Who is Winona Kent?
A New Westminster resident and award-winning mystery author
Why is she in the news?
Winona is one of four Canadian crime and mystery writers whose work is included in a new anthology of short stories called Last Shot. All four writers are Western Canadian members of Crime Writers of Canada, and Winona says the other three – Alice Bienia, Dwayne Clayden and Peter Kingsmill – have become “wonderful collaborative friends.” Their anthology is now available on Amazon.
Winona’s contribution, Blue Devil Blues, follows the continuing adventures of her favourite main character, Jason Davey, as he unravels the mystery of a stolen priceless Strat and a nightclub owner who turns up dead.
Winona is also lined up to take part in the New Westminster Public Library’s virtual Author Talk series. Her reading and discussion night is set for Tuesday, Aug. 10 from 6 to 7 p.m.
What’s on her resumé?
The London, England-born writer grew up in Regina. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC and a diploma in writing for film and TV from Vancouver Film School. She’s currently the B.C./Yukon/Northwest Territories rep for Crime Writers of Canada and an active member of Sisters in Crime – Canada West.
Over the years, as Winona outlines on her website, she has been a temporary secretary, a travel agent, and the managing editor of a literary magazine. Since retiring from her full-time job as a program assistant at UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, she has embraced life as a full-time writer.
Her writing career has spanned a variety of genres, both short and long, including the spy novel Skywatcher and its sequel The Cilla Rose Affair, plus three time-travel romances.
Winona is currently focused on her Jason Davey mystery series, featuring the adventures of the professional jazz musician turned amateur sleuth.
The series started with Cold Play, set aboard an Alaskan cruise ship, and continued with the 2017 novella Disturbing the Peace and the 2019 novel Notes on a Missing G-String. The third full-length novel in the series, Lost Time, was published in 2020. Jason Davey also made another appearance in the “prequel” novella Salty Dog Blues, published in the Crime Wave anthology in October 2020. That work, by the way, was a finalist in the Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella in April 2021.
The next novel in the series, Ticket to Ride, will be published this December.
What does Winona have to say about her latest venture?
“I'm really, really excited to be included in this anthology – and to give Jason, my favourite hero, another intriguing mystery to solve. This little adventure taps into one of my secret passions, the London Underground – and more specifically, abandoned Underground stations,” she says.
Want to know more?
Check out her website at or find her on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
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People You Should Know is a new feature planned to regularly showcase notable folks in New Westminster (or with ties to the New West community).
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