Several new books play up mystery, wonder of Maine

By Dale McGarrigle
Monday, March 10, 2008 – Bangor Daily News

“FREEDOM,” by Ilze Berzins, 2008, Albert Street Press, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, paperback, 279 pages, $25.

The small Waldo County town of Freedom seems an unlikely setting for a murder mystery, especially when you factor in a group of Latvian immigrants, a fledgling filmmaker and livestock.

But “Freedom,” the ninth book by Ottawa author Ilze Berzins, is an unusual mystery. …Read the full post »

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LATVIANS ONLINE

TITLE: Critic’s worst nightmare is start to mystery

DATE: 01 Mar 2008

AUTHOR: Andris Straumanis

Isadora Purins, the main character in Ilze Berzins’ latest mystery, Freedom, dreams of putting a bullet into the head of the critic who ravaged her novel. If that’s a warning, so be it. …Read the full post »

Take a walk on the dark side

Ottawa Citizen:
December 18, 2005
By Mike Gillespie

Just when you think life can’t get much worse for a fortysomething struggling through a miserable Ottawa winter — and at Christmas-time, no less — another wheel falls off Stacy Karsubova’s bus.
Grim just got a whole lot grimmer.

But then, Ilze Berzins’ “Riga” series has that signature about it — brooding, bleak, dark, but, thankfully, ultimately satisfying.

Ghosts & Shadows is the Ottawa author’s latest Latvian mystery and one that returns her cast of Eastern European characters to the capital. …Read the full post »

The Ottawa Citizen
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Page: C10
Section: Citizen’s Weekly: Reading
Byline: Mike Gillespie
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

Editor’s picks

Perennial mystery favourite Ilze Berzins is back on the shelves with the thriller Kolka (Albert Street Press, $24.95). The Ottawa novelist/artist, who has produced a compelling series of novels including such favourites as Revenge on the Rideau, Death in the Glebe, Riga Mortis and Riga Blanca, has found a touchstone — that mystery lovers like to read about their home towns. So while Kolka, and Berzins’ other cleverly drawn novels, criss-cross the world, home (Ottawa) is where the heart is. …Read the full post »

Ottawa Citizen:
January 18, 2004
From Crime Scene
By Mike Gillespie

Also new on the shelves

In a scene of marital wretchedness played out over grilled salmon and a nice Caesar salad, Paulette, the perfect housewife, plots the murder of her cheating husband, Andy. How she plans the demise of this boorish, 51-year-old Don Juan, as he travels to post-Soviet Riga on business, is all part of the comedic stew Ottawa novelist Ilze Berzins cooks up for readers in her sixth murder mystery, Riga Blanca (Albert Street Press, or from the author — [email protected]; $24). …Read the full post »

Review by: The Baltic Times
BOOK: Murder and muddled identity in post-Soviet Riga
By Rihards Kalnins, RIGA

Ilze Berzins’ fifth murder mystery, “Riga Mortis” (Albert Street Press, 2002), is the most recent English-language thriller to take place in Riga, and, along with William Safire’s “Sleeper Spy,” one of the only ones. But where Safire’s book lacks an intimate understanding of the city, Canadian-Latvian Berzins raises Riga to the level of a character in-and-of-itself. …Read the full post »

Ottawa Citizen
December 29, 2002
From Crime Scene
By Mike Gillespie

Other New Releases

Ottawa author/artist Ilze Berzins has a new, brooding mystery on the shelves. Riga Mortis (Albert Street Press; $24.95) is the fifth in a series of novels that has included Death in the Glebe and Revenge on the Rideau. …Read the full post »

Ottawa Citizen
January 13, 2002
From Crime Scene
By Mike Gillespie

Other new Releases

Ottawa is no slouch when it comes to lining the bookstores with good home-spun mysteries. Two new releases recently landed from city author Ilze Berzins and promising newcomer Brian Meech. …Read the full post »

Kinetic spaces: Author, artist and teacher Ilze Berzins fills her Glebe home with eclectic, affordable objects, from ivy to a stalking leopard.
Julia Elliott reports.

The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, January 27, 2001
Page: G1 / FRONT
Section: Homes: Resale/Rental
Byline: Julia Elliott
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

For those who think it takes gobs of money to buy art, spend a few economical minutes in the singular surroundings of Ilze Berzins. …Read the full post »