Once a little fort on the prairie, Edmonton is Alberta's vibrant capital city, notable for its extensive river valley park system and notorious for its expansive mall. Behind these familiar local features are secrets that will surprise even long-time residents.

Edmonton: Secrets of the City is a city guide with a twist, with the inside scoop on the best places to dine, shop, and hang out, along with the obscure, trivial, and even macabre stories behind local legends and landmarks. At some time or another, the River City has seen it all, from hometown celebrities like Leslie Nielsen and Paul Gross, to homegrown oddities like traffic circles and crop circles, to ghosts that go bump and clop-clop in the night. Call it a Klondike city, a City of Champions, or a City of Festivals, Edmonton is as eclectic as its bizarre, unpredictable weather. Like a visit to the Legislature to view Purple City, Edmonton: Secrets of the City will forever change the cityscape for both visitors and locals.

Two-colour throughout, Edmonton: Secrets of the City includes numerous contemporary and historical photographs.

Charlene Rooke lived in the Edmonton area for 21 years before making tentative forays to Toronto and Calgary. A graduate of the University of Alberta, she began collecting obscure, trivial, and profane Edmonton anecdotes while an editor at the University of Alberta alumni magazine in the 1990s. Her writing has appeared in Realm, Financial Post, and Calgary magazines and she is active in the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association and the Western Magazine Awards. The former editor of enRoute magazine, she is currently editor-in-chief of Western Living magazine in Vancouver.

Charlene Rooke's profile page

"To get off the beaten path, check out The Unknown City and Secrets of the City guides. . . which offer insider anecdotes and esoteric tidbits."

Homemakers

". . . these guides will come in handy if you want an alternative to the usual walking tour of the city."

InsideOut Travel