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Keith's Books



Keith Weaver's books are published by Iguana Books. Keith is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada. Here are some readers' comments.




An Uncompromising Place     ↑

Richard Gould is looking forward to his retirement, to spending at least part of his time in the heritage home he has renovated in a quiet village in Ontario, and particularly to his major project – bringing a ruin back to its former glory as a flour mill. The discovery of two old books hidden in the ruin promise to add extra spice to this project, until he is drawn into events that are at first odd, then ominous, and all too soon lethal. Inexorably, Gould is carried deeper into a dangerous web and finally to a murderous encounter near the historic German city of Heidelberg.

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Le monde envoûtant des vieux livres    ↑

La retraite...

Des années d’or? Un temps de repos? Pour lire? Voyager?

Dans Un endroit sans compromis, Richard Gould récemment retraité, découvre une vie toute à fait différente. Au lieu de ces activités typiques de la retraite, Gould, l’homme qui a perdu sa femme à cause d'un conducteur ivre, l’homme qui n’a jamais grandi, passe à une nouvelle étape de sa vie. Il quitte Toronto, achète un vieux moulin en ruines et commence à le rénover. En même temps, il adopte la vie tranquille d’un village ontarien.

Du moins, c’est ce qu’il a prévu.

La découverte de deux livres anciens, une mort complètement inattendue, des mouchards dans sa maison, un cambriolage interrompu, et d’autres situations sinistres, convainquent Gould qu’un danger mortel plane sur lui. Déterminé à découvrir la cause de cette situation, et de se débarrasser des nuages menaçants qui ont envahi sa vie, Gould voyage en Allemagne où il se trouve nez à nez avec son ennemi impitoyable.

Un endroit sans compromis entraîne le lecteur dans une énigme complexe, ayant sa source dans des événements historiques, s’étendant des centaines d’années dans le passé, et qui se réveillent en ce XXIe siècle. Gould se voit aspiré dans un labyrinthe qui franchit le temps et les continents. Un endroit sans compromis est au fond l’histoire d’une lutte déclenchée par l’avarice, et qui se termine par un châtiment aussi inattendue qu'irrévocable.

Keith Weaver, un ingénieur à la retraite, habite à Toronto. Jean Forest, également un ingénieur à la retraite, habite à Bécancour.

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The Recipe Cops    ↑

It's been a rocky couple of weeks for Jim Sanford. He's had to deal with two life-changing deaths – first his mother, and then the man who combined father image and best friend since his boyhood. Sanford travels back to his hometown, Stanley Falls, deep in rural Ontario to deal with his friend's estate.

But what he finds does not seem normal. He uncovers a side of his friend that is new and unknown. From beyond the grave he is led to a coded message, numbered files, and a dead body. His ex-wife, back in Toronto, is attacked and killed.

Worst of all, his own identity comes into question. He no longer understands who he is.

A thin thread, offering a faint hope to resolve the mystery, pulls him to Europe, leading Sanford and his young daughter to new connections and a dangerous confrontation.

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Balsam Sirens    ↑

For Mark Whelan, Private Investigator, it all begins in a sombre but entirely unremarkable way: a visit to the morgue to provide moral support to a client as he formally identifies his brother. But Whelan's interest is piqued by a link between the victim's death and Whelan's own youth and by signs that the death is the result of something darker than the "accident" being suggested by the police. The appearance of a mysterious message from the dead man, the discovery that his apartment has been burgled, and an attempt on Whelan's life prove that something else, something very valuable, is in play. Then the bodies begin to pile up.

Balsam Sirens tells the story of a private investigator who takes on a case that appears routine, but who is soon swept to the edge of a psychological abyss by the abduction of his wife. Whelan, a PI colleague, and an unlikely ally – a fearless bush pilot called Kate – drive the action forward to a gun battle and a surprising outcome.

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Mr Drumlin's Orchard    ↑

A young boy and his friends accept their carefree village life as a given. In addition to their world of bicycles, swimming, fishing, exploring, and general horsing around, the boy becomes interested in his family's vegetable garden.

Years later, he recalls many events in his youth, but one of them stands out: his illicit visit one day to Mr. Drumlin's orchard, where he is invited to take away as much fruit and vegetables as he wishes.

