Hugh Mercer has come to a small town in Ontario, far away from his broken career, broken marriage, and broken life in New York. He’s expecting to take advantage of what he’s sure will be a peaceful place in the middle of winter to begin to make some sense of the situations he’s left behind. Before he has a chance to settle into his rented farmhouse, a strange woman appears on his doorstep and makes a startling prediction: Elizabeth Goode, a local, is about to disappear under bizarre circumstances and her life is at risk. Mercer needs further information, but as quickly as she appeared, the stranger is gone.

Within a few days, Elizabeth Goode does indeed vanish from a café in town and all the witnesses have different accounts of the event. Her life now depends on the skills Mercer honed in the New York Police Department as a homicide detective and the down-to-earth abilities of local police officer Alice Morrow. Together they work to solve the mystery of the disappearance and get to Elizabeth before she is murdered; but they, too, are troubled by their own need for forgiveness, their desire for justice, and their passion for each other.

• In a unique approach, a character predicts the murder (and the perpetrator) before the crime has even taken place, and the tension lies in figuring out if she’s right.
• Hugh Mercer makes for an interesting protagonist as he must contend with the past as a police officer he’s left behind — and the impacts of his career on his life and mental health.
• Shane Peacock is a renowned Libris and Arthur Ellis Award-winning children’s and YA author, best known for The Boy Sherlock Holmes. As We Forgive Others will be his debut as a mystery author for adults. (Many will have read him as children and will look forward to an adult Shane Peacock novel.) The first in a series, the second Northern Gothic Mystery will publish in Fall 2025.
• In the spirit of the Inger Ash Wolfe crime novels, Shane felt that As We Forgive Others is the ideal introduction to the world of darker Canadian mysteries, presenting a more complex and intense depiction of Canada outside of Southern Ontario.
• Shane Peacock is a seven-time winner of the Junior Library Guild of America Selection, twice winner of the Arthur Ellis Award, has been shortlisted for the Governor-General’s Award, three times for the TD Canadian Children’s Literature Award, and the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book prize, and has been named to Kirkus Reviews’ annual Best Books list. In As We Forgive Others, Shane brings the same sharp, writerly observations to a trade market with rich characters and unique narratives.