Eve Zaremba
Canadian mystery writer (1930–2025)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eve Zaremba (December 29, 1930 – October 8, 2025) was a Canadian mystery writer.[1] She was active in the Women’s liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s.[2][3] She published several novels focusing on Helen Keremos, a private detective described as the first lesbian character in literary history to be the main character in an ongoing series of mystery novels.[4]
Eve Zaremba | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 29, 1930 Kalisz, Poland |
| Died | October 8, 2025 (aged 94) |
| Alma mater | University of Toronto |
| Occupation | Author |
| Notable work | Helen Keremos series |
| Spouse |
Ottie Lockey (m. 2010) |
| Website | www |
Life and career
Born in Poland on December 29, 1930,[5][1] Zaremba moved to the United Kingdom with her family during World War II, spending the remainder of her childhood in London and then Scotland for 10 years.[4] She immigrated to Canada with her parents in 1952,[4] and graduated from the University of Toronto in 1963.
Zeremba's first Helen Keremos novel, A Reason to Kill, was published in 1978 by Paperjacks. At the time, it received little attention except for a feature in The Body Politic.[6] Zaremba wrote five more books in the series and titles have been translated into German and Chinese editions.[2] In 2019, Zaremba announced that a graphic novel adaptation of her second novel, Work for a Million, was expected to be published by Bedside Press in 2020.[7] Following the closure of Bedside Press in 2019,[8][9] the graphic novel (adapted by Amanda Deibert and illustrated by Selena Goulding) was published by McClellend & Stewart in 2021.[10][11]
Oral history interviews with Zaremba are archived at The ArQuives.[12]
In addition to her writing, Zaremba was a co-founder of Broadside: A Feminist Review,[13] one of Canada's first major feminist publications. She also helped found The Women's Place,[14] the Lesbian Organization of Toronto,[4] and Women Against Violence Against Women.[15] She was member of the Writers' Union of Canada.[3] She also worked in advertising, marketing, real estate and publishing, as well as owning a used book store.[4] She lived with her spouse, Ottie Lockey.[2]
Zaremba died October 8, 2025, at the age of 94.[16]
Works
Novels
- A Reason to Kill (1978)
- Work for a Million (1986)
- Beyond Hope (1987)
- Uneasy Lies (1990)
- The Butterfly Effect (1994)
- White Noise (1997)
- Work for a Million (Graphic Novel adaptation) (2021)
Non-fiction
- Privilege of Sex: A Century of Canadian Women (1972) – editor
- The Broad Side, Reflections on a Long Life (2015)