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"Vancouver (B.C.) Fiction."
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I saw three ships : West End stories
\"From one of Canada's most beloved radio personalities comes this short story collection set around Christmastime in Vancouver's beloved West End neighborhood. The eight linked stories in Bill Richardson's I Saw Three Ships take their direction from the seasonal tug-of-war between expectation and disappointment that occurs as the light deepens. The pieces give shelter to characters whose experiences of transcendence leave them more alienated than consoled. Rosellen, forced to move because her building is slated for demolition, has her last meeting with J.C., the ghost who's entertained (and sometimes tormented) her for the last forty years. Frances, undergoing chemotherapy, discovers a gorgeous wig that might be made from the hair sold by Della in O. Henry's ironic short story “The Gift of the Magi.” Bonnie, writing to Peter Gzowski to apprise him of the death of her mother, Gzowski's biggest fan, settles on the best way to disperse her mother's ashes. On Christmas Eve, a man whose name happens to be Leonard Cohen becomes the unwitting plaything of Saint Zita of Lucca and walks through Vancouver's snowy Downtown neighborhood wearing a wedding gown. These are quirky stories, sometimes twisted, sometimes tender, intended for anyone who's ever been stuck with their wheels spinning at the corner of Pagan and Holy. The stories are about secular people who undergo epiphanic moments of revelation or transcendence, experiences for which faith offers a custom-built cabinet with lots of tidy drawers, but that leave the religiously unpersuaded feeling like the fuselage has depressurized and they're gasping for breath, praying to forces unnamed for the mask to fall\"-- Provided by publisher.
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It all falls down
\"Growing up, Nora Watts only knew one parent--her father. When he killed himself, she denied her grief and carried on with her life. Then a chance encounter with a veteran who knew him raises disturbing questions Nora can't ignore--and dark emotions she can't control. To make her peace with the past, she has to confront it. Finding the truth about her father's life and his violent death takes her from Vancouver to Detroit where Sam Watts grew up, far away from his people and the place of his birth. Thanks to a disastrous government policy starting in the 1950s, thousands of Canadian native children like Sam were adopted by American families. In the Motor City, Nora discovers that the circumstances surrounding Sam's suicide are more unsettling than she'd imagined. Yet no matter how far away Nora gets from Vancouver, she can't shake trouble. Back in the Pacific Northwest, former police detective turned private investigator Jon Brazuca is looking into the overdose death of a billionaire's mistress. His search uncovers a ruthless opiate ring and a startling connection to Nora, the infuriatingly distant woman he'd once tried to befriend. He has no way to warn or protect her, because she's become a ghost, vanishing completely off the grid. Focused on the mysterious events of her father's past and the clues they provide to her own fractured identity and that of her estranged daughter, Nora may not be able to see the danger heading her way until it's too late. But it's not her father's old ties that could get her killed--it's her own\"--Publisher.
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The white angel : a mystery
\"A work of fiction inspired by the cold case of Janet Smith, who, on July 26, 1924, was found dead in her employer's posh Shaughnessy Heights mansion. A dubious investigation led to the even more dubious conclusion that Smith died by suicide. After a public outcry, the case was re-examined and it was decided that Smith was in fact murdered; but no one was ever convicted, though suspects abounded-- from an infatuated Chinese houseboy to a drug-smuggling ring, devil-worshippers from the United States, or perhaps even the Prince of Wales ... [This work] draws an artful portrait of Vancouver in 1924 in all its opium-hazed, smog-choked, rain-soaked glory\"-- Provided by publisher.
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A tale for the time being
\"In Tokyo, sixteen-year-old Nao has decided there's only one escape from her aching loneliness and her classmates bullying. But before she ends it all, Nao first plans to document the life of her great grandmother, a Buddhist nun who's lived more than a century. A diary is Nao's only solace and will touch lives in ways she can scarcely imagine. Across the Pacific, we meet Ruth, a novelist living on a remote island who discovers a collection of artifacts washed ashore in a Hello Kitty lunchbox--possibly debris from the devastating 2011 tsunami. As the mystery of its contents unfolds, Ruth is pulled into the past, into Nao's drama and her unknown fate, and forward into her own future\"--Amazon.com.
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Cut you down : a novel
\"Tabitha Sorenson is missing. The bright but unstable student disappeared in the aftermath of a scandal involving millions of dollars in college funds. Professor Dana Essex doesn't think the missing money and the missing student are connected, but she hires Vancouver PI David Wakeland to find Tabitha, with whom she is in love. When Wakeland discovers Tabitha has in fact stolen the money and is hiding out with her lover and reports back to his client, Essex is crushed to learn that Tabitha is in love with someone else. The next morning, Tabitha has been murdered and Essex has disappeared. Meanwhile, Wakeland has his own problems. His former girlfriend, police officer Sonia Drego, believes her partner is corrupt. With her job--and possibly her life--on the line, Wakeland may be her best hope of uncovering the conspiracy in the department before it brings her down. Hounded by Tabitha's friends, the police, the press, and his own troubled conscience, Wakeland tries desperately to find Essex and make sense of what happened. Could it all have been a ruse from the start, and is Wakeland just another in a long line of suckers? While searching for Essex and investigating Sonia's partner, Wakeland encounters criminals, anarchists, and crooked authority figures--all of them desperate people who will stop at nothing to guard their secrets\"-- Provided by publisher.
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The high climber of Dark Water Bay
Orphaned in 1929 Lizzie, twelve, is sent to a Vancouver logging camp where the camp boss, a scoundrel, gives her a perilous job while seeking ransom from her absent uncle.
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The lost ones : a novel
It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for fifteen years--since the day she gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren't looking, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope.(--Cover)
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The gulf
\"Ever since Oli found a pamphlet for a remote island commune as a kid, it's all she can think about. Now that she's nearing the end of high school, feeling frustrated with the mounting pressure to choose a career and follow a path she has no interest in, the desire to escape it all has been steadily increasing. Everything comes to a head when Oli's relationship with her best friend goes south and she claps back at a school bully with more than just words. Oli flees to find the commune on a Gulf Island off the coast of Vancouver, taking with her Milo, who can't help but hide his feelings behind the safety of a video camera, and Alvin, a shy teen who sees more than he lets on. Behind them trails Liam, Oli's ex-best-friend and sometimes love interest, who wants to apologize for the way things went down. All four are grappling with a world that cannot be changed ... and simply trying to find their place in it\"-- Amazon.com.
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