Jonah Geller

Winner, Arthur Ellis Award, Best Novel of 2009 Look out, Chicago. Canada's top private eye is back and on his way to the Windy City. High Chicago won the Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel of 2009, and it's easy to see why. Acclaimed author Howard Shrier takes you on a whirlwind tour of high-rise construction, corruption and murder as PI Jonah Geller traces a series of murders in Toronto to a real-estate tycoon in Chicago. Shrier writes contemporary hard-boiled tales with an easy assurance and a killer sense of humour. Discover his masterful plotting, razor dialogue, relentless pace and nuanced characters, including reformed killer Dante Ryan: a fully realized bad guy you can root for. Shrier's first Geller book, Buffalo Jump, won the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel and film rights were snapped up within months of publication. High Chicago is a more than worthy sequel, as Howard Shrier keeps making the world of crime fiction a better place, one Jonah Geller mystery at a time.

From Howard Shrier, two time winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for excellence in crime fiction, comes a dark story of greed gone wild. When investigator Jonah Geller heads to Boston on a missing person's case, it looks like family friend David Fine might just have burned out: an over-achieving surgeon-in-training who needed a break. But it soon becomes clear that David ran for his life. And before long Jonah and partner Jenn Raudsepp are running for theirs too. When Jenn is abducted by a vicious Boston gangster, Jonah needs help from former hit man Dante Ryan and a good-sized arsenal. The story that unfolds is explosive and unrelenting, as Jonah, Ryan and a pair of Boston wise guys race to get Jenn back in one piece, one step ahead of the Boston law. There's a reason why Howard Shrier has won the Arthur Ellis Award twice and been a finalist a third time. Boston roars to life, propelled by his masterful eye for detail, ear for dialogue and constant waves of action. The writing is assured, the humor dark, the characters engaging throughout. From start to epilogue, Boston Cream is a thriller of insight, compassion, with an infectious sense of urgency that's a winning combination for any mystery lover.

Fast cars, wisecracks and guns galore - what more could a reader ask for? Slammin' Sammy Adler was a talented, well-loved columnist in Montreal. And an old friend of Jonah Geller, an awkward kid Jonah helped one long-ago summer. So when Sammy is brutally murdered in what might be a hate crime, and the police investigation stalls, his dying grandfather begs Jonah to set things right. Montreal is only five hours from Toronto, but Jonah and former hit man Dante Ryan soon find it's a different world, with its own language, conflicts and rules just waiting to be broken. Within hours of arriving they're being watched by the cops, tailed by Syrian thugs, ducked by witnesses and run off a lonely road. Experience all of Montreal's grittiness, contradictions, fabled corruption, seething politics - even its legendary potholes. Maturing as one of recent crime fiction's shining stars, Shrier's latest effort will resonate with anyone who enjoys a topical plot full of twists and virtually nonstop action. Savor Geller's perilous and hilarious adventures with Ryan as told in Howard Shrier's voice: smart, funny and contemporary.