Now, to get it out of the way, this not that Peter Sellers. That one's dead. This one is very much alive and has been active in the Canadian mystery scene since 1985 when his "Boogie Man" was published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. While writing the stories that appear in his first solo collection titled Whistling Past the Graveyard, Sellers founded and edited the critically acclaimed Cold Blood anthology series that published many of Canada's finest mystery writers.

"Boogie Man" appears in Whistling. Think of it as sort of a "The King is dead, long live the King" rock and roll yarn that illustrates the live Sellers' dark, dry wit. The following story, "Dead Meet", best captures the every-day, matter-of-factness that distinguishes Leonard's and Sellers' work. Characters may be violent toughs or hit-men, but they still have to get through the day like everyone else, picking up the laundry (or failing to), developing a social life (or failing to- see "laundry" above) and, most important, getting to the job on time. Those that can't handle routine seldom succeed at the exceptional.

What distinguishes Sellers from Leonard is that his stories take place in Toronto. Leonard has only used Toronto once in his street adventures, and then briefly. He has put many in Florida, where dangerous creatures seem to crawl from the swamp with alarming frequency. Toronto, on the other hand, is the city that wants to be New York, only cleaner, kinder, gentler and generally improved until it's, well, Toronto. Toronto has one of the lowest murder rates of any major North American city, which may explain why it has taken Sellers fifteen years to assemble this collection of first-rate Canuck murder yarns. In doing so, he has managed to capture the essential amorality of hard-boiled mystery fiction, and thus created something unique: Canuck Noir.

Not all the stories in Whistling can be classified as crime fiction, however. A very few fall into the genre of dark fantasy, where the characters' lack of morality result in unexpectedly moral tales. In "Advertising Hell" a couple of dynamos in the ad game have missed the small print on a deal made with a special, new client. This is a delicious parody of evangelical religion, the characters paying too much attention to form and not enough to intent. Something similar happens in "The Vampires Next Door". Both these stories share the same, dead-pan humour that marks Sellers' crime fables.

"Bombed" is Sellers' strongest outing. In bringing a paroled FLQ explosives expert to Hogtown for revenge, it captures the different attitudes of the two cultures. Anyone who has been frustrated by the eruption of personal communications technology over the past decade will quickly mark this as a favourite.

But Whistling Past the Graveyard has many good stories to choose from. In fact, "Murdoch's Wife" was recently nominated for a Crime Writers' of Canada short fiction award. The winner will be named May 24, 2000. Those anxious to tread the mean streets of North York needn't wait till then.

Reviewer Kerry J. Schooley is a poet, a mystery writer, a cynic, a nag and a pedant.