Maple Mysteries
A directory of mystery novels set across Canada organized by place, series, and author.
Mystery Series Set in Canada
Benny Cooperman
by Howard Engel
The Benny Cooperman series is a collection of mystery novels by Howard Engels, featuring the witty and kind detective Benny…
Canadian Chills
by Arthur Slade
The Canadian Chills middle-grade series combines Arthur Slade’s comic genius with his ability to make your heart freeze…
Cape Breton Mystery
by Renny de Groot
The Cape Breton series by Renny deGroot is a collection o books that follow the adventures of Detective Gordie MacLean and…
Chad Hobbes Historical Crimes
by Seán Haldane
The Chad Hobbes Historical Crime series by Seán Haldane is a collection of detective mysteries set in the Victorian era.…
Charlie Salter
by Eric Wright
The Charlie Salter mystery series by Eric Wright follows Toronto police inspector Charlie Salter through 11 compelling investigations…
Chief Inspector Gamache
by Louise Penny
The series, also known as the Three Pines Mysteries, follows Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec as he…
Collins-Burke Mystery
by Anne Emery
The series follows the adventures of Monty Collins, a defense attorney, and Brennan Burke, a Catholic priest, as they solve…
Constable Molly Smith Mystery
by Vicki Delany
The series follows rookie constable Molly Smith as she navigates the challenges of her new role while solving crimes that…
Detective Aunty Investigates
by Uzma Jalaluddin
The Detective Aunty Investigates series by Uzma Jalaluddin follows Kausar Khan, a charming and tenacious widow, as she investigates…
Detective Greene
by Robert Rotenberg
The Detective Greene series by Robert Rotenberg is a legal thriller that follows the life of a Toronto homicide detective,…
Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery
by Philipp Schott
The Dr. Bannerman Vet Mystery series by Philipp Schott is a cozy mystery series that combines the talents of a veterinarian…
Dr. Zol Szabo Medical Mystery
by Ross Pennie
The series follows Dr. Zol Szabo, a trauma surgeon who, after facing personal tragedy and a series of mysterious deaths,…
Edie Kiglatuk
by M. J. McGrath
The Edie Kiglatuk Mysteries series by M.J. McGrath is a collection of four Arctic mysteries that follow the adventures of…
Ellis Portal Mysteries
by Rosemary Aubert
The hero, Ellis Portal is down on his luck, fallen from his role as a respected judge and family man to the poverty-ridden…
Gasper's Cove Mystery
by Barbara Emodi
The Gasper's Cove Mysteries by Barbara Emodi is a cozy mystery series set in a fictional Nova Scotia town. The series…
Glenmere Box Mysteries
by Lisa Adair
A mystery series set in the 1980s small-town of Glenmere, Saskatchewan
Grub-and-Stakers
by Charlotte MacLeod
The Grub-And-Stakers Mystery Series by Alisa Craig, also known as Charlotte MacLeod, is a cozy mystery series set in the…
Haven's Rock
by Kelley Armstrong
Haven's Rock is a series by Kelley Armstrong that follows Detective Casey Butler and Sheriff Eric Dalton as they build…
Highclere Inn & Carriage House Mystery
by Josh Hellyer
A laugh-out-loud mystery series set in the Muskoka Lakes area.
Holly Martin Mystery
by Lou Allin
The Holly Martin Mystery series follows RCMP Corporal Holly Martin as she navigates crime and intrigue on the south coast…
Hygge House Nordic Mystery
by A. L. Jensen
Hygge House Mysteries: where murder meets Scandinavian comfort in a rustic northern Ontario town.
