The Colony Dancers

November 2020

All Merculian is excited about the visiting Colony Dancers. The children’s group is so cute in their old-fashioned outfits and few stop to question how they acquired their brilliant technique so young, or why they are all so carefully guarded. Eulio manages to get one of the children alone long enough to make some shocking discoveries. Then Rio, the principal Colony dancer, claims to be a sibling of superstar Triani and reveals that he desperately wants to get away from the troupe, thus forcing the irritable celebrity into his escape scheme. Meanwhile, Investigator Marlo is tantalized by the strong resemblance of one of the young dancers to a child who was kidnapped long ago.

Is Rio right to be terrified? How far will the guardians go to keep the secrets of the Colony Dancers?

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DANCING WITH CHAIRS IN THE MUSIC HOUSE

“Caro Soles’s book is an extraordinary piece of fiction. Haunting, and highly evocative, it deserves to find its place in the pantheon of the best of Canadian Literature.”
—Maureen Jennngs, Award winning author of the Murdock Mysteries and several other series

Precocious ten-year-old Vanessa Dudley-Morris knows lots of secrets. In 1949 when she and her family are forced to move into two rooms on the second floor of 519 Jarvis Street in Toronto, a genteel but somewhat rundown rooming house owned by a reclusive pianist, she learns a lot more.

Despite the family’s drastically reduced circumstances, her parents struggle to keep up their old standards. Threatened by blindness due to an eye condition, Vanessa is kept at home, tutored by an erratic succession of eccentrics, some with questionable credentials. Consequently, she spends a lot of time alone, wandering the dim corridors of the old house, silently listening at doors and watching the odd characters who live there. She becomes fascinated by a mother and son who move into a room on the third floor. Eventually she agrees to take secret notes from the son to his mysterious friend at her church, unwittingly unleashing a chain of events that leads to tragedy.

August 2020

MARLO’S DANCE: a Merculian mystery

Great fun. Marlo’s Dance combines intricate, fascinating, complex world-building with a practical police procedural. I loved getting to know the charming, chubby Marlo Dasha Bogardini, Merculian detective, and his colourful, artistic, sensual world. Marlo’s Dance is the perfect read for both sci-fi fans and crime fiction aficionados.

— Vicki Delany, national bestselling author of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Year Round Christmas mysteries. 

 

December 2019

DO YOU KNOW ME?

A very eclectic collection of short stories running the gamut from literary, mystery, amusing, science fiction and even  erotica! Some are brand new, some have been published before. I gathered this small group In one place to be a sample of the scope of my writing. Enjoy!

May, 2018

PEOPLE LIKE US

How well do you know your friends? At a Georgian Bay cottage reunion of old university pals, a telephone call from a voice from the past,  threatens to crack their perfect lives wide open. Gradually the cracks widen  until one of the once close-knit group buckles under the pressure and slides headlong into murder.

 

March, 2017

Young man about town Morgan Vanheusen is not a big ballet fan, but when the great
Nijinsky arrives in New York in 1916, he is stunned by the mesmerizing performance of the brilliant dancer. So intrigued is he that he braves his father’s wrath by helping the dancer steal away from his family’s estate during a charity event. An unlikely alliance blossoms and Morgan becomes known as ‘a friend of Mr. Nijinsky’. Suddenly doors open for him and he grabs the opportunity to get back to racing the motorcars he loves. But as the young American is drawn in to Nijinsky’s paranoid world, he is pulled into a murder investigation and discovers a side of his city he never knew existed. Then his sister is kidnapped by a mad Russian and only his new ‘friend’ can save her. Can Morgan count on the eccentric dancer to rescue his sister?

THE MERCULIAN SERIES

THE DANGER DANCE

Life and death action and intrigue aboard a military space vessel!   A startling command from the dreaded Praetan brings chaos into the tranquil lives of hermaphrodites Eulio and his lover Orosin. Using the tour of the Merculian National Dance Company where Eulio is a star as cover, they board the Wellines nothing they believe in. Someone is passing secrets about fleet movements and weaponry to the enemies in the Troia, but the efforts of the two Merculians to unmask the spy only stir up a toxic mix of hatred and violence. Who will have to die before the Praetan is satisfied? The Danger Dance is a futuristic space adventure with enough swashbuckling action and intrigue to keep even the most jaded science fiction addict enthralled.

