By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Reading is a great joy, one that can especially sustain us during the long winter months. With storms raging outside, and the sun setting earlier, we stay indoors, and rely on our tableside lamps and our own imaginations for light and entertainment. We like crime and mystery novels for the thrills and the illusion of action when the weather keeps us stranded. We like romances for the tension and the intrigue. And we like riveting short stories that, even for a brief period, transport us out of our own lives into someone else’s narrative.
Many of us have made a New Year’s resolution to read more. Maybe it’s a set, concrete goal of fifty books in a year, or maybe it’s something that feels less ambitious, like read one book a month. In Burlington alone, we have six public libraries. We like to read here and, unsurprisingly enough, we also like to write. Burlington boasts its own array of accomplished authors who have achieved success and recognition with their output. Why not marry our two thriving pastimes?
Below are three books that you may be surprised to learn were penned by professional writers who hail from our city. They’re all worthy additions to any reading list and have the substantial bonus of falling into a “support local” narrative, regardless of whether you buy them or take them out of one of Burlington’s (again, six) libraries.
Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton. Published by Picador in 2013.
Ian Hamilton is a Burlington, Ontario, native and the author of the Ava Lee crime-mystery series. Disciple of Las Vegas is the second book of the exciting saga that follows the adventures of forensic accountment Ava, who is Chinese Canadian. In this installment, Tommy Ordonez, the possessor of the greatest fortune in the Philippines, hires Ava to investigate a land fraud case and retrieve a bad investment. This leads Ava on a journey through the dark underworld of online gambling in the city of sin. Once entrenched in the lion’s den, she finds herself up against David “The Disciple” Douglas, a shady champion poker player, and Jeremy Ashton, a former banker with political ties. This book was short-listed for a prestigious Barry Award.
Sticks and Stones: Ten Canadian Short Stories by Margaret Lindsey Holton. Published by MLH Productions/Acorn Press Canada in 2021.
Margaret Lindsey Holton, who goes by the pen name M.L. Holton, is also from Burlington. She is versatile in her prose writing and her stories explore the inner and outer lives of Canadians from every strand. Some live in the rural North, some lives in major cities. Some are desperately lonely, some are entwined in chaotic love affairs. Some have healthy family relationships, and some clash with their relatives to a toxic degree. The story “Jojo’s Mistress” features a widower attempting to place a personal ad, despite not being anywhere near ready to move on from his deeply beloved late wife. “Snow White in Cuba” is about the world-shattering revelations of travel when the narrator discovers that everything they’ve been told and taught about a country isn’t necessarily true. This collection received a praising review from the popular blog The Redhead Notes.
Echoes of Memory by Sara Driscoll. Published by Kensington Books in 2024.
This last Burlington author, Sara Driscoll, is also a master of the crime-mystery genre (Burlington is adept at producing such writers). How well can we trust our memory, especially in the most dangerous circumstances? In this lone and psychologically prodding novel, a San Diego-based florist is struggling with amnesia and relies on handwritten notes to function. She is the number one witness to a shocking murder and records every detail in her notebook. However, when the police arrive, nothing of the crime scene remains. Only the narrator’s testimony remains, but how trustworthy and reliable is it?
