Catherine has always been a writer. She can recall writing stories for her classmates in Grade Three. Much later, her short stories and poems were published in a number of small Canadian presses. The day after retiring from education, she started finishing her books.
The Emily Taylor Mysteries (The Bridgeman, Victim, Legacy, Seventh Fire) centre around an elementary school principal who becomes a reluctant sleuth through various circumstances. Catherine has also written two standalone novels: Sweet Karoline, a psychological suspense in the vein of “Gone Girl” and Auntie Beers, an amalgam of tales told to the author by her mother and uncle, as well as a mystery that she couldn’t resist.
In 2012 and 2018, Catherine won the prestigious Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence (aka the Arthur Ellis Award) for Best Crime Short Story in Canada, for “What Kelly Did” and “The Outlier” (published in the Mesdames of Mayhem anthology, Thirteen Claws). In 2025, her short story “Farmer Knudson” from Auntie Beers was shortlisted for the same award.
Her Grand River series has begun with The Grand Art of Murder and will be followed soon by The Grand Art of Ghosting. For all of Catherine’s novels, please visit https://www.catherineastolfo.ca to peruse and order!
Catherine is a Past President of Crime Writers of Canada (CWC), a member of Sisters in Crime (Toronto), International Thriller Writers and The Writers Union of Canada. She’s a recipient of the Derrick Murdoch Award for service to CWC.
**New Release! Auntie Beers, Carrick Publishing, 2024.
Auntie Beers is an amalgam of tales told to the author by her mother, as well as a mystery that she couldn’t resist sharing. Witty, raw and often poignant, these are tales for the ages by one of Canada’s leading story-tellers. – Carrick Publishing
Reminiscent of Alice Munro–these stories are heart-wrenching, authentic, and luminous.
~ Ginger Bolton, author of the Deputy Donut Mysteries
Mesdames of Mayhem 