The Great Canadian Mystery Map

A directory of mystery novels set across Canada organized by place, series, and author.

Mystery Series Set in Canada

Cover of Chad Hobbes Historical Crimes series

Chad Hobbes Historical Crimes

by Seán Haldane

British Columbia, Canada

The Chad Hobbes Historical Crime series by Seán Haldane is a collection of detective mysteries set in the Victorian era.…

Cover of Chief Inspector Gamache series

Chief Inspector Gamache

by Louise Penny

Quebec, Canada

The series, also known as the Three Pines Mysteries, follows Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec as he…

Cover of Constable Molly Smith Mysteries series

Constable Molly Smith Mysteries

by Vicki Delany

British Columbia, Canada

The series follows rookie constable Molly Smith as she navigates the challenges of her new role while solving crimes that…

Cover of Ellis Portal Mysteries series

Ellis Portal Mysteries

by Rosemary Aubert

Ontario, Canada

The hero, Ellis Portal is down on his luck, fallen from his role as a respected judge and family man to the poverty-ridden…

Cover of Highclere Inn & Carriage House Mysteries series

Highclere Inn & Carriage House Mysteries

by Josh Hellyer

Ontario, Canada

A laugh-out-loud mystery series set in the Muskoka Lakes area.

Cover of Hygge House Nordic Mystery series

Hygge House Nordic Mystery

by A. L. Jensen

Ontario, Canada

Hygge House Mysteries: where murder meets Scandinavian comfort in a rustic northern Ontario town.

Cover of John Cardinal and Lise Delorme series

John Cardinal and Lise Delorme

by Giles Blunt

Ontario, Canada

The John Cardinal and Lise Delorme series by Giles Blunt consists of six novels, each set in the fictional town of Algonquin…

Cover of Klondike Mystery Series series

Klondike Mystery Series

by Vicki Delany

Yukon, Canada

Series set in Dawson City, Yukon, during the Great Klondike Gold Rush of 1898

Cover of Lane Winslow Mystery series

Lane Winslow Mystery

by Iona Whishaw

British Columbia, Canada

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…

Cover of Nadine Lavoie series

Nadine Lavoie

by Chevy Stevens

British Columbia, Canada

Nadine Lavoie is a psychiatrist who helps others confront their inner demons while grappling with her own traumatic past.

Cover of Temperance Brennan series

Temperance Brennan

by Kathy Reichs

Quebec, Canada

The Temperance Brennan series, written by Kathy Reichs, features a forensic anthropologist who investigates crimes in Montreal.…

Cover of The Shores Mysteries series

The Shores Mysteries

by Hilary MacLeod

Prince Edward Island, Canada

The Shores Mysteries is a series that immerses readers in the quirky and colorful world of The Shores, a fishing village…

Cover of Tom & Liz Austen Mysteries series

Tom & Liz Austen Mysteries

by Eric Wilson

Manitoba, Canada

The Tom & Liz Austen Mysteries series by Eric Wilson is a collection of young adult detective novels that follow the…

Stand-alone Canadian Mysteries

Cover of Killings at Little Rose

Killings at Little Rose

by Finley Martin

Prince Edward Island, Canada

Private investigator Anne Brown works undercover at a seafood plant plagued by vandalism, loss, and bad luck. Meanwhile,residents of Little Rose Harbour are shocked by the discovery of secretly-hidden human remains. Violence erupts, entangled secrets come to light, and Anne faces death.

Cover of How Elvis saved Quebec

How Elvis saved Quebec

by Ronald Sutherland

Quebec, Canada

Residents of a small Quebec village, half French and half English, are feuding as the referendum on separation from Canada approaches. Meanwhile, an Arab entrepreneur is busy buying property (restaurant, hardware store, marina, large houses), and an Abenaki Indian with a law degree from McGill has arrived in town, allegedly for the spring fishing.

Cover of A Winter Kill

A Winter Kill

by Vicki Delany

Ontario, Canada

Nicole Patterson is a young, green and very eager probationary constable with the Ontario Provincial Police. Although she spends much of her time breaking up bar fights, giving out traffic tickets and finding lost kids, she dreams of one day becoming a detective. Late one bitterly cold winter night, she comes across the body of a young woman lying on the edge of a snow-covered field on the outskirts of town. The girl appears to have been strangled. Nicole recognizes the victim as a local high school…

Cover of That Night

That Night

by Chevy Stevens

British Columbia, Canada

As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent complications: a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn't relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren't easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night. Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison. Now thirty-four,…

Cover of Still missing

Still missing

by Chevy Stevens

British Columbia, Canada

On the day she was abducted, Annie O’Sullivan, a 32-year-old realtor, had three goals - sell a house, forget about a recent argument with her mother, and be on time for dinner with her ever-patient boyfriend. The open house is slow, but when her last visitor pulls up in a van as she's about to leave, Annie thinks it just might be her lucky day after all.

Cover of Hitchhikers

Hitchhikers

by Chevy Stevens

British Columbia, Canada

t’s the summer of 1976 and Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal their broken hearts after a devastating tragedy. They’ve planned the trip perfectly, taken care of every detail. Then they meet two young hitchhikers down on their luck and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them. Now Alice and Tom are trapped, prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. As…

Cover of Searching for Terry Punchout

Searching for Terry Punchout

by Tyler Hellard

Nova Scotia, Canada

Adam Macallister's sportswriting career is about to end before it begins, but he's got one last shot--a Sports Illustrated profile about hockey's most notorious goon, the reclusive Terry Punchout--who also happens to be Adam's estranged father. Adam returns to Pennington, Nova Scotia, where Terry now lives in the local rink and drives the Zamboni. Going home means drinking with old friends, revisiting neglected relationships, and dealing with lingering feelings about his father and dead mother--and…

Cover of The Cure for Drowning

The Cure for Drowning

by Loghan Paylor

Ontario, Canada

Born Kathleen to an immigrant Irish farming family in southern Ontario, Kit McNair has been a troublesome changeling since, at ten, they fell through the river ice and drowned—only to be nursed back to life by their mother's Celtic magic. A daredevil in boy's clothes, Kit chafes at every aspect of a farmgirl's life, driving that same mother to distraction with worry about where Kit will ever fit in. When Rebekah Kromer, an elegant German-Canadian doctor's daughter, moves to town with her parents…

Cover of A Minor Chorus

A Minor Chorus

by Billy-Ray Belcourt

Alberta, Canada

An unnamed narrator abandons his unfinished thesis and returns to northern Alberta in search of what eludes him: the shape of the novel he yearns to write, an autobiography of his rural hometown, the answers to existential questions about family, love, and happiness.

Cover of Body in the Back Garden

Body in the Back Garden

by Mark Waddell

British Columbia, Canada

Crescent Cove, a small hamlet on Vancouver Island, is the last place out-of-work investigative journalist Luke Tremblay ever wanted to see again. He used to spend summers here, until his family learned that he was gay and rejected him. Now, following his aunt’s sudden death, he’s inherited her entire estate, including her seaside cottage and the antiques shop she ran for forty years in Crescent Cove. Luke plans to sell everything and head back to Toronto as soon as he can…but Crescent Cove isn’t…