The First Two Pages: “The Canadians” by Mary Keenan

In April 2015, B.K. Stevens debuted the blog series “The First Two Pages,” hosting craft essays by short story writers and novelists analyzing the openings of their own work. The series continued until just after her death in August 2017, and the full archive of those essays can be found at Bonnie’s website. In November 2017, the blog series relocated to my website, and the archive of this second stage of the series can be found here.

Bouchercon month continues—and with it, this blog’s celebration of the new Bouchercon anthology, Killin’ Time in San Diego, edited by Holly West and featuring a great range of contributors: Kathleen L. Asay, Jennifer Berg, C.W. Blackwell, Wesley Browne, Anne-Marie Campbell, L.H. Dillman, John M. Floyd, Kim Keeline, Mary Keenan, Emilya Naymark, Richie Narvaez, Kathy A. Norris, J.R. Sanders, James Thorpe, Tim P. Walker, Victoria Weisfeld, and Désirée Zamorano. Last week, The First Two Pages hosted Emilya Naymark reflecting on her story “Girl of Gold,” and this week, Mary Keenan discusses “The Canadians”—part of a year-long challenge she posed herself in 2021 (and good news, the challenge paid off here).

If 2021 was a challenge year, this latest year has been a rewarding one. Keenan’s traditional mystery Snowed was longlisted for the 2023 Debut Dagger Award from The Crime Writers’ Association in the UK and won Crime Writers of Canada’s 2023 award for Best Unpublished Mystery—nice accolades, needless to say! You can check out her short fiction in various spots, not only in the new Bouchercon anthology but in other collections as well: “He’s No Gary Cooper” in the Sisters in Crime Los Angeles anthology Entertainment to Die For, for example, and “Mamma’s Girl” in Blood on the Holly: An Anthology of Christmas Mysteries from the Crime Writers of Canada, among others.

Check out more about Keenan and her work at her website here, and stay tuned for essays by more contributors to Killin’ Time in San Diego in the weeks leading up to Bouchercon itself.

Please use the arrows and controls at the bottom of the embedded PDF to navigate through the essay. You can also download the essay to read off-line.