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Murder on the Canadian
WHEN IT COMES TO POPULAR FICTION, young readers come to Eric Wilson of Victoria, currently touted as Canada's bestselling author for juveniles.
As a B.C. teacher he began to write for reluctant readers with Murder on the Canadian in 1976. His fourteen books since then include The lost Treasure of Casa Loma, Vampires of Ottawa, The Unmasking of 'Ksan (set in B.C. near his boyhood Kitimat haunts), The Green Gables Detectives (40,000 sold) and most recently Code Red at the Supermall. While incorporating social issues such as the destruction of forests, disabled children, terrorism and Minimata disease, his books about a brother and sister team of young sleuths from Winnipeg, Tom and Liz Austen, have well researched settings in provinces across, the country.
"When I wrote the first Tom Austen book," says Wilson, son of a retired RCMP detective, "I more or less modeled Tom on myself. "In fact, I remember when I was 12 I used to go downtown on Saturday afternoons and pick out suspicious looking strangers and follow them around, in the hopes that a crime would be committed and I could solve the crime and be a hero." An avid promoter, Wilson frequently appears in schools and has attracted thousands of readers to his Eric Wilson Mystery Club.
To promote his most recent title, a treasure hunt was held at the West Edmonton Mall with 200 kids receiving clue sheets that led to prize certificates for copies of Code Red at the Supermall.
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
As a B.C. teacher he began to write for reluctant readers with Murder on the Canadian in 1976. His fourteen books since then include The lost Treasure of Casa Loma, Vampires of Ottawa, The Unmasking of 'Ksan (set in B.C. near his boyhood Kitimat haunts), The Green Gables Detectives (40,000 sold) and most recently Code Red at the Supermall. While incorporating social issues such as the destruction of forests, disabled children, terrorism and Minimata disease, his books about a brother and sister team of young sleuths from Winnipeg, Tom and Liz Austen, have well researched settings in provinces across, the country.
"When I wrote the first Tom Austen book," says Wilson, son of a retired RCMP detective, "I more or less modeled Tom on myself. "In fact, I remember when I was 12 I used to go downtown on Saturday afternoons and pick out suspicious looking strangers and follow them around, in the hopes that a crime would be committed and I could solve the crime and be a hero." An avid promoter, Wilson frequently appears in schools and has attracted thousands of readers to his Eric Wilson Mystery Club.
To promote his most recent title, a treasure hunt was held at the West Edmonton Mall with 200 kids receiving clue sheets that led to prize certificates for copies of Code Red at the Supermall.
[Summer/BCBW 1989]
Submitted on February 5, 2004 in By David.
