Anne Emery won the 2019 Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Crime Novel, for Though the Heavens Fall. In 2023, Fenian Street was a finalist for the Award of Excellence for Best Traditional Mystery. She won the 2007 Award for Best First Crime Novel, for Sign of the Cross. (The CWC's awards were formerly called the Arthur Ellis Awards.) She also won a Silver Medal in the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards (international competition), and the 2011 Dartmouth Book Award for Fiction, both for Children in the Morning.
Anne was born in Halifax, NS and grew up in Moncton, NB. She is a graduate of St. F.X. University and Dalhousie Law School. She has worked as a lawyer, legal affairs reporter and researcher. Anne lives in Halifax, and travels frequently to Ireland and other favourite destinations.
Photo Credit: Mick Quinn / mqphoto.com
She is the author of fourteen novels. Thirteen of the books are members of the Collins-Burke Mystery Series: Sign of the Cross (2006), Obit (2007), Barrington Street Blues (2008), Cecilian Vespers (2009), Children in the Morning (2010), Death at Christy Burke’s (2011), Blood on a Saint (2013), Ruined Abbey (2015), Lament for Bonnie (2016), Though the Heavens Fall (2018), Postmark Berlin (2020), Fenian Street (2022), and Counted Among the Dead (2024). The twelfth book is a standalone historical mystery, The Keening: A Mystery of Gaelic Ireland (2021).
Counted Among the Dead (2024): Burke and Collins are terrific characters, and they work very well together, but the book's third main character is the city in which the story is set: Halifax, Nova Scotia, which Emery brings vividly to life as a place full of hidden corners and dark secrets. She really is a fine writer; not just a good storyteller but a stylist as well: every word of her prose feels carefully chosen for the way it interacts with the words around it. A fine entry in a wonderful series. - David Pitt, Booklist
Fenian Street, 2022: IT'S A TEN FROM ME! seriously though this meander through the history of Ireland is so well detailed and researched you’d feel you were immersed in it yourself. While it’s most definitely a thriller, it’s a thriller with heart. The journey through young Shay’s life from growing up in the poverty of the corpos right through to joining the garda, every tiny detail is perfect and it was a joy to watch the making of the man so to speak. Father Brennan is written so well, I’m sure I’ve confessed my sins to him at some point. The narration deserves huge applause as it was beautifully done. Again I can’t express how beautifully written and researched this is covering the troubles of the times with a real heart and firm question marks on the British involvement in Ireland and the north. I wonder was the author there?! - Jo Lee, NetGalley
"Postmark Berlin cements Anne Emery's position among the top half-dozen crime writers in Canada." - Ottawa Review of Books
"A master at creating a sense of place, and developing characters.” – Library Journal (Starred Review)
To hear Anne's interview with Shelagh Rogers on CBC's The Next Chapter, click here (MP3 download).
Lament for Bonnie: Reviewers have called the book "an engaging mystery" and "irresistible" (Publishers Weekly), "a fine mystery with terrific characters and a solid plot, an irresistible read" (Globe & Mail) and referred to its "soaring narrative arc" (Celtic Life International).
Ruined Abbey: "Troubles thriller bloody brilliant." - Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Presss
"One of Canada's finest novelists" - Jim Napier, Ottawa Review of Books. "One of the best of Canada's new group of crime authors" - Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
Ruined Abbey: "Winning mystery stands on its own. Readers . . . will want to grab a pint and pull up a stool next to any of the Burke clan." - Karen Keefe, Booklist Starred Review
"Eighth novel in the excellent Father Brennan Burke series ... a really tightly plotted historical with solid characters and the elegant style we expect from Emery." - Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail.
Fenian Street. Brilliant Halifax author Anne Emery has produced an absolute gem of a murder mystery in Fenian Street. - Nick Martin, Winnipeg Free Press
The latest novel in my Collins-Burke mystery series, Counted Among the Dead, is now available.
Author Wendy Hawkin says that Fenian Street is "historical crime fiction at its finest."
Publishers Weekly calls Fenian Street a "gripping mystery" and says "Adrian McKinty fans will want to check this out."
Anne's latest book, Fenian Street, was a finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence for Best Traditional Mystery. To hear a wonderful reading of the story by Dublin-born actor Ashley O'Connell, click on the book cover image, and find the links just below the summary.