Mr. Drumlin is one village eccentric among several, but when the mature man nearing retirement, the man who was once that young boy, receives an invitation to pay another visit to Mr. Drumlin's orchard, it takes some time for him to decide. Leave the near perfect boyhood memory intact, or make a return visit, to do – what?

There are pros and cons, and he ponders for some time. But eventually, he makes a decision, and that decision leads to a chain of events revealing to him a face of his world that is very unexpected.

Or is it?

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Walking with Albert    ↑

Written over a period of three years and across a range of styles and formats, Walking with Albert is Keith Weaver's first short story compilation. These stories range from micro-narratives of a few pages in length to what could be called miniature novellas. Weaver's stories cover vast thematic territory, taking the reader from high-level discussions of Big Physics to the tiniest mysteries of the human heart. One story concerns a young man's unrealised expectation of winning a Fields Medal, while others explore the joys and challenges of life in the country, past and present. Probing, experimental, often funny, and occasionally political, this collection presents the darkly fanciful situation of a cat that defies anti-Semitism from the past, and another story about a death on a golf course. Weaver's imagination ranges across the human and animal worlds and extends to the world of things. In one story, two starkly mismatched men find something in common on a summer morning, while another story concerns itself with a pair of toast tongs. Taken together, these works of short fiction represent a bold new direction in a body of work that includes three novels, a novella, and works of nonfiction.

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Sicilian Refuge     ↑

Ryan Chandler, a successful but apathetic student, drops out of university and is soon leading a rudderless existence. Living at home, working a dead-end part-time job, but deeply dissatisfied, he accepts a rare opportunity to pursue his own research project. Soon installed in the German city of Karlsruhe, Ryan throws himself into his project, studying aspects of the first-ever international scientific meeting and focussing on the contributions to that meeting made by one of the delegates, a man who ultimately becomes a famous Italian chemist.

Aspects of his project gradually draw Ryan's interest toward Italian unification, the Risorgimento, and some of the charismatic characters involved in that struggle. But he is also attracted to a 160-year-old mystery, and it soon becomes clear that he is not the only one interested. Ryan has stumbled across something treacherous, with unknown depths. A dark violence begins to engulf Ryan's friends, his family, and himself. In Rome, hints appear as to the nature of that violence, which reveals itself in Sicily and follows him back to Karlsruhe.

Sicilian Refuge weaves past and present together in a story of personal growth, loss, and retribution.

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Rolls     ↑

Toronto restauranteur and bookshop owner Henry Royce devotes most of his time and energy to running his quirky store and perfecting its collection of rare and used books. But when a body turns up in Crime Fiction and a semi-rare book titled Stylus of Death mysteriously disappears from the stacks near the victim, Royce is suddenly catapulted into the action-packed world of police and private investigators.

As Royce launches his own probe into the events surrounding his bookstore, he enlists the help of private eye Dan Fairley, whose training includes a stint in an elite wing of the Canadian armed forces. When the missing book unexpectedly finds its way back to the shop and a gangland execution comes to light, Royce and Fairley begin to hone in on a menacing figure who may be masterminding all of this activity according to an unknown agenda.

An historical treasure hunt reminiscent of the novels of Reginald Hill and Umberto Eco, Rolls combines humour, mystery, and intrigue, all woven into an intricate plot that takes in the history of the Seven Years War, a cast of colourful characters from Toronto and Halifax, and a budding connection between the loner bookshop owner and the PI who helps him unravel the mysteries surrounding his shop.

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Fool's Cap and Other Stories     ↑

What might happen when one tries to move a railway station? Do you know where Jericho is? Can someone become rich based on knowledge of an obsolete size of paper? Ever had nightmares about a pitcher plant?

In Fool's Cap and Other Stories, readers will travel to Italy, France, Germany, England, Nova Scotia, and other parts of Canada. There's a story about road hockey, two old friends discovering things over a cup of coffee, an event that leads a shadowy figure to change his life, an odd pair of vigilantes, and even a man with a coin in his mouth.

From darkness and personal discovery to whimsy and just plain absurdity, Keith Weaver's second collection of short stories will delight readers yet again.

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