Noir novel explores the dark side of Scarborough

Prisoners Of Circumstance: A South Scarborough Story

By Ian J Harvey

Toronto is much like every large city and like every large city, as the cliché goes, it has a million stories.

This is one of them. Part truth. Part fiction.

The places in and around South Scarborough are real, as are the other locales in East Toronto and downtown. You may even recognize some of them. Links below.

As for the characters? They’re all based on real people, compilations of people I’ve met and interacted with in 45 years of living in South Scarborough and working as a reporter, covering crime, justice, technology and finance.

Curious? If crime, noir and mystery are your genre, give it a read. You can buy my book directly if you follow the links at the end here, whether you want an ebook, hard cover or paperback (which is coming as well as an audiobook version).

Yes, this is self published. It’s a trend. Musicians are self publishing these days and the publishing sector is also being squeezed by technology, so it seems a natural progression for writers to also go direct to market. I tried for a year to interest a publisher with no luck, so what do I have to lose? Okay, the review may be not what I’d like but so far the feedback has been positive.

This is a noir crime fiction, a genre focusing on the dark underbelly of urban life and death, with a couple of twists in that there’s a happy ending.

My theory is that a story is made of four main elements, time, place, characters and plot. When and where the story takes place, in the future such as science fiction, in the past as period piece. Then there’s a specific place, a country or city which again colours the narrative. Next the key characters who drive the story along as they bear the burden of the plot, the conflicts, the author places upon them, the latter being the fourth element.

So this story takes place in south Scarborough, not long ago. Place matters because houses, homes, neighbourhoods are what make up a city. They say Toronto is a city of neighbourhoods but ultimately so is every city. London, Paris, New York, Boston or anywhere. Every city has neighborhoods which have unique characteristics. In effect, they too are characters in our stories. It all takes place somewhere and where it takes place is often as important as the characters acting out the plot.

My intent is a modern noir novel, updating the genre. I think fiction should take you somewhere unfamiliar.

Paradoxically, it should also be familiar, with a twist. You may never visit South Scarborough. If you have already been here then next time you pass through you might think differently about the places, buildings and people too. And if you live here, or have lived here, you may find it all strangely familiar.

That’s not to say South Scarborough is crime ridden. Like any community, however, scratch the surface and you will find a dark underbelly to give you pause to realize not everything is as it appears to be.

It is a story of redemption against dark emotional forces, the unraveling of a murder of a beloved local variety storekeeper and the hope that love is the light at the end of that tunnel, because love ultimately conquers all.

|Against that canvas of time and place, it is the characters who drive the story forward: a sober and reformed alcoholic journalist struggling to rebuild his life, a double dealing criminal hustler playing off Greek gangsters and ruthless Albanian drug dealers, a bereaved family seeking justice, the politics of policing and the eternal quest of love.
All of the characters, in their own way, are prisoners of their own circumstance looking for a way to break free.

If you do buy this book and you have something to say about it, by all means contact Ian Harvey at POC@pitbullmedia.ca. You can also check out the promo video here.

Buy this book directly in the following formats.

From Amazon

Kindle

Hardcover

Other vendors and formats to follow.