Are you the kind of reader who can’t resist solving the mystery before the final page? Then this is the event for you. From cryptic riddles to choose-your-own-adventure clues, Max Nightingale (a.k.a Jonathan Whitelaw) and Bianca Marais reinvent the crime novel by handing the magnifying glass to the reader. In Murder in Tinseltown, Nightingale invites […]
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Venture into deceptively quiet communities where nothing – and no one – is quite what they seem with these masterful literary mysteries. Booker-nominated Graeme Macrae Burnet’s A Case of Matricide is the final instalment of his trilogy, featuring Chief Inspector Gorski. As Gorski investigates an elderly woman’s fears that her son plans to kill her, […]
Step behind the filters and façades of online celebrity with two electrifying thrillers that expose the lethal consequences of living someone else’s life. Award-winning Scottish writer, Denise Mina’s Conviction, sees Anna recovering from a devastating breakup and immersing herself in the world of a true crime podcast, only to discover she knows one of the […]
Scott Payne risked everything to take down America’s most dangerous white supremacist groups, living undercover as “Pale Horse” inside The Base—a violent neo-Nazi network. A decorated agent dubbed the “Hillbilly Donnie Brasco,” Payne takes readers along with him on some of the most terrifying and riskiest assignments in FBI history. He went deep undercover with […]
Two authors, two continents, and one unflinching look at how crime reshapes lives – and stories. Argentinian forensic expert and crime novelist Gastón Intelisano brings his real-world experience in autopsy rooms and criminal investigations to the page in the Santiago Soler detective series. Canadian writer and academic Ji Hong Sayo, in his haunting debut Angelhunting, […]
Could your neighbour be a killer? Bestselling Canadian author Shari Lapena invites you to play detective as she dissects her latest psychological stunner, What Have You Done? When Diana Brewer’s body is discovered in a Vermont hayfield, no one in Fairhill is above suspicion – and everyone has secrets. In this gripping tale of small-town […]
From luxury liners to Toronto’s underbelly, two of Canada’s finest mystery authors return to the MOTIVE stage to take us on journeys back into the past. With The Silent Film Star Murders, Melodie Campbell’s glamorous and gleeful high-seas mystery, theatrical rivalries, silver screen scandals and one extremely suspicious snake set the stage for murder. Lady […]
Behind every great detective story is a world of detail—procedures followed, mistakes made, truths uncovered. In this panel, three insiders explore how real-life law enforcement experience shapes the crime fiction we read. Argentinian forensic scientist and novelist Gastón Intelisano brings the lab to the page in his Santiago Soler mysteries. Des Ryan, a retired Toronto […]
Ready or not, here she comes! New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger, crowned the “queen of thrillers” makes her MOTIVE debut and invites you into the terrifying world of Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten. Step into Adele’s shoes as she fights to outsmart both human competitors and nature’s fury to make it […]
The chilling world of Nordic Noir has captivated readers and audiences in recent years with stark, atmospheric landscapes and deeply complex characters that define the genre. The novels of acclaimed Norwegian authors, Thomas Enger and Órjan Karlsson, are excellent examples: flawed investigators, chilling protagonists, haunting disappearances and unsettling secrets which leave the reader questioning the […]
What happens when survival comes at the cost of those you love? Join bestselling thriller queen Hannah Mary McKinnon and former First Lady of Iceland and dazzling author, Eliza Reid as they pull back the curtain on two gripping tales of betrayal, ambition and murder. From a snowbound cabin with a doomed rock band in […]
Cold-blooded. Untouchable. Unravelled. Yves “Apache” Trudeau was a legend among killers – an assassin for the Hells Angels whose brutal efficiency made him a weapon for hire across Montreal’s warring underworlds. But when a failed hit sent him into rehab, Trudeau shocked the country by turning informant, only to bring chaos to the courts with […]
Uzma Jalaluddin‘s hugely popular romance novels have won many hearts. Now she turns to crime and introduces Detective Aunty, the first in a new cozy detective series that sees Kausar, newly widowed, returning to Toronto to help her daughter, who is suspected of murder. Jonathan Whitelaw returns to MOTIVE with the fourth instalment of his […]
In quiet towns and wide open spaces, danger waits just below the surface in two atmospheric thrillers. In Broken Fields, Marcie R. Rendon returns to 1970s Minnesota, where Cash Blackbear finds herself drawn into the mystery of a murdered farmer, a missing couple and a terrified child. As she races to uncover the truth, she […]
Hard-boiled or cool-headed? World-weary or quietly relentless? Why do these archetypes of the classic detective still shape contemporary crime fiction? In this compelling conversation, two titans of Tartan Noir examine the influence of two iconic figures from the golden age of mystery: Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret. Denise Mina returned to […]
From small-town secrets to icy psychological thrillers, Canadian crime fiction has carved out a distinctive identity—one that is both globally resonant and unmistakably homegrown. In this wide-ranging conversation, join our panel, including international bestseller Shari Lapena and veteran Globe and Mail crime critic Margaret Cannon in conversation with Steven Beattie as they dig into what […]
Fresh from contesting Canada Reads 2025, MOTIVE festival favourite Linwood Barclay invites you to journey off familiar tracks and into uncharted territory with his chilling supernatural thriller, Whistle. This haunting tale centres on a mother and son whose fresh start in a small town derails into terror when they discover a mysterious train set with […]
Step into the upper crust of high society in 1930’s England with “A Murder Most Proper”, an Immersive Murder Mystery where the only thing more scandalous than a sudden death could be the impropriety of it all. The funeral of Margaret Elwood, a young London socialite, soon unravels into an evening of scandal, secrets, and […]
Join two authors who prove that murder can be a laughing matter and that true crime and true love don’t always mix. All served with tea, coffee and a slice of cake! In No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding, Catherine Mack returns with her bestselling author-turned-amateur-sleuth Eleanor Dash to a glamorous island […]
Could you keep a deadly secret for twenty years? Would you know the truth if it stared you in the face? We are delighted to welcome acclaimed British author Jane Corry as she deconstructs her riveting psychological thriller, I Died on A Tuesday, where three different stories collide around one shocking crime two decades after […]
Delve into two bold, atmospheric, and quietly haunting thrillers that explore the slippery line between performance and identity, where trust is a luxury and evil wears many faces. In The Hype Beast, Adnan Khan brings us into the gritty life of Hamid Shaikh, a low-level scammer who stumbles into the orbit of a charismatic former […]
True crime has long fascinated readers and audiences—not just for the who and the how, but for what these stories reveal about power, prejudice, and the societies that produce them. In this gripping opening night event, three remarkable storytellers dissect the scandals, injustices, and dark psychology at the heart of their work, and explore why […]
Two compelling narratives, one fact, one fiction, explore deception, ambition, and the fragile boundaries between authenticity and illusion in the rarefied worlds of art and fashion. In The Devil Wears Rothko, acclaimed filmmaker and author Barry Avrich tells the true story of the stunning $80 million forgery scandal that brought down one of New York’s […]
