Two must-read gritty crime novels

Canadians have a well-cultivated image for being nice, and their public persona certainly backs up that assumption by the world. However, when it comes to crime fiction, Canadian writers can get down and gritty like the best of them. Here are two must-read gritty Canadian crime novels.

Needles by William Deverell

First published in 1979, this was a book very much ahead of its time. It features a lawyer Foster Cobb who is investigating an Asian drug boss who is operating on the streets of Vancouver. However, Cobb himself is locked in a heroin habit he is struggling to shake. While try to bring down the drug trade in the city, he finds himself getting deeper into a seedy underworld of prostitution, murder and drugs.

This gritty novel is a thrilling, tightly-wound mystery which features gut-punching twists and jaw-dropping revelations.

Helpless by Barbara Gowdy

Even in its conception, this is a daring book. Gowdy takes an unconventional approach to crime-writing by telling a story from multiple points of view and challenging the reader to examine their preconceptions. It firstly looks at life through the eyes of a paedophile called Ron who is saving a nine-year-old while battling his own inner-demons. Gowdy also tells the story through the eyes of the girl, whose own life is further complicated by her mother’s relationship with her boyfriend.

What is Ron saving the girl from and how can she put her trust in such a man. A challenging and fearless story plays out in the hands of a master of her craft in this often uncomfortable but utterly compelling novel.

For more gripping Canadian mystery check out the books at www.plottake.com.

How To Track Down a Book Without Knowing its Author or Title

There’s nothing worse than not being able to remember the details you need to track down what you want. If you’re trying to recall the name and title of a book, it can be incredibly frustrating. The good news is that there’s tricks you can try that really work. Here’s how to track down a book without knowing its author or title.

Go With Google

You might not think of using a search engine if you can’t remember the title or the author but sometimes just describing a key phrase can be enough to prompt a response. The more unusual and specific the details are, the better. It can be anything from a quote, a character’s name or just plot info; try entering the words into Google and see what comes up.

Appeal to Social Media

Social media often gets a lot of bad publicity but when used in the right way it can be a powerful tool. If you’re trying to think of the title, appealing to your followers might elicit a response. If you have a lot of followers with diverse interests, you stand the best chance of getting the answer. However, even if you don’t, using a clever hashtag could be enough to get your question found - and answered! - by a wider audience.

Try a Book Forum

You’ll find lots of book forums online, filled with avid readers who are keen on discussing their favorite facts. This could be your best bet at identifying the book in question. Describe what you can remember and hopefully one of your fellow bookworms will recognize the details.

To discover your next adventure between the pages of a book, look no further than www.plottake.com. Head over and check out the great variety of books available online.

Tips for deciding which non-fiction book to pick up

There’s nothing like feeling of getting lost in a great fiction story. It can a form of escapism and help you get away from daily chore of everyday life. However, if you prefer stories more rooted in reality, then you are the sort of person who is always on the lookout for a good non-fiction read.

You may have a specific area of non-fiction you always go for, be it business, history, medical or biographies, but whatever you are into it’s important to remember a few key points when selecting a non-fiction book to read.

What are the author’s credentials?

Ok, so anyone can write a book and when it comes to fiction, you can pretty much make up anything as long as it fits with the story. However, when someone is writing about a real-life topic such as medicine for example, you’ll need to check out their credentials. Are they a doctor or medical professional? Have they studied medicine? You need to know that what you are reading something from a credible source.

Be careful of books that oversell themselves

It can be so tempting to pick up books that make bold claims about revealing huge secrets you didn’t know or giving you the inside scoop on something, but, on the whole, these books usually struggle to live up to their own hype.

Dip your toe in a new topic

You may have your favorite topics, but it does no harm once in a while to get out of your comfort zone. If a non-fiction book is well researched and well written, the subject matter can be made to be interesting to anyone.

You can find many engrossing non-fiction books at www.plottake.com.

The best mystery movies that were once books

Mysteries are something that appeal to people of all ages, so it’s no wonder that mystery books are one of the biggest and best selling genres out there. It also means that there are plenty of good books for movie adaptation. Here is our list of the top mystery movies that were once books.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

The Agatha Christie novel of the same name is one of the most beloved Poirot books, so it should be no surprise that the movie adaptation of the same name is one of the most popular and best mystery movies that used to be books. In December 1935 the Orient Express that Poirot is travelling on gets stuck in deep snow and he must solve the mystery of a murder on the train that happened during the night.

The Big Sleep (1946)

The movie that gave use Bogey and Bacall, The Big Sleep is one of the most complex and wonderful books by Raymond Chandler, and the movie adaption gives the book the perfect treatment. Detective Philip Marlowe is a private eye that is hired by a rich family to solve a seemingly simple case, but it is much more complicated than it first seems.

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

The 1930 detective novel by Dashiell Hammett is a classic detective book and movie that cannot exclude from any best of list in the mystery book and movie genres. Spade and Archer are detectives in San Francisco, but one night Miles is found dead, Spade is left in the middle of a world of murder for the sake of a statue – the Maltese Falcon.

To find out more about the best mystery book to movie adaptations, visit www.plottake.com where you can find the best from the mystery genre.