THE MAN FROM BEIJING By Henning Mankell, translated by Laurie Thompson, Vintage Canada, 454 pages, $21
In this standalone novel (i.e., not a Kurt Wallander), Mankell starts out with an entire village slaughtered in the distant north of Sweden. Judge Birgitta Roslin, whose grandparents are among the victims, follows the mystery from China to Africa and 19th-century United States.
THE WINTER VAULT By Anne Michaels, Emblem, 336 pages, $17.99
The story begins in 1964, with a Canadian couple living in a houseboat on the Nile River, where he is an engineer helping to move the temple of Abu Simbel above the rising waters south of the Aswan Dam. A tragedy takes them back to Toronto, where they separate, until the woman finds new love with a Polish refugee artist.
THE MEN OF THE LAST FRONTIER By Grey Owl, Dundurn, 289 pages, $26.99
Pioneering conservationist Grey Owl (né Englishman Archie Belaney) published this, his first book, in 1931. It is part memoir and part history of the Canadian wilderness, and a collection of animal and native tales and lore, and a passionate argument for the protection of the natural environment.
BEES: Nature's Little Wonders By Candace Savage, GreyStone, 127 pages, $19.95
Savage, one of Canada's best nature writers, presents a history of honey and the insects who have provided it for humans over thousands of years, as well as an overview of the worrisome decline of bee populations around the world.
DIE WITH ME OUR LADY OF PAIN By Elena Forbes, Spiderline, 438 and 459 pages, respectively, $11.99
Reprints of Forbes's first two police procedurals starring London homicide detective Mark Tartaglia. Die With Me opens with the death of a 14-year-old girl, an apparent suicide. Our Lady of Pain's victim is a London art dealer whose body is found in a park, bound and posed in a strange, symbolic way.