By Dan Lalande
Throughout the four books that have established her reputation, Ottawa’s Katie Tallo obligatorily asked Who did it? Now, she’s posing a no less familiar, no less intriguing question: Which will win?
The combatants inferred in that inquiry are familiar: the forces of good and evil. They entangle with one another yet again in Tallo’s latest novel, Where Her Secrets Lie.
Katie, a local media veteran, transitioned to mystery writing in 2020. Her initial effort, Dark August, was an instant bestseller, hailed by the New York Times, selected as an Apple Book of the Month and included on the Globe and Mail’s esteemed 100 list. Katie promptly spun the book into a trilogy, following it up with the equally acclaimed additions Poison Lilies and Buried Road.
Her new book, however, marks a number of interesting transitions: from the mystery genre to the crime category, from an established protagonist to an original hero, from a series to a one-off, and from one publisher, HarperCollins, to another: Thomas & Mercer. Might she be, as a consequence of this evolution, transitioning audiences as well?
“This new book is definitely darker and grittier,” the composed but cheeky author affirms. “My new publisher even compared it to the work of Dennis Lehane”—the Boston crime master, for those of you who may be new to the name. “But the central character will definitely appeal to my traditional readership. She’s a 70-year-old woman who’s forced to become a ‘bad-ass granny.’ I’ve spent the past five years talking to a lot of book clubs and I finally thought, ‘Why not reflect those people back to themselves?’”
Her fans were not her only source of inspiration. While Katie, who is close to her 87-year-old mother, denies mom’s direct influence upon the formation of hero Lenny Bird, she concedes her mother’s contribution to some shading. Hence, Katie’s Lenny is a decidedly matriarchal figure but with, as she calls it, “agency”—integrity, sex appeal, and chutzpah. “She isn’t my mom per se,” Katie qualifies, “but a character my mom would definitely like.”
A lot of other people like Lenny, too: her deceased husband’s old co-workers, with whom she shares a beer or two; her grown grandson, whose criminal past casts a shadow over their relationship; her twin great-granddaughters, who re-ignite her maternal instinct. When her grandson’s background becomes her foreground, Lenny is propelled into a mix of introspection and action—or, as the enticing synopsis of the book puts it, “between protecting her private purgatory or breaking free to save the family she loves.”
The story, then, takes place in an edgy underworld even Katie, until she looked into Ottawa’s crime culture, had no idea existed.
“I wanted a 70-year-old taking on something she shouldn’t be,” she explains. “So, I consulted with a police friend in tune with that side of the city. We covered things like plausibility and terminology and procedure. I found out that Ottawa, like most cities, is a lot more dangerous than it appears. He said, ‘There’s nothing, in theory, in your novel that’s not happening in the city.’ That’s good news for a writer, scary news for a citizen.”
A proud Ottawan, Katie has made it a point to capture the colour, rhythm, and history of her favourite haunts within city limits and in outlying areas. As reliable as her settings are, so are her themes. Where Her Secrets Lie may constitute a departure, but fans will find the same ideological slides under Katie’s microscope: place, past, roots, family, and aging.
No doubt they’ll show up in her next one, too, on which she’s already hard at work. She’ll be breaking new ground yet again—this time, literally. The book is set in Central America, a long way from Westboro, The Glebe, and the Ottawa Valley, the turf her work has covered so far. Plus, it might be even more shadowy than Secrets.
“It’s super creepy,” Katie shares giddily. “It’s not that I’m out to scare people. It’s just that I’m finding that kind of thing a hoot to write. Writing is how, as an adult, I play. It’s how I have fun.”
Katie Tallo’s Where Her Secrets Lie will be released in paperback, Kindle, and digital audio by Thomas & Mercer in August.
