Novel set in Europe, Manila and Turkey
Ten Great Books set in QUEBEC
3rd October 2024
Ten Great Books set in Québec. Québec, a province in eastern Canada, offers a unique blend of European charm and North American wilderness. Its largest city, Québec City, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, renowned for its fortified walls, cobblestone streets, and historic architecture. The city’s French-Canadian culture is evident in its language, cuisine, and festivals.
Many great books are set in the province. Here are ten of our favourites.
The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson and David Warriner (translator)
Queen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson returns with a spell-binding, dazzlingly dark gothic thriller that swings from Belle Époque France to 21st-century Quebec,with an extraordinary mystery at its heart… FIRST in a bewitching new series
‘The Bleeding begins with a truly macabre and ritualistic crime that leads back to mysteries in Belle Époque Paris, and 1949 Post-War Quebec. Intriguingly dark and vivid, and so cleverly told through three different time frames’ Essie Fox
‘A wonderfully dark, intricately woven historical thriller spanning three generations … it will have you hooked from the very first page’ B A Paris
‘Wonderfully dark and creepy, with a superb twist in its tail!’ James Oswald.
The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard and David Warriner (translator)
When an abandoned lobster trawler is found adrift off the coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, DS Joaquin Moralès begins a straightforward search for the boat’s missing captain, Angel Roberts – a rare female in a male-dominated world. But Moralès finds himself blocked at every turn – by his police colleagues, by fisheries bureaucrats, and by his grown-up son, who has turned up at his door with a host of his own personal problems.
When Angel’s body is finally discovered, it’s clear something very sinister is afoot, and Moralès and son are pulled into murky, dangerous waters, where old resentments run deep.
Exquisitely written, with Bouchard’s trademark lyrical prose, The Coral Bride evokes the power of the sea on the communities who depend on it, the never-ending struggle between the generations, and an extraordinary mystery at the heart of both.
Wickerby: An Urban Pastoral by Charles Siebert
Against the backdrop of a tumbledown Brooklyn neighborhood, Charles Siebert, a native Brooklynite and longtime city-dweller, reflects upon the five months he has just spent at Wickerby, an old, collapsing log cabin in the woods of Canada. In vivid, lyrical prose, Siebert relates the events that prompted his sudden departure to Wickerby, and, while recounting the details of his isolated existence there, arrives at a series of stunningly original insights that explore and often explode the classic Romantic distinctions between city and country, man-made and natural. Along the way, the book’s episodic, wide-ranging narrative takes us from Brooklyn’s rooftops, where “pigeon mumblers” chase their flocks into the sky, to Albert, Wickerby’s reclusive caretaker who pilfers the cabin’s artifacts for his own yard sales.
In what emerges as a refreshing subversion of the typical log cabin book, this beautifully composed account of a journey away from the city ultimately allows us to view the city anew: not as the traditional antagonist of the natural world, but as a logical and inevitable outgrowth of that world, an entity as wondrous and awe-inspiring as anything found in nature.
Black Rock by John McFetridge
An artfully told police procedural set in an explosive era in recent history Montreal 1970. The “Vampire Killer” has murdered three women and a fourth is missing. Bombs explode in the stock exchange, McGill University, and houses in Westmount. Riots break out at the St. Jean Baptiste parade and at Sir George Williams University. James Cross and Pierre Laporte are kidnapped and the Canadian army moves onto the streets of Montreal. A young beat cop working out of Station Ten finds himself almost alone hunting the serial killer, as the rest of the force focuses on the FLQ crisis. Constable Eddie Dougherty, the son of a French mother and an Irish – Canadian father, decides to take matters into his own hands to catch the killer before he strikes again. Set against actual historical events, Black Rock is both a compelling page – turner and an accomplished novel in the style of Dennis Lehane.
Winter Wonderland by Belinda Jones
Imagine waking up in a snow globe. . .
That’s how travel journalist Krista feels when she arrives in magical Quebec to report on Canada’s glittering Winter Carnival.
Over ten sub-zero days Krista’s formerly frozen heart begins to melt as she discovers an enchanting world of ice palaces, husky dog-sledding and maple-syrup treats galore. And then she meets Jacques, a man as handsome and rugged as he is mysterious. . .
The two share a secret that could bond them forever, but can they find a way to break through the protective layers around their hearts to warm up this winter wonderland?
. . . let the snow-spangled adventure begin…
Dead Cold by Louise Penny
Winter in Three Pines, and the sleepy village is carpeted in snow. It’s a time of peace and goodwill – until a scream pierces the biting air. A spectator at the annual Boxing Day curling match has been fatally electrocuted. Despite the large crowd, there are no witnesses and – apparently – no clues.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache discovers a history of secrets and enemies in the dead woman’s past. But he has enemies of his own, and as he is frozen out of decision-making in the Surete du Quebec, he has to decide who he can trust…
The Girl Who Was Saturday Night by Heather O’Neill
At birth, Nouschka forms a bond with her twin that can never be broken.
At six, she’s the child star daughter of Quebec’s most famous musician.
At sixteen, she’s a high-school dropout kicking up with her beloved brother.
At nineteen, she’s the Beauty Queen of Boulevard Saint-Laurent.
At twenty, she’s back in night school. And falling for an ex-convict.
And it’s all being filmed by a documentary crew.
Déja Dead by Kathy Reichs
Bagged and discarded, the dismembered body of a woman is discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery.
Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec, has been researching recent disappearances in the city.
Soon she is convinced that a serial killer is at work. But when no one else seems to care, her anger forces her to take matters into her own hands. Her determined probing has placed those closest to her in mortal danger, however.
Can Tempe make her crucial breakthrough before the killer strikes again?
Foregone by Russell Banks
A searing novel about memory, abandonment, and betrayal from the acclaimed and bestselling Russell Banks
At the centre of Foregone is famed Canadian American leftist documentary filmmaker Leonard Fife, one of sixty thousand draft evaders and deserters who fled to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam.
Fife, now in his late seventies, is dying of cancer in Montreal and has agreed to a final interview in which he is determined to bare all his secrets at last, to demythologize his mythologized life.
The interview is filmed by his acolyte and ex-star student, Malcolm MacLeod, in the presence of Fife’s wife and alongside Malcolm’s producer, cinematographer, and sound technician, all of whom have long admired Fife but who must now absorb the meaning of his astonishing, dark confession.
Imaginatively structured around Fife’s secret memories and alternating between the experiences of the characters who are filming his confession, the novel challenges our assumptions and understanding about a significant lost chapter in American history and the nature of memory itself. Russell Banks gives us a daring and resonant work about the scope of one man’s mysterious life, revealed through the fragments of his recovered past.
Heaven in His Arms by Lisa Ann Verge
The illegitimate daughter of a courtesan, Genevieve Lalande struggles to survive on the dangerous streets of Louis XIV’s Paris. Desperate for a new life, she trades identities with a woman chosen to be a mail-order bride… and is soon bound for the new French colony of Quebec.
A rugged loner who prowl the frigid Canadian wilderness like a sensual lion, Andre Lefebvre is furious to learn he must wed in order to keep his fur-trading license. He selects the pale, seasick Genevieve, believing she can’t possibly survive in such a harsh, unyielding land.
Yet as they embark on a perilous journey into soaring mountains and rushing rivers, neither Andre nor Genevieve can know their true destination: the unexplored regions of desire that await two wary hearts hiding secrets… and hungry for love.
Enjoy your books set in Québec! Any of your favourites we’ve missed, please add in the Comments below.
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