Published in the Miramichi Reader February 21, 2026

https://miramichireader.ca/2026/02/why-i-wrote-this-book-issue-57/

Barbara Emodi, author of Crafting a Cold Case (C&T Publishing, October 2025)

I write cozy mysteries set in Nova Scotia. I try hard to make the characters and setting real and representative. The best compliment any local reader can give me is “Oh your book made me laugh. So true.”

The funny thing though is that most of my readers live outside the country. Europe, the U.S., even Japan and South America. For some reason, my Gasper’s Cove Crafters books have even found readers in Australia and New Zealand. My publisher says the rest of the world thinks Nova Scotia is “exotic.” That appears to be true. This past year, I even heard from Southern Hemisphere readers who wanted more snow.

This got me thinking. The Canadian winter is part of my life story, as it is my characters’. As a result Crafting a Cold Case is about aspects of the season that are normal for us, but unusual for those who don’t live here.

Pipes that freeze. Snowplows. The bread bags my mother put in our boots to keep our feet dry. The girl in high school who had her nylon stockings freeze right into her skin. How we plan trips around the weather report. Anti-freeze in the car. Letting it warm up before we leave the driveway. I had so much material for this book, and I love the idea that some reader in Queensland, Australia, will write to tell me what exciting lives we live here.

And we do. Which is why of all the books in this continuing series, Crafting a Cold Case might just be my favourite.