Press kit / For Maria
Images, biography and interview notes
Media, Book clubs, Bookstores, Libraries, and Podcasts.
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For Maria: A Cork Bay Mystery (FriesenPress, 2026)
A prosecutor watches her father get shot in a small-town Ontario café, and the town's oldest secret, a deadly car explosion from 1973, awakens.
About Lenore
Lenore MacAdam studied film at Queen's University, worked in the film industry in the 1990s, then went to business school and spent 30 years in corporate life. She published her first novel at 55. For Maria is the first Cork Bay Mystery, and she is already at work on the second book in the series. She lives in Toronto, and she has never stopped thinking about Kingston, or about the murders that might have occurred there.
Contact: hello@lenoremacadam.com · lenoremacadam.com
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Cork Bay is a fictional Ontario port town, and anyone who went to Queen's will recognize it. Lenore MacAdam has never set her book in Kingston by name, but Kingston is the town she pictures when she writes. Inventing Cork Bay let her keep the feel of the place and still blow up a car in 1973 without answering to the real city council.
For Maria opens with Alex Halliday, a Crown attorney, watching her father get shot in a café. Her office decides he was mixed up with organized crime and asks her to stay home. Instead she starts pulling on a deadly car explosion from 1973 that the town would rather forget, with help from a group of friends that includes a journalist, a blind friend and the ex-girlfriend who happens to be on the police organized-crime task force.
What Lenore can talk about
- The Kingston question. Why she built a fictional town instead of using the real one, and what a Queen's film studies grad carried with her for 30 years.
- A first novel at 55. Film school, the film industry in the 1990s, an MBA, three decades in corporate work, then a murder mystery. People tell her the career change is as interesting as the book.
- Writing inclusion without preaching. The cast is queer, diverse, and includes Mark, a blind character she developed with the CNIB All Access Labs team. Readers are noticing the care in the details.
- When the cover becomes a clue. The cover is a real photograph, and the same image sits at the centre of the mystery.
- What's next. Book two, Mrs. Poole, goes back to Cork Bay and into corruption at the port, a live issue at Canadian ports right now.
Suggested questions
- Is Cork Bay Kingston?
- Why write your first novel after 30 years in corporate life?
- What did your film studies degree teach you about writing a mystery?
- How did you make sure Mark's blindness was written authentically?
- The cover photo is part of the story. How?
- What's coming for Cork Bay in book two?
What readers are saying
“Mystery done right!”
“It's like reading the Gen X love child of Law & Order and Murder, She Wrote, with a friend group straight out of Reality Bites.”
“The mystery kept me guessing, but it was the friendships and Gen X nostalgia that made the book for me.”
“An enthralling read from first time author Lenore Macadam. Kudos. Already counting the days until I can get my hands on the next installment in this wonderful new series.”
Book details
| Title | For Maria: A Cork Bay Mystery |
|---|---|
| Author | Lenore MacAdam |
| Publisher | FriesenPress, 2026 |
| Genre | Fiction, mystery |
| Paperback ISBN | 978-1-03-837963-4 |
| Hardcover ISBN | 978-1-03-837964-1 |
| Ebook ISBN | 978-1-03-837965-8 |
| Available from | Kobo, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Indigo; any bookstore can order it through Ingram |
| Coming | Audiobook |
| Review copies | Digital review copies available on request |
Book clubs
For Maria is a quick read with plenty to argue about over a glass of wine: a small town sitting on a 50-year-old secret, friends who show up when the official channels close, and a father who may not have been who his daughter thought. Lenore visits book clubs in person around Toronto, and by Zoom anywhere else.
Discussion questions
- The book opens with Alex watching her father die. How did that first chapter shape the way you read everything after it?
- Cork Bay is invented. Did it feel like a real place to you? Which town did you picture?
- Alex leans on her friends more than on the police or her own office. Which friendship felt most true?
- Lenore developed Mark, who is blind, with the CNIB All Access Labs team. What did you notice about how his world is written?
- The cover photograph turns up in the plot. Did you go back and look at it once you knew why?
- Was Alex right to go back to Erica?
- Which character would you most want to follow into book two?
- For after you finish: Lenore hid a clue in plain sight, among the books on Simon's shelf. Did you catch it?
Booking a visit
Email Lenore with your group's name, a few possible dates, and whether you'd like her in person or on Zoom. Any bookstore can order copies for your group, and the ebook is available everywhere. Lenore can also supply signed copies directly.
Email LenoreBookstores
For Maria is a small-town Ontario mystery for readers who love Louise Penny's Three Pines books and anyone who likes a town full of secrets. Its queer found-family cast also gives it a natural home on LGBTQ fiction shelves.
Ordering
Distributed to the trade by Ingram in paperback and hardcover.
| Paperback ISBN | 978-1-03-837963-4 |
|---|---|
| Hardcover ISBN | 978-1-03-837964-1 |
Consignment and signed copies
Lenore can supply signed copies on consignment to independent stores. Email her to arrange it.
Email LenoreEvents
Lenore is available for readings and signings, and especially wants to do them in Toronto and the Kingston area.
Hand-selling line
“A Crown attorney watches her father die, then digs up the 1973 explosion her town has spent fifty years forgetting.”
For libraries
For Maria is a Canadian small-town mystery with a queer found-family cast, Gen X friendships and a fictional Ontario port town. It is a strong fit for general mystery collections, Canadian fiction shelves and book-club programming.
Ordering
Print editions are distributed through Ingram. Librarians can search their regular ordering system by title or ISBN.
| Title | For Maria: A Cork Bay Mystery |
|---|---|
| Author | Lenore MacAdam |
| Publisher | FriesenPress, 2026 |
| Paperback ISBN | 978-1-03-837963-4 |
| Hardcover ISBN | 978-1-03-837964-1 |
| Ebook ISBN | 978-1-03-837965-8 |
Collection review
Digital review copies are available to librarians on request. The downloadable title sheet includes the cover, synopsis, author biography and publication details.
Download title sheet (PDF)
Spread the word · two minutes
Help get For Maria into your local library
Friends, fans and mystery readers can help by sharing this graphic on their own socials, then taking two minutes to request For Maria from their local library. Search the library's website for “suggest a purchase” or “request a title,” and ask for the paperback using ISBN 978-1-03-837963-4.
Once is plenty. Every library makes its own collection decisions, and even a request that is not filled right away can plant the seed.
Author visits and programs
Lenore is available for author talks, readings and book-club conversations, in person around Toronto and online elsewhere. Email her with your library, audience and possible dates.
Email LenorePodcasts
Lenore is an easy guest for a long-form conversation. She's candid, quick and funny, and she has more to say than one book's worth of plot. She records remotely and can work around your schedule.
Conversations she's good for
- Starting over at 55: leaving a 30-year corporate career to write fiction, and what carried over from boardrooms to murder.
- Self-publishing, honestly: what it costs, what goes wrong, and what she'd do differently on book two.
- Writing disability with the community: how working with the CNIB All Access Labs team changed Mark, and the book.
- Building a fictional town meant to hold a whole series.
- Queer found family in crime fiction, and why readers want it now.
Questions hosts might ask
- What did 30 years in corporate life teach you that turned out to be useful for writing a mystery?
- What surprised you most about publishing your own book?
- How do you write a villain readers end up liking?
- What did the CNIB team change in your draft?
- Why build a town from scratch instead of using a real one?
- Where does Cork Bay go next?
Past appearances
[Add links as interviews air, starting with CBC.]