Edmond Gagnon is a retired police detective who has become a published author. After his thirty-one year career he took to travelling the world by plane, train, and motorcycle. His musings while traveling abroad became a collection of short stories, and eventually his first book called, A Casual Traveler.
Readers enjoyed Edmond Gagnon’s travel stories, saying he made them feel as if they were there with him, exploring new places. It was the confirmation he needed to continue his writing as a hobby. Also, Edmond keeps up a blog on life and his travels.
Passion for Writing
Discovering his new-found passion for writing, Edmond wanted to share some of the many police situations he’d experienced during all those years working the street. Upon retiring, Edmond Gagnon was told he had more confidential informants than anyone else on the job. That was his inspiration to write Rat, a crime fiction novel that followed his career and interaction with different sources who helped to solve cases.
Story Teller, Author and More
Edmond Gagnon was never a great (verbal) storyteller, but by using his old notebooks and searching his memory, he was able to put pen to paper and describe some of the events and characters he met over the years. There are many things behind the scenes that the public is not aware of, and Edmond thought these crime stories should be told. Because of the sensitive nature of certain events and people involved, he fictionalized the stories and characters. That was the fun part, filling the gaps with his imagination to create great books.
Crime Stories
Rat, Bloody Friday, Torch, Finding Hope, Border City Chronicles, Moon Mask, Trafficking Chen, The Millionaire Murders, Border City Chronicles – Four More are all crime stories inspired by real events and people that Edmond Gagnon encountered during his career in policing. Modeling his main character on himself, he created the Norm Strom and then spinoff Abigail Brown Crime Series‘. The Melaque Murder Club is a fun Murder/Mystery written almost exclusively for old people like the author.
Different Genres
Ed’s first book, A Casual Traveler, is a collection of short travel stories about his adventures around the world. Always looking for new ways to challenge himself, Edmond Gagnon took his writing up a notch by switching genres again, with his paranormal thriller novella called, Four. He blended some of his personal experiences with researched facts and fiction. The book is intended to entertain and test your beliefs at the same time.
Melaque Murder Club
Follow Author Edmond Gagnon and a Group of Retired Seniors staying in a small Mexican Beach Town, wile they try to find out what’s happening to Missing and Murdered Tourists in their quiet little Piece of Paradise.
The Melaque Murder Club was the brainchild of the author’s actual group of Snowbirds that gather on the beach together in Melaque Mexico, enjoying adult beverages and the tropical temperatures the area has to offer.
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Border City Chronicles – Four More
Edmond Gagnon has dug into his police notebooks once again. In the 2nd installment of Border City Chronicles he shares 4 short murder stories, all inspired by real events and characters he experienced during his career with the Windsor Police.
Gone Fishing is about two friends who get attacked while fishing alongside the Detroit River.
The Hadfields & McKays are two west end families involved in an ongoing feud that turns into cold-blooded murder.
Victimless Crime looks into the lives of fraudsters, scammers, and the innocent victims they prey on.
30 Years Cold An investigation begins when human remains are unearthed and found to belong to the missing son of a retired deputy chief.
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The Millionaire Murders
Detective Abigail Brown is back. She earned a solid reputation after hunting down a dangerous serial killer in Moon Mask, but now the Detroit Homicide Detective is challenged in ways she could never imagine, by a new type of serial killer.
Rich and powerful men are being murdered in unthinkable ways, causing shock wave across the State of Michigan. They flaunt their political clout, pressuring police to find and bring the killer to justice immediately. Their demands only impede the ongoing investigations.
Separate killings of rich corporate raiders send the major case unit into overdrive. Each kill is different in method, and in every occurrence, there is no evidence or witnesses. Teams of homicide detectives work their cases diligently, but with little success.
Abigail Brown, a brilliant detective, has her work cut out for her once again. A trained profiler, she is convinced all the murders are the work of one killer. The only clues that back her theory are random numbers left behind at each crime scene.
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Trafficking Chen
Human Trafficking has affected countries across the world for centuries, and continues to do so today. There are countless victims.
Trafficking Chen is the heartfelt story of one victim, Chen, a young Chinese girl taken from her family home in settlement of her father’s outstanding gambling debt. Forced into slave labor by a powerful Chinese Triad, she becomes a servant to the rich.
Chen comes of age, and must serve using her own body to satisfy her master’s sexual appetite. She becomes a prostitute and is shuffled around her own country. Eventually the Triad ships her and others like her, overseas, to Canada. There she is sexually exploited and put to work as an exotic dancer in their chain of strip clubs.
Street Crimes Detective Norm Strom mostly investigates property-related crime, but he receives a tip from a confidential informant about illegal Asian women dancing at a local club. While trying to handle his personal issues, Strom joins a task force investigating possible human trafficking in his city.
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The Moon Mask
300 is the average number in Detroit. The American city usually ranks in the top ten for murders per capita. Recovering from bankruptcy, Detroit’s Mayor put an aggressive plan into action, cleaning up the city and tearing down vacant or derelict properties. Demolition crews undertaking the arduous task, discover dead bodies in some of the abandoned houses.
Detroit Homicide Investigators, who are already overtaxed, discover there’s a serial killer on the loose. Pressure from the media and the Mayor’s office intensifies when even more bodies are found in the Detroit River.
