This week I’m pleased to announce the publication of Futuristic Canada, an anthology of speculative fiction featuring my story, Her Last Walk. To celebrate Canada Day the publishers, Dark Helix Press, are giving away free electronic copies via Amazon between 1 and 5 July. Get yours here and please consider leaving a review.

I have never been to Canada but it, and its people, have influenced my writing and personal life. From friends and work colleagues to the team at Dark Helix Press, who also published Trump Utopia or Dystopia, and my Jack the Ripper publisher, RJ Parker, I am left with a overwhelmingly favourable impression of a vast and diverse nation. One very different to that visited by John George Donkin in 1884.

After two convictions for assault Donkin left his family in England to become a Mountie and chronicled his experiences. He was also suspected of being Jack the Ripper by the Governor of Newcastle Jail. I wrote about him in Ripperologist 131 and, again in my suspect book. Of course, the most famous Ripper suspect with a connection to Canada was the poisoner Thomas Cream.

Happy Canada Day to all Canadians at home and abroad.

Paul Williams is an author of fiction and non-fiction including Jack the Ripper Suspects: The Definitive Guide and Encyclopedia. During June and July, he will be donating royalties from copies sold in Australia to The Black Dog Institute.