Miss Elva

“Miss Elva distills the panoramic small-town tragedy down to its narrative essence, and the result is a strange and stangely elegant little book whose tense momentum rarely wanes.”
–Quill & Quire

“A relentlessly action-packed, often menacing story of love and loss. . . . To label this novel ‘gothic’ would be to undermine its almost feral energy. . . . The characters, however, are well drawn and intense, and even the minor ones are memorable. There is some lovely writing, as well.
–National Post

“Miss Elva is a deeply poignant story, fashioned by a writer whose sensitivity to his characters holds us to its bittersweet ending.”
–Donna Morrissey, author of Kit’s Law and Sylvanus Now

“A page-turning chronicle of lust, drunkenness, violence and deceit set on Nova Scotia’s craggy coast 80 years ago. Stephens Gerard Malone is the chronicler, and this first-time author and Maritimer-by-choice doesn’t miss a beat. Miss Elva is plot plus. It’s an action-driven narrative thickened with wonderful tension as back story and present action meet in a harrowing climax of murder, fire and flood. . . . Malone masterfully captures the grinding poverty of his characters and their place in history. . . . A thing of beauty. . . . In Elva, Malone has created a knowing character, and yet a lack of sentimentality keeps her totally believable. . . . An entirely readable novel that manages to transcend its insalubrious setting.”
–Edmonton Journal