We are beyond thrilled to be welcoming many time award-winning author, Anthony Bidulka to our blog to talk to us about his compulsively readable and utterly absorbing new mystery thriller, Home Fires Burn (Stonehouse Publishing, June 1, 2025). Anthony is a Canadian legend of the mystery thriller genre who writes from places and perspectives that you don’t often see represented on the page.
Welcome Anthony to our Power Q & A to tell us about his new book!
Home Fires Burn by Anthony Bidulka, published by Stonehouse Publishing.
Q: When so many mystery novels are set in global metropolis, tell us about the importance to you as an author of setting your book in a smaller city in Saskatchewan.
A: Even as a young boy growing up on a small family farm in rural Saskatchewan I knew I wanted to write. And I had a lot of ideas. What I didn’t have was an answer to the question: Why do I write? In my case it took decades to come up with the concise answer I have today. My WHY is this: I write to tell stories about underrepresented people and underrepresented places in a way that is accessible and entertaining.
Part of the reason for this is that growing up and even as a young adult, I rarely saw myself or my place or my community reflected in mainstream fiction. But when I did, it was mind-blowing, and felt important. Representation is important. As I came to define what was important to me as a writer this was top of mind.
From a purely practical side of things, finding a way to distinguish yourself in a very competitive industry is not a bad thing. With my first series I was able to factually claim that my protagonist, Russell Quant, was the first and only wine-swilling, wise-cracking, world-travelling, ex-cop, ex-farm boy, gay, rookie Canadian prairie private eye. With my current trilogy, I can describe my heroine Merry Bell as the first and only kick-butt, Canadian prairie, transgender P.I. To be able to do so sets me apart as a writer, is pretty cool, and serves my WHY perfectly.
ABOUT HOME FIRES BURN:
From the author of Crime Writers of Canada Best Crime Novel, Going to Beautiful, comes the final, standalone book of the Merry Bell trilogy. A celebrated philanthropist is found slumped against his car, frozen to death. Trans private investigator Merry Bell is hired by his son, country music star Evan Whatley, to find out the truth behind what really happened on that desolate stretch of road. As Merry’s investigation uncovers old wounds that never healed, her own are revealed as she confronts her pre-transition past and questions the boundaries of family and friendship.
About Anthony Bidulka:
Anthony Bidulka’s books have been shortlisted for Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, Saskatchewan Book Awards, a ReLit award, and Lambda Literary Awards. Flight of Aquavit was awarded the Lambda Literary Award for Best Men’s Mystery, making Bidulka the first Canadian to win in that category. In 2023, in addition to being shortlisted for a Saskatchewan Book Award and Alberta Book Publishing Award, Going to Beautiful won an Independent Publisher Book Award being named Gold Medalist as the 2023 Canada West Best Overall Fiction novel and was awarded the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence as Canada’s Best Crime Novel for 2023.
See more, including two excerpts from Home Fires Burn, at River Street Writing.