THE ABULON DANCE

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While on tour to the mysterious planet Abulon, the pleasure-loving hermaphrodites of the Merculian National Dance Company are intrigued by the virile patriarchal society they discover there. The natives seem friendly enough, but when the star’s young lover is kidnapped, the Merculians find themselves plunged into an alien civil war that they are ill-equipped to survive.

THE MEMORY DANCE

The hermaphrodite dancers of Merculian expect to feel safe back on their home planet, but a series of frightening incidents rips apart the veil of calm. Then Triani’s beloved child disappears. The frantic dancer feels everything he has worked for slipping away as he relives old nightmares. Is this punishment for past sins? Only by betraying someone close to him is there a chance to save his innocent child.

 

A MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

It is 1984. Wayne Robinson is the local hairdresser in the small college town he grew up in. Campy, demonstrative, an amateur artist and a romantic at heart, he quickly discovers an inferiority complex where Professor Adrian Taylor is concerned. Taylor is deeply closeted with a mania for privacy, a dry sense oIt is 1984. Wayne Robinson is the local hairdresser in the small college town he grew up in. Campy, demonstrative, an amateur artist and a romantic at heart, he quickly discovers an inferiority complex where Professor Adrian Taylor is concerned. Taylor is deeply closeted with a mania for privacy, a dry sense of humor and an endearing helplessness in matters of the heart. When he invites Wayne to move in as his ‘tenant’, their mutual misunderstanding of the arrangement causes conflict. The haunted house in the old part of town becomes  a battleground as Wayne tries to retain his relationship with his new lover, his old friends, and his family.f humor and an endearing helplessness in matters of the heart. When he invites Wayne to move in as his ‘tenant’, their mutual misunderstanding of the arrangement causes conflict. The haunted house in the old part of town becomes a battleground as Wayne tries to retain his relationship with his new lover, his old friends, and his family.

DRAG QUEEN IN THE COURT OF DEATH

Was his ex-lover really a twisted killer?

While cleaning out his dead ex-lover Ronnie’s apartment, staid history professor Michael Dunn-Barten makes a grisly discovery–a mummified corpse in a trunk. Suddenly Michael must travel back 25 years to find answers by revisiting everybody who knew Ronnie. Back to the 1960s, back to the realization of his sexuality and the boy he loved. Back to the troubling time when his wife threw him out and his family disowned him. Back to uncover disturbing answers amidst drag queens and murky memories–and to reveal whether or not his first real love was truly a twisted killer. Drag Queen in the Court of Death is a taut thriller about a man who needs to face his past in order to forge a future. He must unravel a mystery that’s a quarter century old–no matter how painful the truth may be. (This edition is a reprint of an earlier edition.)

The Tangled Boy

Teenager Cory Williams is the only witness to the murder of wealthy libertine Jordan King as if he didn’t have enough trouble with his plummeting grades, angry parents, taunting schoolmates and his secret desire for other boys. The hero of Caro Soles’s (The Abulon Dance) textured, psychologically astute debut mystery, The Tangled Boy, Williams begins receiving anonymous death threats and, even worse, threats to reveal his entanglements with Jordan King.
(Publishers’ Weekly: Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.)

 

Anthologies:

nEvermore

Dedicated to master dream-weaver, Edgar Allan Poe! nEvermore! Tales of Murder, Mystery and the Macabre is an homage to the great American writer, the incomparable Edgar Allan Poe, and a must-have for every fan of his work.

Compiled by multi-award winning editors, Nancy Kilpatrick and Caro Soles, nEvermore! Tales of Murder, Mystery and the Macabre presents a tantalizing selection of imaginative stories by New York Times best-selling and prize-winning authors Margaret Atwood; Kelley Armstrong; Richard Christian Matheson; Tanith Lee; William F. Nolan; Nancy Holder; Christopher Rice; Chelsea Quinn Yarbro; Michael Jecks; Lisa Morton; J. Madison Davis; Barbara Fradkin, and many others.

DON JUAN AND MEN: stories of lust and seduction

Edited by Caro Soles

The story of Don Juan is a popular one and has appeared in many guises throughout literary and musical history. The Spanish Don with his single minded drive to seduce, conquer and desert those who fall under his spell, fascinates us all. He is a man of power, a man who goes against the rules, a cynic with devastating charm. But the stories in this anthology will explore a side of the Don that has not been examined before. What if Don Juan were gay?

Available in book form: Or in ebook: