Strange Things Done

By Elle Wild

2017 Arthur Ellis Award, Best First Novel — Winner
A dark and suspenseful noir thriller, set in the Yukon.

As winter closes in and the roads snow over in Dawson City, Yukon, newly arrived journalist Jo Silver investigates the dubious suicide of a local politician and quickly discovers that not everything in the sleepy tourist town is what it seems. Before long, law enforcement begins treating the death as a possible murder and Jo is the prime suspect.

Strange Things Done is a top-notch thriller — a tense and stylish crime novel that explores the double themes of trust and betrayal.

2017 Women in Film “From Our Dark Side" Contest — Winner • 2015 Unhanged Arthur Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel — Winner • 2014 Telegraph/Harvill Secker Crime Competition — Shortlisted • 2014 Southwest Writers Annual Novel Writing Contest — Silver Winner • 2014 Criminal Lines Crime-Writing Competition — Shortlisted • 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award — Longlisted

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dundurn
• Release date: Sep 24, 2016
• ISBN: 9781459733817

Elle Wild

Elle Wild grew up in a dark, rambling farmhouse in the wilds of Canada where there was nothing to do but read Edgar Allan Poe and watch PBS mysteries. She is an award-winning short filmmaker and the former host of Wide Awake on CBC Radio One. Her debut novel, Strange Things Done, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel. Wild lives on an island in the Salish Sea.

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Reviews for Strange Things Done

[booksgaloreca · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I really enjoyed the book! It was a suspenseful story with great characters and kept me engrossed until the end. A recommended read.

[cathygeha · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn for the copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.Set in Dawson, Canada with freeze ready to set in a murder takes place. Jo Silver, new editor for the Daily, sets out to write a story she hopes will put her back on the map in a bigger town at some point in the future. The town is filled with potentially interesting characters that could provide the basis for a series. I have to say that Jo seemed to lack common sense at times and was not as likable as some heroines I have met in the past. I wanted to sit her down and help her make wiser choices. I had trouble figuring out why she made the decisions she made related to men, the dangerous way she pursued her investigation and the things she shared with others. Cariboo appealed to me but he did not get much time on the page and Byrne was not my cup of tea though he seemed to be just what Jo was drawn to. The writing was well done, characters developed in a way that I felt I knew them and yet I felt as if there were threads left loose and not tied up neatly and that is why I wondered if this was a stand-alone book or the beginning of a series. If this is a stand-alone book then it should have had those threads neatly tied up. I wondered why the murders really happened. I wondered if perhaps more people were involved than were caught. I wondered about the Surrey Strangler and the tie-in to this story. And I wondered what decision Jo will make about her future and what she will do when winter ends. I guess leaving me wondering could be a good thing BUT not if this was a stand-alone book and not a series in the making.

[eyes92c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Raw and gripping mystery in the Canadian far north.Journalist Jo Silver has a history--of doubt and death. Fleeing a story she'd been following in Vancouver that went horribly wrong, Jo heads north to the Yukon and Dawson's Creek--a town where mining and history walk hand in hand.Only, Jo finds herself once more embroiled in a series of murders that shake her to the core. What to do? Report on it or not? The tourist season is closing down and then only the Dawsonites remain. Once that happens there's no way in or out. Why aren't the Mounties (RCMP) letting the residents know that there's a killer in their midst. Jo's past crowds her out and paralysis her actions. Bowed down by self doubt about the killings and about her own behaviour Jo wonders who to confide in. There's Sally her housemate, dancer at the local bar, Christopher Bryne the handsome woodsman, and RCMP Sergeant Johnnie Cariboo the local law and order. If that's not enough Jo seems to be continually stumbling over the bodies and into related situations. None of this is helped by not being able to remember a single thing after leaving the bar with Bryne when Jo first arrives and a suicide victim is found.I really enjoyed this mystery. It unravels and reveals at a slapping pace, opening up vistas of isolated communities, exposes people's behaviours, superstitions and fears, all the while reflecting the dark days of winter coming!A NetGalley ARC

[vesper1931 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Winter has arrived in Dawson City, Yukon and Jo Silver, sacked from her previous post, is the new editor of the Dawson Daily. As the newcomer Jo is the talk of the town and within a few days a body is found, a possible suicide, and Jo becomes suspicious of everybody, but she becomes the prime suspect.
The more I read the more I become involved in the story and characters, as it drew me in, though Jo did make some bad decisions.
A NetGalley Book

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Jo Silver takes the job as editor of the newspaper in Dawson City as an escape from what she consider her failure to warn young women in Vancouver about a serial killer. Almost immediately she becomes involved in a murder investigation when the local MLA is found dead in the Yukon River. She also spends her first night with a local man who had connections to the dead woman and it seems with most of the women in town. Then she meets the local RCMP Sergeant and while they conflict they are also attracted to one another.As the bodies start to add up, all seem connected to Jo in that she has recently spoke to the deseased or she discovers the bodies to the point she is a suspect and even spends a night in jail. Sometimes the credibility of the plot is stretched by some of Jo's actions which anyone who is new to a place would not have done. Breaking into homes, stealing mail and going through someone's desk seemed a little extreme but did move the plot. I did enjoy the descriptions of living in winter isolated Dawson City.