Author: alison_admin

Signature Editions, 2014

Short-listed for the Michael Van Rooy Award for genre fiction (2016)
Short-listed for the Margaret Laurence award for fiction (2015)

In the spring of 1964 troubled teenager Cookie Blue dies in the Red River. Cookie’s younger brother, Danny holds Miss Hartley, her despised gym teacher, responsible.

Blue Vengeance follows Danny through a Winnipeg summer and fall, as he secretly plots to kill her with a well-chosen stone and a slingshot.

Janine Sénécal, a girl who had been Cookie’s friend, and who harbours her share of secrets, insinuates herself into his plans as his accomplice.

The connection between Danny and Janine is complicated by his growing love for her, and her fascination with an older boy, Rock Sand, who has his own secret that links him to their deadly scheme.

Danny’s father is long gone, and his mother suffers from debilitating fatigue and pain – symptoms of fibrositis. In some ways their roles are reversed as he takes over the meal-making and other chores. But the illness and her self-medicated state free Danny from certain restraints traditionally put upon a young teenager by a parent.

 

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Signature Editions, 2011

Winner of the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction

After leaving the Winnipeg Police force, former Inspector Frank Foote has gone into home renovations. Tearing down a wall in his Norwood Flats neighbourhood, he and his partner come across the skeleton of a young female. They alert the police, but Frank doesn’t tell them about the photograph he found with the remains. He may be retired, but his investigative instincts are intact. On the trail to uncover the girl’s identity Frank is drawn back into the past and into the world of the unusual Mrs. Mortimer, who’d lived nearby. She’d had a short-lived business in the 1960’s taking photographs of the recently deceased for their families. Frank finds himself hoping that she isn’t involved.

But what are the odds?

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Alison Preston is becoming one of Canada’s consistently good crime writers. The Girl in the Wall, her fifth novel, is as funny and smart as the last four, but it takes plotting to a new high.”

– Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

 

No one else in the country’s mystery community comes close to matching Preston’s combination of humour and creepiness.”

– Jack Batten, Whodunit Columnist, Toronto Star

 

Preston moves you swiftly through this tantalizing tale with crisp dialogue and good plot twists.”

– Dave Williamson, Winnipeg Free Press

 

…lucid, succinct prose…an absorbing story…”

– Bev Sandell Greenberg, Prairie Fire Review of Books

 

…an irresistible treat. The story-telling feels real. The integration of the setting, the action and dialogue spin a tale that grabs hold.”

– Don Graves, The Hamilton Spectator

 

…Mrs. Mortimer is a fascinating character, portrayed with sensitivity and care.”

– Shirley Byers, Prairie Books NOW

Signature Editions, 2007

Shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher 

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]n a spring morning in 1925 Sunny Palmer is kidnapped in broad daylight from her baby carriage in Picardy’s restaurant in downtown Winnipeg. Despite a police dragnet and a handsome reward offer, months pass with no word, and eventually the search is called off. But eleven years later, the appearance of two drifters suddenly reopens the case.

The story takes place in the Norwood Flats section of Winnipeg, the same setting as Preston’s previous novels. This time, though, the action takes place mostly in the Depression year 1936, and we meet the grandfather and father of Frank Foote, the detective who has played a pivotal role in Preston’s previous books.

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Preston’s forte is the homely drama, and Sunny Dreams is perfect. She is a dab hand with setting, and her Norwood Flats neighbourhood, full of engaging characters and lots of secrets, is very well done.”

– Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

 

…a rare treat. Preston manages to find the perfect balance in this novel: she gives us enough detail for the reader to picture the setting, yet she doesn’t overwhelm us with it. Straight-forward yet interesting, Sunny Dreams is an enjoyable and provocative read.” 

– Kathleen Gallagher, The Uniter

Signature Editions, 2004

Shortlisted for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award
Shortlisted for the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award

On a summer afternoon in 1954 a four-year-old girl, Cherry Ring, bites her baby brother Pete on the cheek. Hard. He needs a skin graft to repair the damage and is scarred for life. Cherry knows what she has done is wrong and she really is sorry. But sorry isn’t good enough. The bite marks the beginning of a troubled relationship between the two that lasts a lifetime.

Her brother completely ignores her, and Cherry can’t find her way into her mother’s affections either. Her father is the only one who seems able to love her. When Cherry is in university her mother moves away, taking Pete with her. She finally starts to feel as though her life is going somewhere.

