12 must-read Canadian mysteries, thrillers and books about crime

If you're looking for a good crime read this summer, look no further. Here are 12 great Canadian reads to check out this summer.

Cold Skies by Thomas King

Thomas King returns to mysteries with Cold Skies, the third DreadfulWater mystery. Thumps DreadfulWater is finally retired and living a quiet life in a small town. But when a body turns up, the sheriff department turns to DreafulWater for help, and even though he'd rather stay out of it, he finds himself immersed in something bigger than he could have ever imagined.

• Thomas King on why humour and tragedy are inseparable

Find You in the Dark by Nathan Ripley

This thriller by Naben Ruthnum, under his pen name of Nathan Ripley, delivers this tale of afamily man obsessed with digging up the undiscovered remains of a serial killer's victims, catchingthe attention of a murderer on the streets of Seattle.

• Nathan Ripley on the highs and lows that came with writing his debut novel

Human Remains by Melissa Yi

When Dr. Hope Szedecided to spend a month doing research at a stem cell lab in Ottawa, she expectedto have a quiet and productive month. But that all changes when she discovers a dead body in the snow. And this man's death is just the first of many. Hope must figure out what is happening and who is responsible, before it's too late.

• Now is not the time for silence on violence against women, say crime novelists

Hysteria by Elisabeth de Mariaffi

Hysteria,a psychological thriller byElisabeth deMariaffi,followsa young German woman, Heike Lerner, who escapesDresden and the perils of the Second World War and finds herself in the 1950s living in Upstate New York with a husbandand four-year-old son. But the eerinessof heridyllic life becomes hard to ignorewhen a mysteriouslittle girl appears one afternoon at the pond and vanishes just as quickly and things take a turn for the worsewhen her son disappears.

• Elisabeth de Mariaffi on the importance of giving herself the space to write

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

When Nora Watts receives a phone call informing her that the daughter she putup for adoption has gone missing, she decides to go and search for the teen girl.As Nora embarks on a harrowing journey of deception and violence,she will face her most terrifying demon, all to save a girl she wishes had never been born.

• Jael Richardson recommends The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal

The Party by Robyn Harding

A low-key sweet 16 party for a teenage girl trying to improve her social standing in high school goes catastrophically wrong and causes the unravelling of a wealthy San Francisco family. Aptly titledThe Party, the domestic thrillerexamines how one event can drastically change the course of your life.

• The surprising lessonRobyn Harding learned from writing her last novel

The Rule of Stephens by Timothy Taylor

The Rule of Stephens follows a woman, Catherine, who believes that the world is rational, and that even the weirdest coincidences can usually be explained. After she survives a terrifying plane clash, some strange things start happening to her. A doppelgnger a woman who looks just like her shows up, and Catherine struggles to find a rational explanation.

• Timothy Taylor's new novel explores the limits of science and rationality

Run, Hide, Repeat by Pauline Dakin

Pauline Dakinspent her childhood living on the run with no explanation. Twice, without any notice, her mother moved her and her brother across the country, wrenching them from their daily lives.One day, Dakin finally learned why:they were running from the Mafia and had been since Dakin was little. But years later, Dakinlearned another startling secret: that wasn't true at all and her entire childhood was built on a lie. Dakinchronicles this unbelievable story in her memoirRun, Hide, Repeat.

• This author believed her family was fleeing the Mafia. Then she uncovered the real story

Sister of Mine by LauriePetrou

In Laurie Petrou's debut thriller, two sisters have a lot of secrets. Terrible ones. And these secrets keep them together even as they drive them apart. But what happens when their bond begins to crack, and one sister takes things too far? The manuscript for Sister of Mine won the inauguralHalf the World Global Literati Award, a$50,000 U.S. ($64,575 CDN) literary prize that honours unpublished work featuring women as lead characters.

• Ryerson prof Laurie Petrou wins $50K US literary prize for unpublished thriller Sister of Mine

Still Water by Amy Stuart

In Amy Stuart's latest thriller,Still Water,Clare is dispatched to a mysterious town called High River where women run to escape their pasts. Clare poses as a long-lost friend to resident Sally Proulx, who has gone missing along with her son. While investigating their disappearance, Clare learns that virtually everyone in High River has their secrets, including Malcolm, the man who hired her.

• What's the biggest writing lesson crime writer Amy Stuart ever learned?

The Whisky King by Trevor Cole

The Whisky King tells the remarkable true story one of Canada's most notorious organized crime figures, Rocco Perri. Perri was on of Canada's leading mobsters, and was famous across the country. But then one day, in 1944, Perridisappeared and to this day, no one knows what happened.

• Why book reviews are important to Trevor Cole

The White Angel by John MacLachlan Gray

The White Angelfollows the unsolved death of a Scottish nanny living in Vancouver. Set in the years following the First World War and at theheight of Canada's anti-immigration campaign, Gray put his spin on a real-life cold case.

• How John MacLachlan Gray put his own spin on a real life cold case