New Releases by Allan Stratton

One misunderstood teen. One eccentric granny. One missing uncle. A coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of one family''s secrets. Zoe''s straitlaced and narrow-minded parents don''t understand her -- they are shocked by her swearing and believe that she''s a bad girl. They also want to put Zoe''s Granny in a seniors home, despite Zoe''s objections. Sure, Granny has become a bit odd and her memory is spotty, but she''s outspoken and funny, and Zoe loves her. Granny still mourns her favourite son, Teddy, who was also a troublemaker, and who died before Zoe was born. Or did he? After a series of disastrous incidents, including a school suspension and a near-death experience, Zoe decides to liberate herself and her grandmother from their respective prisons, taking them on an unforgettable journey to Toronto, where Zoe learns the truth about her uncle and discovers strengths of her own that just might help her find a way back home. From award-winning storyteller Allan Stratton comes a moving story of unresolved family conflicts, and a young girl''s awakening to the things that matter most.

Now in paperback--the internationally acclaimed psychological thriller from Governor General''s Award nominee Allan Stratton. Cameron and his mom have been on the run for five years. His father is hunting them--or at least that''s what Cameron''s been told. When they settle into an isolated farmhouse, Cameron soon finds himself embroiled in the unsolved mystery of a woman and child who disappeared decades ago, and he starts to hear and see things that just aren''t possible. What''s hiding in the night? What''s buried in the past? Are there dark secrets to uncover, or is Cameron''s own mind playing tricks on him? In The Dogs, acclaimed author Allan Stratton manages to deliver at once a page-turning thriller and a powerful exploration of the realities of domestic violence and its after-effects.

Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award 2015 — Nominated Faith healers, movie moguls, and social-climbing fraudsters collide in Depression-era Los Angeles It’s the Great Depression and Mary Mabel McTavish is suicidal. A drudge at the Bentwhistle Academy for Young Ladies (aka Wealthy Juvenile Delinquents), she is at London General Hospital when little Timmy Beeford is carried into emergency and pronounced dead. He was electrocuted at an evangelical road show when the metal cross on top of the revival tent was struck by lightning. Believing she’s guided by her late mother, Mary Mabel lays on hands. Timmy promptly returns to life. William Randolph Hearst gets wind of the story and soon the Miracle Maid is rocketing from the Canadian backwoods to ’30s Hollywood. Jack Warner, J. Edgar Hoover, and the Rockettes round out a cast of Ponzi promoters, Bolshevik hoboes, and double-dealing social climbers in a fast-paced tale that satirizes the religious right, media manipulation, celebrity, and greed.

An exhilarating fairytale adventure from the author of the Governor General''s Award nominated The Grave Robber''s Apprentice. The Dream Witch haunts the forest beyond the kingdom of Bellumen, waiting to collect on a horrible debt owed by the king and queen — the heart of their only daughter, Princess Olivia. Until she has it, none of the kingdom''s children are safe. As Olivia''s thirteenth birthday approaches and the witch''s deadline draws near, her desperate mother seeks help from Prince Leo of neighbouring Pretonia. But the treacherous prince seizes their castle instead, determined to marry Olivia and take over the kingdom. So Olivia makes a daring escape from the castle, two friends by her side: the peasant boy Milo and a curious talking mouse with a surprising past. Together, the friends face certain danger and fantastical adversaries to save their families and rescue a kingdom.

Hans doesn''t know who he is or where he came from. When he was a baby, he washed ashore in a wooden box and was adopted by the conniving grave robber, Knobbe the Bent. Now fate has thrown him together with Angela von Schwanenberg, a young countess fleeing for her life from the evil Archduke Arnulf and his dreaded Necromancer. Together, these friends are on a daring quest to discover Hans'' true identity and to save Angela''s parents from the archduke. Join Hans and Angela on their grand adventure as they ride through the depths of the great forest, sled down a mountain in a coffin, and sneak along the secret passageways of the archduke''s palace. The Grave Robber''s Apprentice is a world of highwaymen, hermits, and dancing bears; and of a boy separated from his family by the sea. In this world anything is possible with luck and imagination—even for a grave robber''s apprentice.

Despite the strained relationship between them, teenaged Sami Sabiri risks his life to uncover the truth when his father is implicated in a terrorist plot.

Leslie can’t seem to avoid trouble, whether it’s at school or at home. Just as life seems at its lowest, Jason McCready, the exceedingly cool new guy at school, enters her life. Now Leslie is the envy of all the girls. But Jason’s appearance is deceiving –he is determined to control every aspect of Leslie’s life and he begins terrorizing her in unimaginable ways. When a substitute teacher reads the private English-class journal in which Leslie reveals Jason’s abuse, Leslie is suddenly forced into hard choices and terrifying action to take back her life.

Chanda Kabelo, a teenaged African girl, must save her younger siblings after they are kidnapped and forced to serve as child soldiers in General Mandiki''s rebel army.

This is the powerful story of one girl''s struggle for survival amid the African HIV/AIDS pandemic; a story of harsh realities and hard-won hopefulness, leavened with humour and the possibility of change. No one can read this and remain untouched.;

Edgar Beamish dies, leaving his corporate empire to his estranged son, Junior, who launches a charitable foundation with company assets. Disaster ensues; bankruptcy appears certain. But Junior has a fundraising inspiration, The Phoenix Lottery. It offers its winner instant fame and fortune: the chance to torch a prized van Gogh at a live event, and to sell the story to TV, tabloids and Hollywood. Junior has an ally in performance artist Lydia Spark. But powerful enemies include the slippery Vatican envoy Cardinal Wichita, the ghost of Junior''s father - and the spirit of van Gogh himself. An exploration of art, commerce, and untidy family relationships, The Phoenix Lottery is a grand comedy told with outrageous wit, and a keen eye for the masks with which society maintains the fiction of a moral world. Book jacket.