Inspector Coswell Mystery
by Roy Innes
The Inspector Coswell Mystery series by Roy Innes is a collection of intricate police procedural novels that blend the complexities…
John Cardinal and Lise Delorme
by Giles Blunt
The John Cardinal and Lise Delorme series by Giles Blunt consists of six novels, each set in the fictional town of Algonquin…
Kate Henry Mystery
by Alison Gordon
Alison Gordon's Kate Henry Mystery series is a collection of murder mystery novels featuring the character Kate Henry,…
Klondike Mystery
by Vicki Delany
Series set in Dawson City, Yukon, during the Great Klondike Gold Rush of 1898
Lake Pines Mystery
by L.L. Abbott
The Lake Pines Mystery series by L.L. Abbott is a captivating collection of murder mysteries set in a small lakeside town…
Lane Winslow Mystery
by Iona Whishaw
The books are set in 1946 in a charming backwater community in BC that the author lived in as a child. It is a community…
Madoc and Janet Rhys Mystery
by Charlotte MacLeod
The Madoc & Janet Rhys mystery series is a cozy mystery series by Canadian-American novelist Charlotte MacLeod, known…
Nadine Lavoie
by Chevy Stevens
Nadine Lavoie is a psychiatrist who helps others confront their inner demons while grappling with her own traumatic past.
Operation Series
by Helen C. Escott
The Operation Series by Helen C. Escott is a bestselling collection of Canadian crime thrillers, combining fast-paced police…
Quill & Packet Mystery
by Elizabeth Renzetti, Kate Hilton
The Quill & Packet Mystery series, authored by Kate Hilton and Elizabeth Renzetti, follows the journey of Cat Conway,…
Randy Craig Mystery
by Janice E. MacDonald
The Randy Craig Mystery Series by Janice MacDonald is a long‑running Canadian academic‑mystery series set primarily in Edmonton,…
Rockton
by Kelley Armstrong
Don’t look for Rockton on any map of the Yukon. This tiny, off-the-grid town doesn’t exist. Neither do the people in it.…
Rosalind Mystery
by Linda Moore
Linda Moore’s Rosalind Mystery series is a small Canadian mystery series set primarily in Nova Scotia, built around Rosalind,…
Russell Quant Mystery
by Anthony Bidulka
Russell Quant is a the first and only wine-swilling, wise-cracking, world-travelling, winsomely gay, ex-cop, ex-farm boy,…
Sebastian Synard Mysteries
by Kevin Major
The Sebastian Synard Mysteries follow the adventures of a private detective and tour guide, Sebastian Synard, as he navigates…
Senior Sleuth Series
by Maureen Fisher
The Senior Sleuth series by Maureen Fisher follows three women of 'a certain age' who inherit a dude ranch and…
Small-Town Saskatchewan Mystery
by Nelson Brunanski
The Crooked Lake series by Nelson Brunanski is a small-town Saskatchewan mystery series that captures the essence of rural…
Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery
by Brenda Chapman
The series follows the personal and professional lives of Kala Stonechild and Jacques Rouleau as they navigate the complexities…
Temperance Brennan
by Kathy Reichs
The Temperance Brennan series, written by Kathy Reichs, features a forensic anthropologist who investigates crimes in Montreal.…
The Apocalypse
by W.M. Leesman
Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario
The Apocalypse Series by W.M. Leesman follows the character Brad Stockman as he navigates a thrilling journey involving…
The Falls Mystery
by J. E. Barnard
The Falls Mysteries series by J.E. Barnard is a crime fiction series that revolves around ex-Mountie Lacey McCrae, who becomes…
The Screech Owls
by Roy MacGregor
The Screech Owls is a celebrated Canadian juvenile and young adult fiction series written by Roy MacGregor. Published by…
The Shores Mystery
by Hilary MacLeod
The Shores Mysteries is a series that immerses readers in the quirky and colorful world of The Shores, a fishing village…
Tom & Liz Austen Mysteries
by Eric Wilson
The Tom & Liz Austen Mysteries series by Eric Wilson is a collection of young adult detective novels that follow the…
Verona Montero
by Kayleigh Suggett
Wisecracking PI Verona Montero takes on outrageous cases with sharp instincts, sharper humour, and a talent for stumbling…
Stand-alone Canadian Mysteries
All June Left Behind
by Karen Grose
