Although she’s from London, Ont., Trina Brooks considers herself a “half-northerner,” as all of her family is from Northern Ontario, and she spent many summers here as a kid.
Those summers in Lively, Naughton, Mattawa and Creighton Mine, a former mining community in the Walden area that’s now a ghost town, left an impression on her.
So when it came time to find a story idea for her first novel, Brooks inevitably went back to her childhood vacations in Northern Ontario.
Her first book, a murder mystery called “The Barren Hills of Creighton,” was published November 2023, evoking the place where her mother grew up.
And she’s just come out with the second in her Northern Mystery Series, entitled “A Killing in Copper Cliff.”
Set in 1953, the new book follows OPP Inspector Victor Lapointe, who was also a main character in the first novel, as he is tasked with solving a murder at the Copper Cliff Teacher’s Residence.
He develops an unlikely partnership with Dr. Eleanor Dupuis, the first female psychologist at Sudbury General, who also gets caught up in the investigation, as she treats a witness who has no memory of the crime.
“She's caught between a victim who doesn't want to remember and a detective who needs her to,” Brooks said.
“So for Eleanor, the failure could cost more than just a professional reputation, a life may depend on her patient's fractured memory. And for Victor, catching the killer means untangling secrets and distorted truths before the one person who needs him most slips beyond his reach.”
Writing murder mysteries was an interesting exercise, said Brooks, as you “have to write backwards” to make the plot clear, or things would be “just be too jumbled.”
While these are Brooks’ first books, she’s also variously been an actor, playwright, journalist and medical administrator, so she’s definitely not new to writing. Her past writing experiences have left a mark on her writing style, including brevity and the use of dialogue.
People in this part of the province might find mining towns like Creighton Mine and Copper Cliff quite ordinary, but that’s not so for everyone, which is why Brooks chose to set her novels here.
“I've travelled a bit, and I know when I go some place different, it's exotic to me because it's new,” she said.
“I realized Creighton Mine and Copper Cliff are exotic for people in different places. They find it cool, the rocks and the environment and the way people live, as it's different.”
And even if people around here don’t think our landscape is exotic, Brooks said the people of Greater Sudbury have been very supportive of her work.
“Everybody's been so great, and I think it's exciting for them to see their town represented,” Brooks said.
Brooks also wants to do a third book in her Northern Mystery Series, and she’s leaning toward setting it on Manitoulin Island. “I’ve done two Inco towns, and I think it’s time to branch out a little,” she said. “Plus then I get to spend my summer on Manitoulin.”
As for why she’s set the book in the mid-20th century, the author says she’s a “history buff … I like going back to a time where either I have memory of it, or I have talked to people I know who were in that time. I'm not interested in ancient history. I like the 20th century.”
Both of Brooks’ books are self-published. She said it’s difficult to get published with a traditional publisher, and she likes the more immediate and hands-on nature of publishing her own material.
“I like all aspects of publishing a book,” she said. “I love going to live events. I love talking face to face to people I like. I like the business side just as much as I like the writing side.”
While it seems crazy this is a consideration, Brooks promises that her books are “guaranteed 100-per-cent AI free,” even if it takes her longer to come out with a novel.
She said there have been scandals where careless authors using the technology accidentally published books with AI prompts still in the copy, including one asking for a chapter to be rewritten in the style of a successful author.
“That's just like stealing from other people, because AI's been trained on other people's style and voice,” Brooks said.
If you’d like to pick up a copy of Brooks’ books, her first book is available for order through Amazon and Indigo now, to be followed by her second later this month.
Brooks said “A Killing in Copper Cliff” will also soon be available for purchase in-person at the Sudbury Indigo store.
She was also at the Sudbury Market selling her books this past weekend, combining her trip to Sudbury with her aunt’s 80th birthday party, and plans to return one more time before Christmas.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.