But in the summer of 1995 disturbing incidents begin to occur, and she realizes she has not managed to leave her past behind. She enlists the help of Inspector Frank Foote, who lives in her Norwood Flats neighbourhood, and whom readers will recognize from Preston’s previous books.

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…excellent family-history plot and plenty of atmosphere.”

– Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

 

Preston has given an irresistible voice to a completely believable character…”

– Dave Williamson, Prairie Fire Review of Books

 

…a skillfully executed post-modern masterpiece…” 

– Julie Horbal, The Projector

Signature Editions, 2002

A letter carrier named Beryl Kyte, out for a walk on a beautiful spring morning, trips over a body in the woods of a park near her home. The dead woman has mushrooms sprouting in her mouth. A badly shaken Beryl is questioned and escorted home by the police. Soon another body turns up and then another. As she follows the horrific details in the Winnipeg Free Press Beryl thinks she sees a pattern emerging. She hadn’t been of much help to the police in the case of the first dead woman – she’d only tripped over the body – but when strange events begin happening around her own home, she wishes they, especially Frank Foote, the cop from her neighbourhood, could be of some help to her.

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…a solid, well-plotted mystery – the clues…good enough for Poe – with a lively setting and interesting characters.”

– Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

 

…an intriguing cast of characters, a convincingly evil serial killer and some really strong dialogue. It’s fresh and original. Preston manages to disturb the reader, but she also makes you laugh. Some of the dialogue…is hilarious.”

– Amy Steele, Straight

 

Preston can be gruesome and sexy and light-hearted by turns,… …the pace is quickened by…authentic dialogue. …a concise and appealing page-turner.”

– Dave Williamson, Prairie Fire Review of Books

 

Preston makes Beryl’s workaday world come to vivid life. Her dialogue is smart and genuine, her prose has real snap, and she peppers the book with local detail that awakens our eyes to the quiet beauties of our city.”

– Uptown Magazine

Signature Editions, 2000

Frank Foote’s quiet neighbourhood is greening into summer when a dead baby is discovered in his neighbour’s rain barrel. Frank is a cop, and he’s seen a lot of crime scenes, but this one is a little too close to home.

Meanwhile, Gus Olsen, who made the gruesome discovery, is worried about a mysterious woman who has been cruising the neighbourhood in her Lincoln Town Car. He’s been meaning to talk to Frank about her, but there never seems to be a chance. Frank has his hands full, taking care of his three children while their mother dries out in a treatment centre.

He is a good father, he tries to be a good husband, and he hopes he is a good cop, but Frank has old secrets that he is ashamed of. When Ivy Grace resurfaces after a long absence, one thing is certain: before this summer ends, Frank will have to confront his past.

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Alison Preston’s novel is a compelling exploration of the power of secrets in our lives. Her finely drawn characters reveal a writer who is as compassionate as she is sharp-sighted. Down-to-earth, insightful and beautifully written…”

– Gail Bowen

 

Preston’s treatment of the psychology in this book is superb. She asks the reader to think…”

– Jill M. Smith, Prairie Fire Magazine

 

…this story shows real talent.”

– Margaret Cannon, The Globe and Mail

 

…a compelling read.”

– Kerry Ryan, Herizons

Turnstone Press, 1997

When Kenneth spots maggots feeding in a dumpster behind a 7-Eleven, he knows a crime has been committed. Why, and by whom are the questions unravelled through changes of season and setting in A Blue and Golden Year.

The story alternates between a Canadian prairie city and a coastal town in Mexico. In Canada, tightly wound Audrey Laird wants to change her disastrous relationship with Lillian, her ne’er-do-well sister. She is also interested that her old flame, Detective Frank Foote, has checked his wife into rehab. Lillian is concerned with the whereabouts of her drug-dealing boyfriend, Iggy. A corpse has been discovered in his apartment and it isn’t his.

In Mexico, Iris, the love of Iggy’s life, runs the Pink Lady bar, where she tries to ignore the antics of Honey, her cocktail waitress. Above it all, in his house on the hill is wealthy, evil Ernest, Iris’s business partner and keeper of Honey. How many people want this man dead? In the search for answers, not everyone survives.

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Alison Preston is a stylist who brings a deft touch to this first novel.… gritty, off-beat story… with brilliant imagery…”

– Verne Clemence, Saskatoon Star Phoenix

 

The sensational plot is counterpointed by an atmosphere of quirky but entirely believable dailiness… The mixture of horror and despair with a cautious recognition of the possibilities for happiness based on small victories defines the tone of this unusual and off-beat book.”

– Paul Denham, Newest Review