Ray had it all—a loving relationship with his wife June, a busy farm, and two beautiful grown children. Until the night June was shot on their fortieth anniversary during a botched robbery at a restaurant. Two years after June’s death, the man convicted of her murder is granted a new trial. Horrified that his wife’s killer might walk free, Ray vows to take justice into his own hands. But when rumours surface about his wife, Ray teams up with young crack reporter Fan Mohamed to dig into June’s past.…
Broken Steps
by J.E. Friend
For Amelia Jonas, life as she knew it changed forever in the blink of an eye. An event that shattered her world; the worst part, she had no memory of what happened. After awakening alone in a hospital bed, Amelia found herself, battered and bruised beyond recognition. She struggled assuming she'd been in an accident, wondering where her husband was until she slipped back into unconsciousness. It wasn't until her neighbour Eleanor visited that she learned her injuries were not from an accident but…
Canoe Lake
A troubled American woman travels to a small Ontario town, determined to find the mother she has never known. As she searches through dusty records and stirs up old memories among those around her, three young people emerge from the mists of the past . . . a beautiful woman named Jenny, a shy local boy named Russell, and a dark-eyed painter named Tom, who changes the course of Jenny and Russell’s lives. Historical reality and conjecture are skillfully interwoven with intrigue and suspense as these…
Death in the age of steam
by Mel Bradshaw
Toronto in 1856 is industrializing with little time for scruple or sentiment. When Reform politician William Sheridan dies suddenly and his daughter Theresa vanishes, only one man persists in asking questions. A former suitor of Theresa’s, bank cashier Isaac Harris has never managed to forget her, despite her marriage to another man. Thrust into the role of amateur detective, he must now struggle with the demands of his job and the shortcomings of the fledgling city police. He also faces the hostility…
High Crimes
In rugged, remote Newfoundland, a merry band of smugglers is carrying on a grand tradition, handed down over centuries. But the greatest of them all, a man named Peter Kerrivan, is now in the sights of the authorities, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to the American DEA.
Into the Fog
Ice fog descends upon Dickens, Alberta, growing thicker and thicker until Heidi Crawford can no longer see the coniferous forest and snow-capped mountains outside the windows of her Jeep. A huge four-legged shape moves in the mist. She slams on the brakes and squeezes her eyes shut. When Heidi opens her eyes, the fog is gone, but so is her life as she knows it. Instead of forest and snow, she’s on a single street in a tiny town, trapped in a scorching hot desert away from her daughter Emma. And…
Mind Games
Dr. Tim Dare is a forensic psychiatrist whose life is in a mess: his wife has just left him to find herself; his mother is being sued for libel by a small-town mayor over a mystery novel; he’s been made the monitor of a man just out of psychiatric hospital, a man he considers a psychopathic murderer; he’s being hauled before a disciplinary committee for “misplacing” a file; one of his patients is “transferring” feelings to him rather too romantically; and now someone’s threatening to kill him. He…
Murder on the Oldman
In the hottest spring on record, Lethbridge's coulees are parched and tempers are rising. When a prominent rancher is murdered, private investigators Samuel Rigondeaux, a brilliant ex-librarian, and his partner Flagstaff, a disgraced Mountie, must navigate old grudges and simmering resentments to clear their client's name. But as they dig beneath a community fractured by drought and desperation, long-buried secrets emerge—and the evidence begins pointing back to the very person who hired them. Meanwhile,…
Needles
Lawyer Foster Cobb’s objective is to bring down the mysterious Dr. Au, responsible for the drugs that flow through Vancouver. But under the pressure of a disintegrating career and marriage, Cobb himself has taken up a long-abandoned heroin habit.
