born and raised in the Netherlands. She has worked around the world through her jobs as a chemical engineer, recruiter, and HR manager, and lived in New Delhi, India, and Edmonton, Canada. As they love living below sea level, she and her family settled in the Hoeksche Waard again, an inland island in the Netherlands. She now does her wandering around in the darker places of her imagination to write thrillers and other fiction. Her stories have appeared in anthologies and on the beer cans of her favourite coffee stout.