I am a mystery fan, so I am delighted to say that my sister, Ellen Wild, just won the 2015 Arthur Ellis Award for the best unpublished first crime novel in Canada. What is surprising is that this is the same prize that my mother, Phyllis Smallman, won during the very first year that the prize was awarded. Apart from that, the two novels are dramatically different. My mother’s Sherri Travis series is set on the West Coast of Florida, while Ellen set her debut novel, Strange Things Done, in the Yukon. After reading the list of prize winners, I am planning to add many of these books to my summer reading list, while I also look forward to celebrating the publication of Strange Things Done.
Shawn Smallman, Portland State University