• Reading age: 16 to 18

Louise Bingham, recently widowed in her mid-sixties, decides to “play the tape backwards” and move from Victoria to Montreal, returning to the city of her birth and youth. Newly installed in a downtown co-op, she has to fend off a well-meaning but officious cousin, an overbearing neighbour, and a former lover while making discoveries about her son by a former marriage. In coping, she discovers that Montreal is not the Emerald City.

Queen’s Court is vintage Edward O. Phillips, a good companion on a cold night or a sunny day at the cottage.

Edward O. Phillips is the author of many short stories and ten previous novels, of which A Voyage on Sunday is the most recent. Best known for his Sunday mysteries, Phillips also writes the occasional chocolate box novel, which takes the form of a comedy of manners. He has won the Arthur Ellis Award (for Buried on Sunday and Sunday's Child) and is a natural, one day, to receive the Leacock medallion for humour. Edward lives in Montreal, where he was born and where he grew up.

Edward O. Phillips' profile page

“Wonderfully witty and captivatingly clever writing … Time and time again I found myself breaking into a grin, nodding at the cleverness of a turn of phrase or passage, at the insight into human nature … Queen’s Court is funny … the kind of book you can’t wait to share.”

The Whig-Standard

"Phillips offers diversions, good humour, some entertaining scenes, a few pungent apercus and a sideways glance at the human condition."

The Globe and Mail