Sleuth of Baker Street in Mid-Winter of 2015

Sharon and I are in Toronto for a long weekend. When we booked the getaway we thought we might have warmer temperatures in Toronto than Saskatchewan in January. In a weather surprise it is actually a touch warmer in Saskatchewan this weekend. Beyond visiting family one of the reasons to come east was a chance to visit the Sleuth of Baker Street Mystery Bookstore. I always visit my favourite bookstore when I come to Toronto.

Late Thursday afternoon J.D. Singh was working by himself. Most of the time either J.D. or Marian takes care of the store.

The store continues to be full of mysteries and thrillers. Following my pattern in recent visits I restricted myself to purchasing 5 books. It is hard not to walk out with bags of books.

While there are lots of books there are not as many complete series. I was looking for Don’t Cry, Tai Lake which is the 7^th in the series by Qiu Xiaolong. Several were on the shelf which is more than most stores but not that volume. J.D. said he would look for a copy for me.

My first choice was Tokyo Kill by Barry Lancet which is the second in the series featuring Jim Brodie from San Francisco. I had really enjoyed the first book, Japantown, and am looking forward to Tokyo Kill.

It has been some time since I read the Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville. While I found it harrowing and very violent it was so memorable I have been meaning to get the next in the series, Collusion, for some time and it became my second choice on Thursday.

I took a look around for some Australian crime fiction but J.D. says it remains as difficult as ever for him to get mysteries from Australia.

I had picked up Trinity Six by Charles Cumming for my third book but as I was looking at books highly recommended by J.D. and Marian on a display shelf at the front of the store I saw The Anarchist Detective by Jason Webster. I asked J.D. for a preference between them. He rightly said they are very different books and said he had really enjoyed Webster but thought I should start with the first in the series, Or the Bull Kills You. It became my third choice.

Looking for a Canadian mystery I saw on the same shelf, Last of the Independents by Sam Wiebe which is noted as Vancouver noir and was the winner of the 2012 Unhanged Arthur Ellis Award for best unpublished new crime fiction that year. The Unhanged Award is an effort to promote the publication of worth unpublished Canadian crime fiction.  Last of the Independents was my fourth choice.

I mentioned to J.D. that Anthony Bidulka is very unhappy with the quality of publication of his latest book, The Women of Skawa Island, which is the second in the Adam Saint series. Just over a week ago he cancelled a delayed book launch signing in Saskatoon when he discovered the book had significant printing errors in the published book which had not been present in the copy he had read. J.D. said it was not a shock. He said the publisher of Last of the Independents had gone through more than one printing because of such mistakes. He said he had numerous flawed copies of the book in the back of the store.

My fifth choice was not actually crime fiction. I was taken in by Tough Crimes – True Stories by Top Canadian Criminal Lawyers edited by C.D. Evans and Lorene Shyba. The book contains twenty stories of major Canadian criminal trials by a lawyer who participated in the trial. Two of the stories are by lawyers I know – one is a law school classmate and the other a good colleague in the Saskatchewan bar. Each lawyer talks about one important case in their careers and about how it affected them. I have already dived into the book and the stories are fascinating.

There were several other customers in the store while I was there. I hope the store can stay open for years to come. I have been visiting it for over 20 years.

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Sleuth of Baker Street and Update on Sleuth and 2012 Trip to Sleuth and Sleuth of Baker Street in Mid-winter of 2015 in Toronto, Ontario whose website is http://www.sleuthofbakerstreet.ca/