The endearing and unflappable Dr. Annick Boudreau regularly confronts a myriad of mental health issues in her psychiatric practice at the West Coast Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Clinic in Vancouver, British Columbia. But even Annick is stunned when Sanjay, a young patient who suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is arrested for the brutal murder of his roommate. While Sanjay is tortured by repeated violent thoughts, he is horrified by them and Annick is convinced that he would never enact one of them in real life. But the police and prosecutor are convinced that they have caught the perpetrator and aren't interested in looking very hard. Unable to talk to the authorities because of doctor-patient confidentiality, Annick feels compelled to investigate on her own, whatever the risks. What she discovers takes her into the dark side of Vancouver, where she uncovers a truth that's very different from what the police and prosecutors imagine.Primary Obsessions...

An exciting second installment in the Dr. Annick Boudreau series, the endearing and unflappable Dr. Annick Boudreau returns in this complex and nuanced portrait of psychology and a city.The endearing and unflappable Dr. Annick Boudreau returns in this complex and nuanced portrait of psychology and a city. Charles Demers renders a divisive cityscape entangled in questions of ownership and change—who owns the city and who has the right to change it—with humour, edge and compassion, revealing the intricacies of a metropolis on the verge of myriad transformations.When Dr. Boudreau is contacted by the Vancouver Police and informed that her patient Danielle has been reported missing and there's a suicide note, Dr. Boudreau is shaken. Danielle, who was being treated for a major depressive episode, had been doing well—talking about her new relationship and the contract she just completed as a speechwriter for a bike-riding politician's...

The worlds of urban gentrification, overpriced real estate, and gang violence collide in this wry and sardonic crime novel by author and comedian Charles Demers. As a shaky truce between suburban gangsters starts to unravel, schlubby civilian Scott Clark has other things on his mind: if he can't afford to buy out his ex father-in-law, Scott's about to lose the only house he's ever called home. In the red-hot urban housing market, he doesn't have a chance — until he and his best friends take the desperate measure of staging a fake drive-by shooting on the property to push down the asking price. But when Scott's mobster-posturing stunt attracts the attention of the real criminals, his pretend gang soon finds itself in the middle of a deadly rivalry. With wicked humor and a brilliant cast of desperate characters, Property Values explodes the crime novel trope while exploring the comic lengths a man will go to in order to become a home owner in today's market.