Nancy Maple from The Crimson Diamond

Nancy Maple is the plucky heroine at the heart of The Crimson Diamond, and her debut appearance is so great that I really hope we see more of her in the future. A clerk at Toronto’s Royal Canadian Museum in 1914, Nancy’s got big dreams and a big intellect, but society isn’t so supportive of her ambitions of studying geology at the university. Not one to be daunted, however, she seizes an opportunity to investigate the discovery of a massive diamond in the remote town of Crimson. Her can-do attitude serves her well, too, as she winds up getting much more than she bargained for when the diamond claim becomes a murder investigation.

Like a good Agatha Christie mystery, The Crimson Diamond features a colorful cast of memorable characters as suspects, and Nancy’s good-natured determination and practicality (she takes excellent notes!) make her the ideal person to hold down the center of this narrative whirlwind. It’s great to see the adventure genre get a bold new entry in the form of The Crimson Diamond, and to see the genre’s pantheon of female heroes—Rosella, Laura Bow, April Ryan, Kathy Rain, and others—welcome a terrific new member. — Carolyn Petit