Writers Read: Vicki Delany

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Vicki Delany

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. Rest Ye Murdered Gentlemen is her twentieth book, and the first in the Year Round Christmas cozy series from Berkley Prime Crime. Under the pen name of Eva Gates, she is the national bestselling author of the Lighthouse Library series, the latest of which is Booked for Trouble. Delany lives in Prince Edward County Ontario, and she is the current president of the Crime Writers of Canada.

Recently I asked the author about what she was reading. Delany's reply:

I’ve just put aside the book my book club is reading this month. I’ve read about a quarter of it, and can’t stand any more. It’s the first book the club has chosen that I didn’t like at all. I won’t mention it except to say that I’m surprised we’re reading such a standard lump of “women’s fiction” (and that’s a phrase I hate). I’ve more or less enjoyed every book the club has read so far, and one of the things I like best about being in the book club is the chance to read books of the sort I wouldn’t normally read.

After giving the club’s book up, I started The Sonnet Lover by Carol Goodman. I like Goodman’s psychological suspense novels very much and I don’t know why this one, published in 2007, escaped my notice, but I’m glad I found it.

Next up is a book I’ve been looking forward to for some time, but I didn’t buy it because for some reason it was shockingly expensive here in Canada, but finally the price came down to a respectable level. It’s The Third Sin by Aline Templeton, and is one of the DI Marjorie Fleming novels. I love the British-style police procedurals best of all, and Templeton is up there with my favourites. I guess I particularly like that Marjorie is a normal Scottish wife and mother, married to a farmer with a hectic family life and a couple of difficult teenagers. Oh, and she’s also the head of a police team.

After that, I’ll be reading A Killer Necklace by Canadians Melodie Campbell and Cynthia St-Pierre. In my writing life I mix up my styles and sub-genres and I like to do so as a reader as well.