Snake Oil and Other Tales

Snake Oil and Other Tales is the second collection of short stories by author M.H. Callway. These dark tales include strange guardians, mysterious bakeries, faithful dogs and yes, the slithery reptiles that strike fear in even the toughest bro's heart. Many were finalists for the Crime Writers of Canada Awards for Excellence. They stretch from traditional mysteries to thrillers to speculative fiction and even to horror. What unites them are the characters struggling for justice-or their own warped perception thereof.

Danny Bluestone and Corazon Amorsolo, the protagonists of Callway's debut novel, Windigo Fire, return in the thriller, Last Island. And Dr. Benjamin Amdur, the hero of Amdur's Cat, has a second adventure in Amdur's Ghost, a finalist for the 2023 CWC Best Novella Award.

"M. H. Callway is a writer to watch." - Margaret Cannon, Crime Fiction Reviewer, The Globe and Mail.

M. H. Callway's crime fiction has won or been short-listed for several leading awards including the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence, the Debut Dagger and the Derringer. Her thriller, Windigo Fire (Seraphim Editions), was a finalist for the CWC Best First Novel Award. In 2013, she and Donna Carrick of Carrick Publishing co-founded the Mesdames and Messieurs of Mayhem, a collective of established Canadian crime writers. They are the subject of the critically acclaimed CBC documentary, The Mesdames of Mayhem, which you may view on CBC GEM or YouTube.

"Not only is M. H. Callway a very fine writer, her work encompasses an admirable range. From the terrifying Snake Oil to the haunting Amdur's Ghost, the stories and novellas in this collection will keep you enthralled from start to finish. -Lisa De Nikolits, Award-winning novelist of The Rage Room and Everything You Dream is Real.

"... a wide-ranging collection of atmospheric, entertaining stories filled with eccentric characters and bizarrely believable situations, from the experienced hand of a master storyteller."-Jayne Barnard, Award-winning author of crime, speculative fiction and children's literature. The Falls mysteries and the Maddie Hatter Adventure Series.