J.E. Barnard

Nov 2022 30

The Mesdames of Mayhem’s Fifth Anthology, In the Spirit of 13

2022 Articles, Mysteryrat's Maze

by Linda Lovely

Ten years ago in Toronto, two separate writing critique groups came together to form the Mesdames of Mayhem, the brainchild of Madeleine Harris-Callway and Donna Carrick, with the purpose of pooling their talent and promoting the work of women authors. Originally, there were thirteen writers in total, all women, so naturally their first anthology was called Thirteen. Since then, they’ve grown to twenty-four authors stretched across Canada – and they now include three Messieurs.

Crime Wave 2: Women of a Certain Age, A Canada West Anthology

2022 Articles, Kathleen Costa, Mysteryrat's Maze

by Kathleen Costa

What do you do when again a gaggle of Canadian Sisters in Crime write the perfect mystery short the public has to read to believe? You put “em in a book, call it Crime Wave 2, and release it in time for the Halloween season. These sixteen authors have run the gambit with their work from poignant to extreme with protagonists that illustrate perfectly women of a certain age, temperament, relationship status, and mental stability along with varying their motivations from righting a wrong to balancing the scales to wielding a bit of comeuppance.