About Me

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Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada
I am a lawyer in Melfort, Saskatchewan, Canada who enjoys reading, especially mysteries. Since 2000 I have been writing personal book reviews. This blog includes my reviews, information on and interviews with authors and descriptions of mystery bookstores I have visited. I strive to review all Saskatchewan mysteries. Other Canadian mysteries are listed under the Rest of Canada. As a lawyer I am always interested in legal mysteries. I have a separate page for legal mysteries. Occasionally my reviews of legal mysteries comment on the legal reality of the mystery. You can follow the progression of my favourite authors with up to 15 reviews. Each year I select my favourites in "Bill's Best of ----". As well as current reviews I am posting reviews from 2000 to 2011. Below my most recent couple of posts are the posts of Saskatchewan mysteries I have reviewed alphabetically by author. If you only want a sentence or two description of the book and my recommendation when deciding whether to read the book look at the bold portion of the review. If you would like to email me the link to my email is on the profile page.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Update on Sleuth of Baker Street Bookstore

In January I wrote about my favourite bookstore, Sleuth of Baker Street, in Toronto. At that time the store was preparing to move to a new location at 907 Millwood Avenue not far from its longtime home on Bayview Avenue. Last week I was in Toronto and visited the store on Saturday afternoon with my older son, Jonathan.

For those traveling by car it is easier to park at the new location. Last Saturday, as usual on Bayview, all the parking spaces on the street were full and we had to search for a place on one of the side streets. When we traveled down Millwood to the little strip mall where the new store is located there were numerous open spaces.

Going to the store on Millwood is a destination. There are not the interesting shops and diverse restaurants up and down Bayview. Still with Bayview only a kilometer away it is easy to just go up to the old store neighbourhood.

The new store is smaller in size but there remains a wonderful collection of mysteries and thrillers. To simplify finding books the books are arranged in alphabetical order by author starting with the “A’s” to the left of the entrance and then proceeding around the store to the “Z’s” to the right of the entrance.

There is a shelf of books recommended by J.D., Marian and Cottage Lady.

In the middle of the store are tables with current hardcovers and paperbacks.

There is no change in the warm welcome of J.D.

There is no better selection of mysteries in Canada and few better anywhere.

Despite wanting to take home 1 or 2 boxes I restricted myself. I kept putting down with regret books I wanted to take home. In the end I bought 5 books.

Having enjoyed two books from Qiu Xiaolong’s series featuring Inspector Chen this year I bought the second in the series, A Loyal Character Dancer.

Over the year I have been reading reviews of lots of Australian crime fiction on the Fair Dinkum blog. Leah Giarratano’s books have sounded interesting and I picked up Vodka Doesn’t Freeze.

Marian had highly recommended Noah Boyd’s books. Of the pair on display J.D. suggested The Bricklayer.

I have been interested in reading from Ann Cleeves series set in the Shetland Islands. I purchased Raven in Black the first in the series.

Sleuth is not limited to new books. I had been looking for a copy of Judas Window by Carter Dickson. Searching the computer J.D. said they had 3 copies. None were upstairs. He went downstairs where they have stored a huge number of books and came up with a hardcover 1938 edition of the book.

Sleuth remains a wonderful place for mystery and thriller lovers.

6 comments:

  1. Bill - Oh, I so want to visit that store! Maybe at some point I'll be able to... And it looks as though you got some good books; I'll look forward to your review of them.

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  2. I've been to Toronto several tiems and have missed visiting J D Singh's store every time. I thought it went out of business! I'm happy to see it still exists. But next visit, I promise to finally set foot inside. Isn't there a mystery store in Winnipeg, too? There an amazing used bookstore with a huge vintage mystery section in Edmonton. I very much enjoyed visiting that place. I don't know of one in your home province, though. I've not been to Saskatchewan ...yet. :^)

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  3. Margot: Thanks for the comment. You will enjoy Sleuth when you get there. Maybe you can take a winter holiday and go to Toronto to experience some snow and look for mystery books.

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  4. John: There is a store in Winnipeg called Whodunit? Mystery Bookstore. I did a post on the store which can be accessed through going to the list of mystery bookstores to the right side of the blog.

    In Saskatchewan there is a nice used bookstore in Saskatoon called Westgate Books. It is not huge in size but has a good selection of mysteries. With a million people in the whole province we do not have any mystery bookstores.

    I hope you can get to Saskatchewan! If you are coming our way let me know as I would enjoy a chance to get together.

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  5. Oh this bookstore sounds like my kind of heaven! I haven't been to this one nor Whodunnit but I would like to one day.

    I used to live in Saskatoon and I found Westgate and also White Cat Bookstore very good. The owners of both are super friendly, and always helpful in trying to locate some of the more obscure mystery books. At least in my experience.

    Sounds like you had a great trip!

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  6. Bella: I hope you get the opportunity to visit both stores. They are wonderful places for lovers of mysteries.

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