Introduction: Toronto Authors and Books Set in the City I Call Home
Reading books set in Toronto is one of my favorite ways to connect with the city I live in. Back in 2013, I completed a Read the World tour, working through books from countries around the globe, but a conversation at Indigo reminded me why local stories matter too.
I was talking with a sales associate about books set in Toronto, and she pointed me toward a few series I had never heard of. That conversation opened up an entire shelf of Toronto crime fiction I still return to today.
Why Local Books Hit Differently
There is something special about reading a scene set in a neighborhood you actually know. I used to live close to Yorkville, so when a character drives down a familiar street or grabs coffee near a corner I recognize, the story feels closer to home.
This is part of why I also read Jamaican authors, since that is where I was born. Reading from where you live and reading from where you come from both build a kind of a literary map of your life.
Ian Hamilton's Ava Lee
Ian Hamilton created Ava Lee, a Chinese Canadian forensic accountant who lives in a stylish apartment in Yorkville. She tracks down large sums of stolen money for a Hong Kong-based partner known as Uncle, and her cases send her across Asia while her home base stays firmly in Toronto.
The series started in 2011 with The Water Rat of Wanchai and has grown to more than a dozen books since. One later title, The King of Shanghai, sends Ava to a city I have visited myself, and matching her world to my own memories added an extra layer to the read.
Ava is also a trained martial artist, which gives the books a physical edge beyond the financial detective work. The combination of Toronto roots and global settings makes this series stand out among Canadian crime fiction.
Howard Shrier's Jonah Geller
Howard Shrier writes the Jonah Geller series, following a Jewish private investigator who runs an agency called World Repairs with his partner Jenn Raudsepp. The name comes from tikkun olam, a Hebrew phrase meaning to repair the world, and it fits a character who keeps getting pulled into cases bigger than himself.
One thing I loved about this series was how each book pulled from current events and news headlines. Boston Cream tackles illegal organ harvesting, High Chicago digs into real estate development corruption, and Miss Montreal takes on Quebec separatism and anti-Semitism, giving the stories weight beyond the usual crime fiction formula.
The series opened with Buffalo Jump in 2008, followed by High Chicago in 2009, and it ran for four books before ending with Miss Montreal in 2013. Shrier is Jewish himself, and he now lives in Toronto after growing up in Montreal.
Reading Jonah drive through the city on routes like the Gardiner Expressway felt familiar in a way that added texture to the story. Knowing the geography made every chase and stakeout easier to picture.
A Few More Toronto Writers Worth Exploring
Robert Rotenberg brings a different angle to Toronto crime fiction, since he is a criminal lawyer by trade. His novels, including Old City Hall and The Guilty Plea, center on courtroom drama and give readers an inside look at how a case moves through the legal system.
Margaret Atwood has set portions of her work in Toronto as well, including Cat's Eye, which follows a painter returning to the city and confronting memories from her childhood there. Her fiction often captures a specific version of Toronto shaped by decades of change.
During my 2013 Read the World tour, I also read Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, one book that has stayed with me long after finishing it. Atwood remains one writer I associate most closely with Toronto, even when her stories reach far beyond the city itself.
Anne Michaels set parts of Fugitive Pieces in Toronto too, weaving the city into a story that moves between continents and generations. Each of these authors offers a different lens on the same streets.
Closing Thoughts
Books set in Toronto give me a way to see my neighborhood through someone else's eyes, and that conversation at Indigo turned into a reading habit that has stuck with me ever since. Whether the story follows a forensic accountant in Yorkville or a lawyer arguing a case downtown, these books remind me why local fiction deserves a spot next to the world literature on my shelf.
Sources
- Ian Hamilton's Ava Lee Series Page
- Howard Shrier, Jonah Geller Series Overview
- Robert Rotenberg Toronto Mystery Series, Nikkei Voice
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