Sea Trial: Sailing After My Father is a non-fiction book
about sailing around Vancouver Island -- a very
challenging circumnavigation -- while trying to
get to the bottom of a medical-legal case that
changed my family's life. It's part adventure, part
memoir, a simultaneous telling of two great
stories. Now in final editing and production at
ECW Press.
Tokyo Girl is the second Frank Ryan mystery for
Orca Book Publishers. In Tokyo Girl, Frank turns
a holiday in Tokyo into an open-ended stay when
he lands a lucrative gig in a jazz bar, with a sideline providing
piano lessons. But the owner of the bar turns out to a senior
member of the Japanese Mafia. When Frank is befriended by an
attractive woman who has a score to settle with his new boss,
Frank is suddenly way over his head in the Japanese underworld.
By the time the risks outweigh the benefits,
Frank finds himself -- literally -- about to
"swim with the fishes."
Kirkus Reviews said, "this little prose
poem is as pellucid and finely
wrought as a haiku."
Beethoven's Tenth is the first in a series
for Orca Book Publishers. It introduces
Frank Ryan, a piano tuner who gets drawn
into a struggle for the long-lost original
manuscript of what looks like the sequel to Beethoven's '"last"
symphony. There are murders canine and human, abductions,
double-crosses and close encounters of the septic kind, all in a
fast, ninety-minute read. Frank survives to reappear in Tokyo
Girl.
SHORTLISTED FOR 2016 ARTHUR ELLIS AWARD
(BEST NOVELLA)
Reviews of Beethoven's Tenth:
"Scientist Harvey (The End of the River, 2008, ECW) provides all
the ingredients of a novel a lot shorter than a Beethoven
symphony: one crime, one mystery, one threat to the hero's life,
one near-death situation, one twist at the end. The perfect gift for
mystery fans with short attention spans." Kirkus Reviews.
"A tiny paperback with a surprisingly appealing content. A
mystery with a fabulous, fresh sense of humor. Brian Harvey
(scientist and writer) started with non-fiction (it says here in the
book), and I am glad to see that he tried his hand at fiction - for
he is very, very good at it, judging by this little mystery. . . the
lighthearted and witty tone of it totally won me over (maybe even
more so than the plot). There is a certain charm in a self-
deprecating, a little goofy, but definitely smart and decent
protagonist. I shall certainly look forward to the next Frank Ryan
mystery." Library Thing
"Harvey has created a believable character in Frank Ryan. The
circumstances that he finds himself in become very complicated
very quickly. As an unlikely detective, Ryan escapes his attacker
and manages to outsmart everyone, even the detectives. Rather
than create a simple plot, Harvey writes a story that has many
twists and turns. Beethoven's Tenth is not a simple story, but a
page-turner that requires close attention to detail. A quick read."
CM Magazine
"Frank is on the run and becomes trapped in one of the most
original prisons any author has invented. The book ends with a
very unexpected O Henry kind of twist.
Brian Harvey has written a fast paced, very
original and well plotted book which is an
excellent addition to this excellent Rapid
Reads series." Library Thing
Gone Grizzly is a comic thriller set in the
Canadian Rockies. Take endangered grizzly
bears, a sketchy environmentalist and a
suicidal Russian chopper pilot with a dart
gun. Add some stolen genes, an unusually
tall Japanese tour guide who’s anything but shy, and a Native clan
who aren’t amused when outsiders start messing with their
heritage. You’ve got the makings of Gone Grizzly, an
environmental thriller about the race to
save the planet’s genetic heritage before
it falls into the wrong hands. Gone
Grizzly is a fast-paced trip behind the
scenes of the conservation “business”, by
Zodiac, helicopter, seaplane and stolen
SUV. Behind the black humor and
stunning locations is a story about
technology gone wrong – and an unlikely
heroine who may be a tour guide but
she’s definitely not just along for the ride.
The End of the River (2008) was my first trade book. It is
published by ECW Press.
The End of the River made the Globe and Mail's list of TOP
100 BOOKS OF 2009. This annual selection represents the
"best and most influential books of the year", published in Canada
and the U.S.
The Globe and Mail said:
"Harvey has. . . a fascination and deftness with language and its
effects, and with the memorable luminescence of a story well
told."
"The End of the River is a brilliant and instructive book, alive with
the author's seditious intelligence, his inner compulsions and
restlessness, the lot of which are wedded to his literal journey in a
way that recalls the travel writing of one of Harvey's heroes, Sir
Richard Burton, who during the mid-1800s explored the Sao
Francisco River that so obsesses Harvey today."
"The book is founded on the author's lifelong fascination with
fish, an attraction that began in the "bottle room" of the British
Columbia Provincial Museum when Harvey was a child, and
eventually extended to fish and fishing cultures as far away as
Japan, the Philippines and South America. Harvey's book sweeps
across continents and oceans, taking us to hand-wringing
conservation conferences in Europe, to his home river — the
Fraser — in British Columbia, to the fish hatcheries and markets
of the Far East — visiting in the process seedy Thai hotels,
Amazonian outposts and Brazil's raucous Carnaval."
More praise for The End of the River
“A wonderful and engaging read with a samba beat, on the plight
of the planet's living waters. A great way to open peoples' eyes."
Brian Harvey is that rare fish, a scientist who can write.” —Dr.
Thomas Lovejoy, founder of the Public TV program “Nature”
“Provides a new way to appreciate the aquatic life we so
voraciously consume.” —J.B. MacKinnon, author of “Dead Man
in Paradise” and “The Hundred Mile Diet”
“Harvey may have created a new literary genre – science travel
writing.” —Quill and Quire.
