Created by Eric Wright (1929-2015) JOE BARLEY is a part-time professor teaching English literature at Hambleton, a small community college in Toronto, while also occasionally moonlighting as a "watcher" by a local security company. Subplots involving the college and his sometimes-messy personal life with longtime partner Carole crop up frequently in this smart, light-hearted … Continue reading Joe Barley
Tag: Canada
Lucy Trimble (aka Lucy Brenner)
Created by Eric Wright (1929-2015) LUCY TRIMBLE's a forty-something, part-time librarian and owner of a bed-and-breakfast, living out the last days of a crumbling marriage, in the sleepy Ontario town of Longborough, somewhere 150 miles or so east of Toronto. So how does she end up running a Toronto detective agency? Seems she’s the sole … Continue reading Lucy Trimble (aka Lucy Brenner)
Merry Bell
Created by Anthony Bidulka Going home is never easy. But years of gender-affirming surgery in Vancouver finds twenty-something MERRY BELL running back to Saskatoon—or at least Livingsky, Saskatchewan, a thinly disguised version of it. Or is it Regina? Or a combination of the two? It’s hard to tell—Bidulka seems to be mixing and matching Saskatchewan cities, … Continue reading Merry Bell
Russell Quant
Created by Anthony Bidulka An unexpectedly amusing series that goes down surprisingly easy, thanks to Saskatoon private eye RUSSELL QUANT’s charmingly chatty, loosey goosey first-person narration, which he apparently got from his creator, Anthony Bidulka. The author describes Quant as “the first and only half-Ukranian, half-Irish, wine-swilling, world-travelling, wise-cracking, Prairie-dwelling, Canadian private eye being written … Continue reading Russell Quant
The Maple Leaf Rag
Other Canadian Eyes "You thought the national flag was about a leaf, didn't you? Look harder. It's where someone got axed in the snow." -- Margaret Atwood THE PRAIRIES Becker by Martin Kitsch (Alberta) Merry Bell by Anthony Bidulka (Livingsky, Saskatchewan) Mike Cobb & Adam Cullen by David A. Poulsen (Calgary, Alberta) Eddie Dancer by … Continue reading The Maple Leaf Rag
Butch Patterson
Created by Greg Lawrence "Do you think I'd look good in a hat?" How’d I miss this one? A 30-minute Canadian TV comedy lampooning the whole Shamus Game? That lasted three seasons? And I had no clue it even existed? Turns out Butch Patterson, Private Dick ran from 1999-2001 on The Comedy Network, a Canadian channel … Continue reading Butch Patterson
Max Dexter
Created by Chris Laing MAX DEXTER is a former Mountie and WWII vet who came back from overseas with a bum leg, now working as a private eye, going down the mean streets of post-war Hamilton, Ontario in Canada, a hard town now--a hard town then. They don't call it "The Hammer" for nothing. Max … Continue reading Max Dexter
Jane Yeats
Created by Liz Brady "I didn't have my life threatened. I merely had the shit beaten out of me." -- Jane. One tough cookie in Sudden Blow Toronto's bad girl dick JANE YEATS may smoke too much and drink too much beer and may even get a little mouthy at times, but she's more than … Continue reading Jane Yeats
Ontari-ari-ari-o Eyes
Eyes from Canada's Second Largest Province Ontario Benny Cooperman by Howard Engel (Grantham, a thinly disguised St. Catharines) Joe Garrett by Alison Bruce Max Dexter by Chris Laing Kate Garrett & Jake Carmedy by Alison Bruce Terry Lane from Taking the Falls (Niagara Falls) D.B. Murphy by Richard J. Thomas (Owen Sound) John Swan by … Continue reading Ontari-ari-ari-o Eyes
Sasha Jackson
Created by Jill Edmondson It took a surprisingly long time for Toronto to come up with its own street-savvy female gumshoe (do vampire hunters really count?), but SASHA JACKSON is beginning to look like she was worth the wait. Crafty, tough, and tenacious, and not above taking an occasional break every to knock back a … Continue reading Sasha Jackson