One Minute More
It’s a long-shot mission. No one thinks much of the information the Toronto chief of police receives from a mysterious source: a would-be assassin is about to cross the border into Canada to kill the heads of the seven most powerful countries in the world. Undeterred, he sends young police officer Ari Greene to a sleepy Quebec–Vermont border town to investigate. During a festive and colourful July 4th parade, Greene spots his unlikely target and gives chase across borders and boundaries. But as…
Other Side
Twelve-year-old Liam finds a dead body along the shore at his grandfather's cottage. He can't erase what he's seen and can't focus on anything else, not even the upcoming opportunity of a lifetime to try out for an elite soccer team. Liam believes there is more to the girl's story than her "accidental death" and decides to investigate. When Liam visits his grandfather, living in palliative care, things go from bad to worse. As they watch Germany's 2014 World Cup soccer games together, his grandfather,…
Quarrel With the Foe
by Mel Bradshaw
After surviving the horrors of the Great War, Paul Shenstone works as a police detective in 1920s Toronto, rooting out petty criminals and rumrunners. The unusual murder of a prominent industrialist gives him the biggest case of his career and a not entirely welcome opportunity to make his name on the force. The waters are muddied when the investigation starts uncovering connections between the deceased Digby Watt and soldiers Shenstone knew in Flanders. What will Shenstone’s choice be if he has…
So Far So Close
by Lee Gabel
His memories of her were always there… hidden but not forgotten. He only needed the key to unlock them. Now he has one week to find her. A chance discovery of an old photo ignites a memory of a best friend from childhood. Luke, married and heading into his sixties, feels a pull to rekindle that friendship. But decades of a life well lived have fractured and faded the memories from his teenage and young adult years. He has nothing to go on except a photograph, a yearning for reconnection, and a name...…
Street Legal: The Betrayal
This legal thriller follows the lives of three young, ambitious lawyers in 1980 as they are setting up their own practice. The fledgling firm is rocked when partner Carrie Barr, the successful legal defense of the notorious Midnight Strangler, takes on the case of a suave, handsome accused hit man. The new client proves far more dangerous―and alluring―than she imagined, and soon she is drawn into a web of terror involving a rogue police operation, a ruthless drug lord, and a series of brutal murders…
Sunset Lake Resort
When Ruby’s father passes away, but fails to leave her the millions some expected, Steve, her husband of 35 years, moves out. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite…
The Dance of Shiva
Twenty members of a cult are found massacred on an isolated island on Canada’s West Coast. Their leader, Shiva Ram Acharya, is brought to trial, and the great Arthur Beauchamp defends him, assisted by his junior counsel Max Macarthur. Shiva claims to have amnesia and refuses to participate in his own defence. But Macarthur gradually becomes convinced of his innocence, embarking on the greatest challenge of his career ― a dangerous quest for the true murderer ― and falling under the sway of the brilliant,…
The Hunt
Ben Matthews is less than thrilled when he is posted to Canada from Washington, but he doesn’t have time to sit in his disappointment. His diplomatic credentials are still fresh when he is drawn into an urgent assignment: locating an American VIP who vanished on a Yukon hunting trip. Seeking help from the local Mounties, he finds himself paired with Lee Sawchuk; an RCMP sergeant, she is at ease in the challenging terrain of the Yukon environment. Battling nature and their considerable differences,…
Wicked Ninnish
Into a tenuous calm left behind by the War in the Woods-which pitted environmentalists against loggers, and resulted in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history-paddles Pulp & Paper empire. As a test of his loyalty, and with his inheritance on the line, he's been dispatched to break a logjam in stalled timber negotiations, and to fix a management problem at the swanky Headlands Lodge. His ailing grandfather has millions riding on both ventures. With his new kayak packed with gear, and his head…
Xavier Bradshaw: Ghostwriter
by W.M. Leesman
Twenty years ago, Livingston, Alberta, was shaken by a series of unsolved, unconnected brutal murders. Now, a city councillor is found crucified in a local church, and a young woman is discovered dumped at the river’s edge. Investigative reporter Xavier Bradshaw, joined by his new partner Jessi, is determined to uncover the truth behind these chilling echoes of the past. However, evidence points to Xavier as the prime suspect, and the Livingston Police Department is eager to close the case. Xavier…