Dead Cold by Louise Penny – THREE PINES, QUÉBEC
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Ten Great Crime Thrillers set in CANADA
19th March 2025
Ten great thrillers set in Canada. Canadian thrillers often capitalise on the nation’s diverse landscapes, from the remote wilderness to bustling urban centres, creating a unique backdrop for suspense. The vast, often unforgiving, natural environment plays a significant role, adding a layer of isolation and vulnerability to the narrative. The vastness of the landscape provides ample opportunity for suspense and unexpected twists.
Cities like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver serve as settings for gritty urban thrillers, exploring themes of crime, corruption, and social issues. These narratives often delve into the darker side of urban life, showcasing the contrast between the city’s beauty and its hidden dangers.
Here are ten of our favourites:
The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard – THE GASPÉ PENINSULAR, QUÉBEC
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.
Black Rock by John McFetridge – MONTRÉAL
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.
Dead Cold by Louise Penny – THREE PINES, QUÉBEC
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…
Fall from Grace by Wayne Arthurson – EDMONTON
Fall from Grace from Wayne Arthurson marks the debut of Leo Desroches, one of the most unusual amateur detectives ever to appear in Canada or points south, this fast-paced, enthralling mystery is the story of a man who had everything, lost it all, and is trying to get it back.
Leo Desroches doesn’t look like a native, but his mother was Cree, and he understands the problems of indigenous Canadians of the First Nations. Which is probably why the Edmonton newspaper decides he should be their Aboriginal Issues reporter. He has his own issues to deal with: the compulsive gambling that cost him his wife and children and the risk-taking that threatens to derail him every time he starts to get his life back together. But during a newspaper strike, Leo caught a break, getting hired as a reporter. Since then, he’s managed to resist the urge to gamble. But he still hasn’t stopped taking risks….
When he’s assigned to cover the murder of a young native prostitute, it’s just one more article…until the cop in charge lets him view the corpse, something the Edmonton police never do. Leo’s article starts a chain of events that leads him to a much, much bigger story, one that could bring down the entire police department…if it doesn’t get him killed.
The Delicate Storm by Giles Blunt – ALGONQUIN BAY
A gruesome discovery in the wilderness above Algonquin Bay leads detectives John Cardinal and Lisa Delorme to a remote cabin that has served as an abattoir for a cold-blooded killer…
But the woods hide other horrors and soon a second body is discovered, naked and shrouded in ice. When one of the victims is identified as an American the Mounties have to be called in, but it’s the Canadian Secret Service that arouses the most mistrust. Is their interference due to a suspected terrorist link, or is there something even more sinister behind it?
With Northern Ontario in the grip of an ice storm of once-in-a-hundred years severity, the woods take on a glittering, lethal beauty. And in this winter wonderland John Cardinal must hunt down and confront a killer.
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney – NORTHERN TERRITORY
Mrs Ross, who is the narrator, is a Scottish pioneer and ex-asylum inmate, who discovers the body of a French trapper, murdered and scalped in his house near Dove River. The search for a murderer in a small Canadian settlement involves perilous journeys and disturbing revelations. Along the way we learn much about 19th century settlement, the relationship between incomers and natives, and the challenge of surviving harsh winters.
The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan – CANADA (and BOSNIA HERZEGOVINA)
One man is dead.
But thousands were his victims.
Can a single murder avenge that of many?
Scarborough Bluffs, Toronto: the body of Christopher Drayton is found at the foot of the cliffs. Muslim Detective Esa Khattak, head of the Community Policing Unit, and his partner Rachel Getty are called in to investigate. As the secrets of Drayton s role in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide of Bosnian Muslims surface, the harrowing significance of his death makes it difficult to remain objective. In a community haunted by the atrocities of war, anyone could be a suspect. And when the victim is a man with so many deaths to his name, could it be that justice has at long last been served?
In this important debut novel, Ausma Zehanat Khan has written a compelling and provocative mystery exploring the complexities of identity, loss, and redemption.
Murder on the Bow by John Ballem – CALGARY
Calgary, Alberta – City of oil barons and equestrians: saints and sinners: the exquisitely rich and the desperately poor… and murderers.
Detective Chris Crane knows all these worlds. He knows the high stakes games played by the politicians and business leaders, and what some will do to get to the top – or stay there. He knows how the criminal underworld seethes with power plays and high risk gambles where the rewards are great and the consequences deadly. His investigations bring us not just through the mean back streets of downtown Calgary, but the boardrooms and bedrooms of the city’s most powerful residents.
Whether the victim is a drug dealer who made one mistake too many, or a Cabinet minister who crossed the wrong people in his plans for the Alberta oil sands, Chris knows he races against time. Put the right people behind bars, and he can keep more bodies out of the morgue.
Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper – ONTARIO
Criminal defence lawyer Bartholomew Crane is despatched to a small lakeside town in Northern Ontario with a brief to defend a schoolteacher accused of murdering two teenaged girls. He assumes it will be an open-and-shut case and that he’ll be back carousing in Toronto before the month is out, for the girls’ bodies have never been found and the Crown’s evidence against the teacher is scant. But the deeper Barth digs into the teacher’s – and the town’s – past, the more disturbed and distressed he becomes. Peculiar visions haunt his imagination: telephones ring ceaselessly in the dead of night: the gargoyles above his hotel’s entrance seem to be watching him: and sometimes, out of the furthest corner of his eye – if he looks hard enough – he can see two identically dressed girls following wherever he goes …Is his mind playing tricks on him? Or has Barth been dragged into the town’s spiralling collective hysteria?
Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs – QUÉBEC
The first gripping Temperance Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs, the international no. 1 bestselling crime thriller writer and the inspiration behind the hit TV series Bones.
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.
Enjoy our selection of Canadian Crime Thrillers!
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I wish you would indicate if the book is part of a series. Some of these mysteries sound like they might be. I know the Louise Penny book is part of her fantastic Three Pines series.
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Thanks for the flag. We will certainly try harder