Gina X. Grant

Welcome. I’m Gina X. Grant, an award-winning author of twisty tales and unexpected turns. I write cozy mysteries, fantasy, and romantic misadventures, stories that keep you guessing and occasionally laughing out loud. This is where you’ll find my books, the blog, and behind-the-scenes updates. 

In 2018, after 60-plus years in Toronto, I moved to a small town just north of there and started over. The first thing I did was buy myself a drill-driver set. Unfortunately, the tutorials assumed I knew which was which. 

I did not.

Fast forward to 2025. My neighbor just asked if he could borrow my saw. “Which one?” I replied. “Compound miter, circular, jig, reciprocating, hack, or pruning?” Not only do I own them all—I know how to use them, along with a bunch of other useful gadgets. Power tools are my jam, as the kids say. (Or they did. It’s hard to keep up.)

When I sat down to write my first cozy mystery (after a long hiatus from writing), I thought my sleuth would be like me: an upcycler in her sixties. And she is… except Agatha Shadewell is nothing like me, being a career criminal, which I am not. Honest. But maybe I could have been. Turns out I have a knack for imagining clever heists and cons. But I swear I’ve never tried any of them.

And surprisingly, crime and DIY overlap more than you’d think. Like, say…

• If you can rewire a lamp, you can outsmart an alarm system. 

• If you can repair a bookshelf, you can remove an air conditioner and wriggle through the opening. 

• If you can re-create the molding on an antique sideboard, you can probably fake an eyeball to trick a retinal scanner.

Well, Agatha can. Me? I wouldn’t know.

Like many writers, I hear my characters talking in my head—Agatha and her partner-in-crime Martin loudest of all. Echo, the teen hacker, takes a little more effort. Kids, eh? They never do what you want ’em to. Luckily, I spend plenty of time with my grandnieces, who keep me fluent in teenage sarcasm.

And Chance? Agatha’s scrappy sidekick is based on my own doggo, Canoli, the rescued Mexican street dog named for the Italian pastry. He gives me plenty of advice on how to write about Agatha’s dog. I pay for 'Noli’s input in dried liver treats.

So that’s how power tools (and one opinionated dog) led me to write The Unlikely Murder Club series. 

 Canoli, arrived from Cancún, Mexico, in April 2020. I applied to adopt him, but sadly, I was too late. A family had picked him up that morning.

Twelve hours later, they returned him: he nipped the kids. I picked him up in full pandemic gear. Remember how cautious we were back then?

And yes, he nipped. Ow! He still bites if you come to my house. And who can blame him? He got off to a rocky start. X-rays show he has damage on his back legs.

Want to know more? Click the button to read Canoli's story in his own words.