The Door at the End of Everythingby Lynda MonahanPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.99 ISBN 9781998273133 The metaphorical title of Lynda Monahan’s fifth poetry collection, The Door at the End of Everything, is lifted from her long, forthright poem of the same name. The piece is set in a mental health facility, and several of these saturnine new poems—particularly those in the book’s middle section, “Saying the Unsayable Things”—are based on the veteran SK writer, editor and workshop facilitator’s experiences as writer-in-residence at the Victoria Hospital in Prince Albert. I’d bet my snow boots that her facilitation of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Writing For Your Life group, and, much more intimately, personal and familial experience, also inspired these thoughtful poems. As Monahan writes, “there is poetry everywhere,” and bravo to her: she surely finds it. It’s on tattooed wrists that cover scars, the bulimic who “gorges even on [drinking water]”, and in the patient treated with ECT (Electroconvulsive therapy) who says he “returned home/like the dry cleaning/my mind pressed flat/as a pair of black dress pants”. These are plainspoken, powerful poems that speak to truth, hope and resilience, even when a donated coat (“buttons long since missing”)…

The Brand of Brotherhoodby T. D. ZummackPublished by Endless Sky BooksReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.99 ISBN 9781989398784 The Brand of Brotherhood starts off with a literal bang. In the brief first chapter, the Warner family experiences a lifetime of struggle. William Warner moves his wife and two young sons west to Nebraska to forge a better life. But drought, poverty, and illness hit hard. The family will never be the same again. Giving up the unachieved dream of a great life in Nebraska, the Warners – who now number three instead of four – head further west to California. But William doesn’t survive the journey, making orphans of twelve-year-old Colt and ten-year-old Brick. Undeterred, the boys continue the trek to Sacramento as their father had planned to start their new lives.  Jim Borden, a retired gunfighter, takes the boys into his care as they travel westward by train. Borden sets the boys up with a solid, routine life – school, work, home, bed – and they flourish. Until they don’t. Brick turns to the outlaw life while Colt is a law-abiding citizen. Brick becomes a successful stagecoach robber, joining a gang of thieves called The Brotherhood, while Colt becomes a landowner. On…

Ghost Hotelby Arthur SladePublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$14.99 ISBN 9781998273027 Ghost Hotel, the 2nd novel in prolific writer Arthur Slade’s Canadian Chills Series, is a spooky send-up for young readers and—abracadabra—it’s just been re-released. If you’re already a Slade fan, you may remember Ghost Hotel. First published in 2004, Shadowpaw Press Reprise has resurrected it … and lucky you if you have yet to discover it. The tone of this supernatural, middle years’ mystery—featuring junior detective friends “Wart” and Cindy—is light-hearted. Though the youthful leads are wise-crackers and the story’s a hoot, the author’s a serious writer with mad skills: you don’t have over thirty novels published if you’re a dabbler. Disclaimer: I know Arthur Slade. Back in the day, we wrote radio commercials in the same office. I read his first novel, Draugr, when it was still in manuscript form. I attended his wedding. As lovely as these things may be, they don’t matter as far as this review goes, for even if I was inclined to bolster a book on account of a long friendship, there’s no need to here: Slade’s books consistently win awards and fly off the shelves because he is simply…

Return of the Grudstone Ghostsby Arthur SladePublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Michelle Shaw$14.99 ISBN 9781998273003 Moose Jaw is the setting for yet another page-turning adventure. This time there are ghosts, gangsters, a school in peril and, of course, the tunnels of Moose Jaw which lend themselves so well to nail-biting escapades. Return of the Grudstone Ghosts is the first of award-winning author Arthur Slade’s Canadian Chills series to be reprinted by Shadowpaw Press Reprise. The book was originally published by Coteau Books in 2002. The story begins when Daphne’s sixth-grade teacher, Miss Vindez, falls from the belfry of St. Wolcott School. Daphne and her friends Nick and Peach are determined to find out what happened. Why was Miss Vindez shrieking and babbling nonsense words and why, after surviving her fall, did she punch Principal Peterka? The three children discover that St. Wolcott’s is built on the site of another school, Grudstone, which burned down many years before. Daphne, Peach and Nick’s investigations lead them into the tunnels of Moose Jaw and a ghostly tale which they can barely believe. And it’s not over yet. Dark and dastardly things are about to happen and only the three children can stop…

The Downloadedby Robert J. SawyerPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$19.95 ISBN 9781989398999 Robert J. Sawyer is well-known in the science fiction realm. He’s written over two dozen novels and won the sci-fi world’s Big Three: the Hugo, the Nebula, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. His novel, FlashForward, inspired a same-named ABC TV series, and he also scripted the finale of the web series Star Trek Continues. Sawyer’s also a member of the Order of Canada. I don’t ordinarily read science fiction, but I am indeed aware of Robert J. Sawyer. I heard him present at a Saskatchewan Writers Guild conference decades ago, and remember thinking that his brand of sci-fi was something this fan of realistic literary fiction just might enjoy. Fast-forward to the present: I recently read his 2024 novel, The Downloaded, and appreciated how this talented author has created a reality where humans are still basically the same as the ones who currently walk the earth: they have complicated feelings, they make mistakes, they crack jokes. And, in the case of the twenty-four astronauts and thirty-five ex-cons who populate The Downloaded, they also make frequent movie references. The story is relayed through a series…

The Headmastersby Mark MortonPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $26.99 ISBN 9781989398845 Mark Morton has created a fascinating world in The Headmasters. Blue Ring is an interesting place to spend a chunk of time if you are into science-fiction.  The front of this book is so cool – kudos to the cover artist. At first it looks like abstract black and green art but upon closer examination, the top half is a glimpse at the back of a young woman’s head from her shoulders up, her hair in a neat bun. The bottom half is hard to know with certainty but my best guess is that it’s an upside-down view of a creature’s skull. Regardless of what it really is, it’s a beautiful picture and it inspired me to jump straight into The Headmasters.  Unlike my original assumption that ‘Headmasters’ refers to people who are heads of schools, in this book the word refers to hand-sized parasitic entities (for lack of a better word). Headmasters attach to humans, who become their hosts. The Headmasters first made their appearance sixty years before the start of the book, a time when everyone died except for the people at Blue Ring. All remaining humans…

Dollybirdby Anne LazurkoPublished by Shadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Madonna Hamel$24.99 ISBN 9781989398586 Dollybird is one of the few novels I’ve read more than once. I’m thrilled to see it re-released. It is always interesting to see how a second read strikes one after a few years have passed. The first time I read it I was sitting on the edge of my chair, anxious for the future of Moira, a young woman who was forced to leave her home in Newfoundland after becoming pregnant out of wedlock in 1906. A homestead officer finds her a job in Saskatchewan as a live-in housekeeper for a man looking for a “dollybird”. Lazurko’s novel gives us glimpses into the life of a woman compromised by culture, time and place, and by poverty of both means and mercy. Lazurko does it with the word “dollybird”. A dollybird can mean a sweet young thing, but in the day of the novel’s setting, it also meant, ambiguously, a housekeeper and/or a prostitute. The novel looks at how a woman can slide from one role into another, especially when finding herself in an isolated community where she may be the only woman for miles. I remember the…

The Legend of Sarahby Leslie GadallahPublished by Shadowpaw PressReview by Toby A. Welch  $24.95 ISBN 9781989398494 The Legend of Sarah was first published in 1988 under the title Lore Master. It has now been republished in this third edition by Shadowpaw Press Reprise based out of Regina. Myself and anyone else smart enough to grab a copy of The Legend of Sarah will be grateful that it was chosen for republication. A few minor references were changed to make them more up to date but the novel is otherwise unchanged. The Legend of Sarah is as relevant today as it was 35 years ago. The title character is a 14-year-old who lives a rough life. Sarah survives on the streets of the fictional town of Monn, rigorously trying to avoid trouble. A storyteller she regularly encounters weaves formidable tales, unknowingly providing inspiration for Sarah to aim for a better life. But of course things are never simple. She gets caught up in the crossfire of numerous evil and negative forces that aim to muscle their way into her world, trying to pull Sarah to a darker side. Boiled down, she is trapped between two cultures.  Sarah is an interesting character. She is a tenacious young thing, working hard every day…

The Emir’s Falconby Matt HughesPublished by Shadowpaw Press PremiereReview by Toby A. Welch$18.99 ISBN 9781989398319 The Emir’s Falcon is a fascinating story from page one to its gratifying conclusion. It centres around Skyrider, a peregrine falcon that university student Bernie has been tending to at a Canadian Wildlife Service facility. Bernie learns that the Government of Canada has decided to give Skyrider to the son of a Persian Gulf emir as a diplomatic gift. To say Bernie isn’t thrilled with the decision is a massive understatement.  I appreciated that this book was told from three different points of view, keeping things spicy. You have Bernie, the young biologist-in-training who is attempting to save Skyrider from what he sees as a horrific fate. Then there’s petroleum engineering student Nasur, the emir’s son. Rounding out the trio is Rosie, a fascinating Métis woman whose main goal in life seems to be day-to-day survival. As the chapters bounce from one to the others and back again, Hughes does a superb job of telling this unique story from so many angles.  The aspect of this book that I loved most is that we are exposed to aspects of three diverse cultures. There’s the young man…

Backwater Mystic Bluesby Lloyd RatzlaffShadowpaw Press RepriseReview by Shelley A. Leedahl$18.99 ISBN 9781989398609 I somehow missed Backwater Mystic Blues—the contemplative collection of essays by Saskatoon’s Lloyd Ratzlaff—when it was first published in 2006. Shame on me, for I greatly admired Ratzlaff’s earlier book, The Crow Who Tampered With Time, and bought several copies. And shame on me, as—disclaimer—I call this gracious writer a friend. Fortunately, fate’s found a way to deliver Ratzlaff’s second essay collection into my hands these many years later, and like a song you’ve not heard in a long time but, upon listening again, remember how much you enjoyed, I’m so pleased to hear the distinguished yet down-home voice of my old Mennonite friend—a former minister, counsellor and educator—once again. Backwater Mystic Blues has been reborn with Shadowpaw Press Reprise, a press that publishes “New editions of notable, previously published books”. Hurray, that. These cultivated essays are reminiscences of a life lived with intention, but also with abundant questioning (particularly spiritual) and grief (the dissolution of a marriage, career dissatisfaction, deaths). What you’ll also find here is gentleness, nature keenly observed, scholarship, and page-by-page evidence of a human who walks through this world with a generous heart….