Safe as Houses
“Beautifully written, perfectly paced, with delightful characters and just the right amount of mystery and twisty plot.”
—bestselling author Lauren Davis on Goodreads
Liz Ryerson believes that Hillcrest Village, her Toronto neighbourhood, is quaint and quiet, but stumbling over a corpse while walking her dog dissolves that illusion for good. When she realizes that she actually knew the dead man, a real estate broker who appraised the building she co-owns with her philandering ex-husband, she becomes obsessed with solving the crime. The more instability is revealed in her life, the more she needs to find out who killed James Scott – and why.
From the reviews
“It’s great to read a book set in Toronto and Susan Glickman, poet, editor, critic and creative writing professor, does it proud in this debut mystery set in the lovely hidden enclave of Wychwood Park. The story begins with bookstore owner Liz Ryerson walking her dog in the park. Dog smells something, goes to hunt, scratches up a body. Suddenly, we are in whodunit land, with a totally familiar setting which Glickman sketches like a master. Reading along, I was reminded often of the late great Eric Wright’s wonderful cop novels and Jack Batten’s PI stories, both located in Toronto neighbourhoods with people anyone might recognize as types. All that said, the mystery is a good one, with a nice puzzle and a deft, smart woman to sort out the clues. It’s short and fun and well-written and perfect for a rainy afternoon at home. Let’s hope Liz Ryerson returns soon.”
—Margaret Cannon, The Globe & Mail
“Susan Glickman’s Safe as Houses almost fits into the ‘cozy’ category of mysteries, but doesn’t surrender all its teeth in order to provide a soothing read. There are abundant comforts in these pages, though: main character Liz Ryerson is a Toronto bookstore owner who is wise enough to know that having a store dog will lure in customers, and Jasper the mutt features extensively in this book. He’s the one who finds the body that sets Liz on her investigative trail. She’s walking the dog in Toronto’s Hillcrest Village when she discovers the corpse of James Scott, a real-estate broker. It’s a killing that some of the frustrated homebuyers who come by her store aren’t too displeased about.
Liz, wanting to come to grips with something in her life, as she no longer has any hold over the activities of her ex-husband and kids, starts trailing the killer with her new friend, retired professor Max Bertrand. While the book’s a little heavy on backstory at the outset, it soon picks up momentum, and the intermittent chapters that give us a glimpse at the potential killer’s childhood and declining mental state are a good counterbalance to the generally light tone of Liz and Max’s investigative efforts.
I don’t have a cottage, but if I did, this would be an excellent book to read there.”
—Journey Prize winning author Naben Ruthnum in The National Post
“In her recent novel, Safe as Houses, Susan Glickman offers a convincing portrayal of a woman attempting to exert control over her world gone mad. Twists, turns and diversions in the story propel it forward at a satisfying pace. Liz is a likeable character and her relationship with Max is endearing but plausible. For book lovers, Liz’s store, Inside of a Dog, is a charming character unto itself. Still, the story has a dark side and it is in this underbelly Safe as Houses sets itself apart from your predictable, amateur sleuthing story.
Ms Glickman choses to unravel the underlying events in an unexpected and well-considered format: interspersed chapters are skillfully told from the point-of-view of the victim. In this way, Liz’s story and the victim’s unfold in tandem to a satisfying conclusion. Safe as Houses is a well-paced mystery having all the usual ‘suspects’ one expects in that genre. The twist is in the telling. And that, in my opinion, is what sets this book apart from other mysteries on my shelf.”
—Author Deoborah Serravalle, on her blog,
“What is it about bookshops and murder? Glickman’s new novel is a cozy murder mystery about how lives are transformed after the discovery of a body in Toronto’s tony Wychwood Park neighbourhood.
But one of the most delicious parts of the book is the setting: a bookshop owned by Glickman’s protagonist, Liz Ryerson, near Bathurst and St. Clair in downtown Toronto. The shop is called ‘Outside of a Dog,’ from the quote by Harpo Marx (Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend) and also because there is indeed a dog (with whom Liz is out walking when she stumbles across the corpse). And the reader is able to vicariously experience the joy Liz takes in working in her shop. She spends time thoughtfully curating her collection and assembling themed tables, and reading the lists of books within the text was so much fun and an absolute bookish pleasure.”
—Kerry Clare, on The 49th Shelf
“This engaging page-turner kept me surprised and entertained during a flight delay – what better recommendation is there? Seriously, whether or not you’re a mystery fan, Safe As Houses is a great read anywhere. It has so many pleasing components – Liz, a bookish dog-walker turned sleuth when her hound sniffs out a dead body in one of Toronto’s most genteel parks; Sammy, her fractious teenaged kid who can’t cope with her boring mom; Maxime, an elegant French Classics professor and Roman-antiquity quote-dropper. And more. There’s a subplot; Liz’s marriage to Adam is over, and he lives upstairs with his girlfriend in the building that houses her bookstore. He wants out of his investment, provoking enough uncertainty in Liz’s life without a dead body showing up on her morning walk.
The parallel storytelling is very well done and builds suspense. At the outset, we’re introduced to an abused child, a box of matches, an act of arson. His story (noted by a matchbox icon) is interspersed with the numbered chapters of Liz’s narrative, as we gradually realize who the child is and why it matters. In the end, the mystery gets solved, but there’s no tidy ending; it feels both as satisfying and as shadowy as life often feels. In its gentle way, the story keeps reminding us that safety is never certain and life keeps surprising us, even on innocent dog-walks. You’ll enjoy this book.”
—Pushcart nominated and two-time IPPY award-winning author Carole Giangrande on Goodreads
“This mystery novel is set in Toronto, and begins with Liz Ryerson discovering a body while she was out walking her dog, Jasper, in the nearby Wychwood Park. Liz owns a bookstore and has a library degree. She is divorced, but since her ex-husband and her jointly own the building both have their businesses in, he lives on the top floor in his photography studio and she lives on the middle floor with their children, above the bookstore.
When Liz discovers that she had met the victim before, it really hits home, and she starts to have problems sleeping and with her twins in the last year of high school, and her ex looking to sell his share of the house to move his life forward, she has a lot on her plate.
Just before getting to the park, Liz meets a new resident to the neighbourhood while waiting on the corner for the light to change, and when he comes to visit her bookstore, the two begin a friendship. He is a retired classics professor and with their common researching skills, the two decide to research the murder to help put Liz’s mind at rest on that subject at least.
With interesting characters, and local landmarks, this mystery captured my interest and told a good story.”
—Shonna at Canadian Bookworm blog
“Recently I’ve traveled to Iceland, Victorian England, the no-too-distant-future New York City and a small town in Virginia – all without leaving my house. That’s part of the adventure of reading. But sometimes it’s a treat to stay closer to home so I like to pick up a book that takes place in a familiar city and neighborhood. Such was the case with Safe as Houses, set in the Hillcrest Village area of Toronto. Hillcrest Village is a well-established neighborhood of larger homes, high real estate values and few ‘For Sale’ signs. The streets are quiet, tree-lined and the area overlooks the Davenport Escarpment. It has its own little ‘downtown’ with storefront shops and outside seating areas (weather permitting – not always a given in Southern Ontario) for coffee and snacks. It is a neighborhood that can boast of old Toronto style and new Toronto fun.
Ms. Glickman stays true to the personality of the neighborhood in this book and uses the setting very well as the backdrop to her mystery.”
—from Constantly Moving the Bookmark blog
