Erika Chase Books in Order

Erika Chase is the pen name Linda Wiken uses for her Ashton Corners mysteries, and the road to those books runs straight through years of hands-on bookselling. For fifteen years she owned Prime Crime Books in Ottawa, Ontario, a mystery specialty store where she spent her days recommending detectives, matching readers to series, and talking crime fiction with the people who love it most. That kind of job puts you right in the middle of the mystery world.

She learned the genre from both sides of the counter.

Before the novels, Wiken built a working life that sounds a bit like preparation for crime fiction. She worked as an advertising copywriter, a radio producer, a journalist, and a community education worker. She also wrote short fiction, with stories appearing in the seven Ladies' Killing Circle anthologies, three of which she co-edited, as well as in Mysterious Intent and Over My Dead Body.

The short stories got noticed.

Wiken was short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Short Story from Crime Writers of Canada. She also spent more than fifteen years volunteering with the Ottawa Police Service, wrote weekly crime statistics pieces for local community newspapers, and contributed stories to the service's internal newsletter. It gave her a strong interest in police procedure, which helps explain why her cozy mysteries feel friendly without floating away from real-world consequences.

A big turning point came in 2010, when she closed Prime Crime Books. By her own telling, it was a sad moment, but also one full of anticipation. Instead of selling mysteries, she turned more fully to writing them, and in April 2012 she published A Killer Read, the first Ashton Corners Book Club mystery, as Erika Chase.

That book introduced Lizzie Turner and launched a five-book run that continued with Read and Buried, Cover Story, Book Fair and Foul, and Law and Author. A Killer Read was shortlisted for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Readers who click with the Ashton Corners books usually like the same mix Wiken clearly enjoys herself, small-town secrets, book people, clever setups, and amateur sleuthing that stays warm rather than hard-boiled. A guest author visit in Read and Buried and the festival chaos of Book Fair and Foul show how easily she turns everyday bookish scenes into murder plots.

She did not stop with one author name. Writing as Linda Wiken, she moved to food-centered cozies with the Dinner Club mysteries, beginning with Toasting Up Trouble. Writing as Essie Lang, she started the Castle Bookshop mysteries, including Trouble on the Books and Death on the Page. Different settings, same interests, food, bookstores, close communities, and murder arriving where it really should not. Across all three names, she keeps coming back to places where people gather, talk, read, eat, and notice more than they should.

Real book clubs still matter to her, and so does chocolate.

She has spoken to many book clubs over the years, happily recommending authors and series, and she has said her own club puts chocolate on equal footing with the books they read. Away from the page, Wiken describes herself as an avid chorister and a Siamese cat lover. She has lived with two Siamese cats, which feels exactly right for a writer whose worlds are full of books, company, and a little mischief.