Peggy Blair Books In Order

Publication Order of Inspector Ramírez Books

Peggy Blair is a published Canadian author.

On top of being an author, Peggy has been involved in the world of law as a lawyer. She worked as a lawyer for over thirty decades and is versed enough in Aboriginal law to be referred to as an expert. She has been a Crown prosecutor as well as a criminal defense lawyer. She used to belong to the Canadian Rights Tribunal.

Peggy has traveled, going to Old Havana for a Christmas. There she would people watch, went to the bars favored by Hemingway, and discovered how to make a great mojito. She has been named as part of the Canadian Who’s Who and currently resides in Ottawa.

Blair joined the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1990. Before that, she belonged to the Law Society of Alberta, serving as a member from 1982 to 1999. She served as lead counsel in 1993 for the Canadian case R. v. Jones and Nadijiwon, which was the first case that formally recognized treaty and Aboriginal rights to go out and fish commercially. There was backlash after the case ruling, from protests to boats set on fire and an Owen Sound violence incident. Blair decided that she would train in negotiation skills at Harvard University in 1993. She became part of negotiations by different parties to resolve fishery issues, which concluded with a co-management agreement being made between provincial, federal, and First Nations governments.

The author has also served as a policy adviser for the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples working on issues regarding dispute resolution and land claims. Peggy was made a part-time member of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, conducting different hearings on discrimination from 1993 to 1999. From 1997 to 1998, she would be Chief Federal Negotiator for different northern Ontario communities in self-government negotiations. She also worked on some reports of the Indian Claims Commission. She was also picked to be a Senior Adjudicator in 2003 by a panel for a claims dispute resolution process for Indian Residential Schools.

Peggy attended the University of Ottawa, where she graduated with her Masters in law in 1998 and her doctorate in law in 2003. She also received the Prix d’excellence award.

She has published many pieces that speak on Aboriginal issues, culture, and Aboriginal women’s rights. Her nonfiction book was published in 2008 from UBC Press and the University of Washington, titled Lament for a First Nation. The book focuses on the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision on the Howard case, which focused on taking away hunting and fishing rights for 7 of southern Ontario’s Williams Treaties First Nations.

Dr. Peggy Blair has been cited by a variety of scholars in Canada for analysis done on the legal issues of Aboriginal hunting and fishing. They include Douglas Harris, Mark Walters, Kent MacNeil, and Dr. John Borrows, among others. She has been mentioned as one of the top lawyers in Canada in her field by Lexpert several times since 1996. She also commentates and speaks at conferences and gives media interviews about Aboriginal negotiations and issues.

The author went to Ukraine in December of 2004 to observe the presidential elections through the Canada Corps. Having had a successful career, Blair choose to leave that world behind in favor of writing. She also became an Ottawa realtor. Real estate and literature then became her full-time job.

Peggy successfully wrote her debut book, which she titled The Beggar’s Opera (it would later be titled Midnight in Havana). Before publication, it was rejected well over a hundred times. The UK Crime Writers’ Association named it to the short list for the Debut Dagger Award in 2010. From there, a 2-book deal was signed by Penguin Canada.

Once published in 2012, the book was well received. It made the short list for best first novel for the Arthur Ellis Award and won the Readers’ Choice Award for the Giller Prize in 2012. The book has been published in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and in many countries abroad. Following books were received well, with the third novel becoming a best seller and the fourth novel being nominated for an Ottawa Book Award.

{eggy Blair created and wrote the Inspector Ramirez series of fictional novels. Midnight in Havana came out in 2012, followed by The Poisoned Pawn, Hungry Ghosts, and Umbrella Man. If you are looking for a great mystery series to read, check this one out!

Midnight in Havana is the first novel in the Inspector Ramirez series by Peggy Blair. This debut story is where readers get to meet the main character Inspector Ramirez for the first time.

Mike Ellis is a detective in Canada. He’s come to Old Havana to enjoy the beauty of the place and hopefully use the healing powers of the sun to work on his marriage, which is in trouble. He thinks it can be salvaged, but little does he know his union might already be dead.

There’s also a Cuban boy that’s gone missing, and the trouble is that the last time he was spotted, he was begging and Mike and his wife for money. Inspector Ricardo Ramirez heads up the Major Crimes Unit for the local Cuban National Revolutionary Police. Cuban law is going to be a bigger issue for him that finding a main suspect.

Ramirez knows that he’s got just 72 hours to get an indictment so that the suspect can’t leave the island. But then he has his own problems. With dementia slowly killing him without a cure, he’s seeing murder victims’ ghosts. Haunted by those who have left the mortal coil, the Inspector must hurry if he’s going to be able to put a killer away. Can he do it? Read this book to find out!

The Poisoned Pawn is the second novel in the Inspector Ramirez series by Peggy Blair. Detective Mike has come back from Cuba to Ottawa. There he learns that when it comes to his wife’s death, he’s being considered the prime suspect. At the same time, Inspector Ramirez is sent to Canada to take over a suspect’s custody.

When Ramirez leaves, women begin dying back in Havana. A pathologist is looking into it, and Ramirez decides that he’s going to work on his case and figure out the chain of deception. Along the way he might just find out more about Mike and just what is making Cuban women die. Will he get to the bottom of it all? Find out by picking up this exciting sequel!