Author Carson readies for library book signings
Eclectic local writer has two new works out; historical tale and Ottawa River mystery
You know Christmas is just around the corner when the chatter in local coffee shops and doctors’ offices and along the boards at minor hockey games seems evermore to be about books. Local bookstores can feel the crush, online retailers are surely doing double-duty, while local authors and book clubs are sparking in anticipation of new titles ahead. It is a ritual as old as books themselves.
Along those lines, I note that Louise Carson, one of our local scene’s more eclectic authors, recently has come out with two books simultaneously. First comes the novel, Measured, Volume 2 of a trilogy set in Scotland in 1719, entitled The Chronicles of Deasil Widdy.
Volume 1, titled In Which, recently was shortlisted as a finalist in the Young Adult category of the Quebec Writers’ Federation’ Competition. One judge compared it favourably to the rough and ready exploits of Robert Louis Stephenson’s Kidnapped, and even I, Young but hardly youthful, had trouble putting it down.
Set in Scotland, The Chronicles ... is a picaresque novel stacked with thrills and fears and kindness galore as it follows the travels of young Deasil, an orphan who is determined to find his way back to the land of his forebears.
The final volume, Third Circle, brings him home, but not without a struggle. It is scheduled for distribution in the fall of 2020.
And then there were the cats. Carson’s third book in her Maples Mystery series, The Cat Between is now in stores. Once again Carson has managed to slide another suspenseful story up her sleeve, one in which not all participants come out alive.
The Maples Mystery series is nestled in the fictional community of Lovering, a village hovering along the shores of the Ottawa River, and featuring the indefatigable Gerry Coneybear as its main focus. Not long ago Gerry took ownership of the Maples, home to her highly eccentric and now deceased Aunt Maggie, with the stipulation that Gerry would assume responsibility of Maggie’s 19 cats.
It has taken some time, but by now she has come to care for, and love, her unique menagerie.
As Carson notes: “I think Gerry knows the house and cats better in this book and is able to give more of her energy to her work. In Gerry I tried to portray a worker in the arts, like myself, who is ambitious and desires to do a good job, and who is curious enough that she’s unafraid of tackling different genres.”
Indeed, she has even met a young man and there are signs this friendships might bloom into something more. “But,” as the back cover blurb suggests, “when she goes to help an elderly neighbour rescue his cat and a dead body is discovered, she finds herself drawn into a mystery ... a truly cozy mystery.”
And so the challenge begins. Louise Carson will be signing books at the Baie-D’Urfé Library Thursday, Dec. 5, 7:30 p.m.; and at the Pincourt Library, Tuesday, Dec. 17, from 5 to 7 p.m.