Cherry Beach

by Don Gillmor

A brutal murder exposes secret real estate deals, a corrupt police force, and the dark heart of a city simmering with unrest.

When two girls are found murdered in a rundown Toronto highrise, Jamieson Abel and his partner are first on the scene. Abel is 52, a law school dropout turned police detective, chronically at odds with his colleagues and perpetually on the brink of being terminated. Davis, 35,  is the department’s only female officer of colour. Both understand their being partnered as a form of banishment, but when the details of the murder go public at the start of an excruciatingly hot summer, they find themselves thrust into the centre of a headline investigation that will bring to a head the city’s long history of shady real estate deals and racist disenfranchisement.

Intricately plotted and brilliantly layered, Cherry Beach is a gripping literary detective novel about an increasingly unhinged world in which the rich manipulate racial and economic tensions for their own benefit, with little regard for the damage caused by their mercenary callousness.

Genres: Mystery, Canada, Book Club, Mystery Thriller

272 pages, Paperback

Published May 19, 2026

About the author

Author and journalist Don Gillmor was born in Fort Frances, Ontario in 1959 and presently lives in Toronto, Ontario. Don possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Calgary. He has worked for publisher John Wiley & Sons, and has written for a number of magazines including Rolling Stone, GQ, Premiere, and Saturday Night.; where he was made a contributing editor in 1989.

Reviews

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dark, depressing, intense...but also remarkably addictive and very much a Toronto book. Very unlike the usual reputation Canadian novels have had for decades...this is squirmy modern urban discomfort told in a compelling fashion.

[Steph Neale · Rating 3 out of 5]

This detective wanted to make paella more than he wanted to solve a crime. Enjoyed it at parts, but the mystery felt lost!

[Jesús Carlos · Rating 2 out of 5]

It felt like an empty story disguised as an intelligent conglomerate of heavy intellectual themes, lacking compelling characters and driven by a plotless narrative that ultimately felt inconclusive.

[Liyana]

3.5*

How the heck did I get my hands on a book supposed to be published April 14th you ask?

I have no idea, aside from it just happened to be at a local bookstore that I just happened to walk into and just so happened to be on the recommended shelf.

Now, I dabble in detective noir stories every now and then, and who doesn't love books set in cities they're familiar with?

Honestly, I both enjoyed and hated it for different reasons. The writing was great in some aspects, and it definitely hit the mark on detective noir vibes and made me question what year this was supposed to be set in (although the whole immigrants/racism/real estate thing puts it somewhere in the 21st century, right? *obviously* /s), and is the mayor supposed to be he who must not be named's brother? I think the parts that bothered me were the cooking bits and what not - it felt like an ad break was forced on me every now and then, and kind of took me out of the story.

I was also hoping for more buddy cop partner shenanigans, but the main guy was pretty much working on his own for the most part. Also how true to life is this detective work because it felt like he was doing the most random things and getting zero outcomes, is that just detectives being detectives?

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. A waste of my afternoon. Good enough to keep me going, but not good enough to leave me with much gratification. The G&M did a list of 6 recommended mystery books for the cottage--this was the first one.
A good enough mystery, some twists and turns, with a weak ending. Lots of local colour for Toronto-- the decrepit St. James Town area, a slight graffiti tie-in, a fat and useless mayor caught in a video doing drugs. A good cop, dogged in his pursuit of justice, but flawed and a loner. The cops 'thing' is his cooking, so we have long descriptions of various complicated dishes he makes, with shameless name-dropping of clever techniques and carefully selected ingredients. Either write a cookbook or a crime novel! I started scrolling past those bits. As well as the sermonizing on crime, society, and injustice.

[Mike Broderick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for the advance copy of this book.

This was an easy read with main characters that the reader could relate to. The story was simple enough and it fits in the crime genre well.

But it wasn’t a great book, there were some issues.

One issue is that it really did not do a good job of determining the time period. Presumably with the issues laced throughout, it is quite current but our detective had a 1980s feel to him.

There were a few surprises but mostly predictable and a fairly weak ending.

There were positive of the book is how Toronto is shown, the good, bad and the ugly. There were positive descriptions made you feel like you were there and I think the author did a good job with the St, James town area. Come to think of it, perhaps that helped highlight the time period.

[gabby · Rating 4 out of 5]

i’m still not entirely sure how this was shelved so early near me, but it worked out in my favour lol

i really enjoyed this, i think it underscores a lot of what we already know about the police corruption (hi project south…) and the progression of urban decay.

i do wish we got to see more of the partnership between davis/abel. i think that could’ve been interesting to watch as the case unfolded more!

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sped through this one! It was the Toronto setting, St. James Town and Rosedale that made the book for me. That and the very current issues. I'm going to suggest this one for my Book Club. I also loved the main character's description of the meals he made, wanted to join him for all of them :) I was kind of hoping that this was the start of a series featuring Abel and Davis, and then something big happened and I realized there was not going to be a series. Too bad.

[megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved that this book took place in Toronto (from Canada myself) and I can appreciate all the detail put into describing Abel's life. I do wish more women in this book had a bigger role and weren't just constantly being used as the diversity hires. I found the story to be a little confusing because of all the characters and names I was keeping track of.

This book really shines light on just how corrupt some cops can be.

[Jonah F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toronto Noir babey! Plenty of The Wire, some of Dexter and a surprising, but welcome, hint of Food Network. I really appreciated the role architecture and the built environment played in the narrative, and in the city’s collective unconscious. I could’ve done with a bit more Davis.

[Jerry]

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[Cathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

So suspenseful I had to finish in one sitting.

[Blake · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 stars.

[Renata Kellough · Rating 1 out of 5]

Got to page 31 and bored as ?!$&@ - not for me I guess.