Major Case Detective Abigail Brown is called in to lead what becomes the Land & Sea task force. She had been spending her weekend off with retired Detective Norm Strom, but returns to work and keeps him close so that she might draw on his investigative experience.
Four
While sitting around a campfire at their cottage in Northern Michigan, Kevin Jordan and his son, Timothy, witness strange and paranormal happenings in the starry sky. Timothy is introduced to friends of his father; three men, each from a different corner of the world.
Throughout the night he learns how unexplained events in their lives brought them all together. The Young man is skeptical of their fantastic stories and unique adventures. But when extraordinary things begin to happen on his own familiar shoreline, he must reconsider his thinking.
Four is a paranormal thriller that will have you questioning your own beliefs.
Border City Chronicles
There is no wall separating the United States from Canada. A river marks the border between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario. The bridge and tunnel that link the two cities make up the busiest international crossings in North America. Together, they once owned bragging rights as the automotive capital of the world.
Both known as blue collar municipalities, Detroit and Windsor have more than the production of automobiles in common. Murder. The American metropolis once led the nation in killings per capita. Although a fraction of its neighbor’s size, Windsor has its share of homicides.
Border City Chronicles is a collection of three Norm Strom crime fiction stories, all tales of murder. Baby Shay and Designated Hitters take place in two gritty Windsor neighborhoods. Knock-Out happens in the bowels of Detroit. Follow Norm Strom, his informants and fellow cops, while they slip into the underbellies of the motor cities to seek justice for their victims of homicide.
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Finding Hope
The Highway of Tears is real. Since 1969, there have been over 1,200 women reported missing in north-western Canada. 23 of those women disappeared along the stretch of Trans Canada Highway #16, which runs from Prince George to Prince Rupert, in British Columbia.
Finding Hope is the story of one woman, who goes missing after leaving Jasper, on her way home to see her daughter in Stewart, B.C. She is well aware of the notorious Highway of Tears, and the serial killers that use the road as their hunting ground.
Retired Police Detective Norm Strom rides his motorcycle from Calgary to Hyder, Alaska, and meets Hope Lachance in Jasper, before she is reported missing. For his own personal reasons, Strom reaches out to the RCMP, offering his help in finding Hope.
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Torch
Arson Detective Norm Strom is always one step behind a serial arsonist who is responsible for burning several buildings in the city. He tracks down known arsonist and criminal Johnny Eagle and turns him into his informant, hoping to use one torch to catch another.
Eagle tells all, revealing the pleasure and satisfaction that he gets from setting and watching a raging inferno. Detective Strom relies on Eagle and his other informants to help him discover the true identity of the serial arsonist.
To keep the cops off his back, Johnny Eagle rats on his own friends. Is he playing with fire on both sides of the fence? Detective Strom and Johnny Eagle both tell the story, putting the reader in the middle of a dangerous game of cat and rat.
Bloody Friday
Best Friends Patrick Kelly and Jimmy Flynn from Belfast, share a common dream of a better life beyond the borders of their small island. In his quest to see the world, Patrick Kelly joins the military. He’s sent to Viet Nam to fight the spread of communism. Jimmy Flynn is mad at the world and he joins the IRA. He fights a war against his own countrymen, in the name of religion.
Norm Strom joins one of the largest street gangs in the world, becoming a city cop. He learns the true value of police informants in his fight against crime.
The story begins on Bloody Friday, in Belfast, Ireland, and follows the characters to places like the jungle in Cambodia, and cities like Boston, Detroit, Toronto, and Windsor. Their personal lives and relationships unfold and intersect with each other, both in love and war. Women, drugs, and guns are the common denominator that eventually draws them all together for a fatal reunion. In their individual endeavors to either fight crime, or profit from it, one of them will have to pay the ultimate price.
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Rat
Rat is the street name for a confidential police informant. Police Officer Norm Strom had several and counted on them for important information in narcotics and criminal investigations.
Stories about these individuals give an insight as to who there are, where they come from, and the dangers they face helping the police. People snitch for a variety of reasons, and receive cash or consideration for their own criminal charges in return. Some become police agents under contract.
Rat takes you into the underbelly of society, where drug dealers, prostitutes, and murders ply their trade. It also gives an insight to the men and women who hunt them for a living. Follow Norm Strom’s storied career and learn how he used his arsenal of informants to fight crime.
A Casual Traveler
A collection of short stories and poems that chronicle Edmond Gagnon’s adventures and misadventures around the world. Let him take you to exotic countries in Southeast Asia and Central of South America, to explore great cities like Buenos Aires or Seattle, and ancient sites like Angkor Wat or Machu Picchu.
He’ll introduce you to interesting people from around the globe, and share culinary experiences with strange and gourmet food. Sail with him on a wooden Junk boat in Ha Long Bay. Take an exhilarating motorcycle ride across the country or to the top of Pikes Peak in the Rocky Mountains.
Get off the beaten path, he dares you. Follow Edmond Gagnon to places that you have only dreamed of. Take a trip with A Casual Traveler.
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You can find Edmond Gagnon’s books in paperback at Storytellers in Windsor, and at River Bookstore in Amherstburg.
They can also be ordered through Indigo/Chapters or through any major online retailers.
Life Written and Reviewed 