About the Author Marion Crook and Emma Dakin

Emma Dakin is Marion Crook. As Emma Dakin she writes a series of cozy mysteries, The British Book Tour Mysteries, set in Britain and published by Camel Press, Seattle, WA. Hazards in Hampshire (2019), Crime in Cornwall (2020), Perils in Yorkshire (2021), Danger in Edinburgh (2022), Shadows in Sussex, (September, 2023), Storms in the Cotswolds (2024), Murder on Ashton-on-Tinch (2026).Check these out at your independent bookstores and Amazon.

US https://tinyurl.com/y935amzt

Canada https://tinyurl.com/y788ashz

As Marion McKinnon Crook she wrote Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin (2021) which won the 2022 BC Historical Federation’s Community History Award and was a finalist for the Lieutenant Governor Community History Award. The sequel Always on Call: Adventures in Nursing, Ranching, and Rural Living published by Heritage House Publishing won a 2023 BC Arts Award and was a finalist for the BC Book Prizes Bill Duthie Award (2024). Her biography Bloomsbury to Barkerville: The Life of Florence Wilson published by Heritage House Publishing (2026) won the Sunshine Coast Creative Non-fiction Award 2026.

Crook writes historical mysteries. Murder in Vancouver 1886 published by Epicenter Press Seattle, WA. (2025) won the Arts and Words Sunshine Coast fiction award (2025).

Marion Crook creates adventures, mysteries and practical books of instruction. She researches her fiction as carefully as she researches her nonfiction, interviewing people who meet challenges, hardship, joy and excitement.

Marion is an intrepid traveler from the rural community of Arctic Bay to the Appalachian hills of Kentucky, continually seeking new ideas from the people she meets. In addition to being a writer, she has been a rancher, a public health nurse, a researcher and a university teacher. An experienced speaker, Marion Crook, can inspire groups to have confidence in their own writing, as well as give readings and comments on her own work.

email emma@emmadakinauthor.com or

mmcrook@telus.net

Education

PhD Faculty of Education University of British Columbia
MA, Liberal Studies Simon Fraser University
BScN, Seattle University

Teaching

Full time faculty at Kwantlen Polytechnic University for eleven years. Also taught at University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University short courses.

Awards

As Marion McKinnon Crook she wrote

Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin (2021) which won the 2022 BC Historical Federation’s Community History Award and was a finalist for the Lieutenant Governor Community History Award. It also won a BC Arts Council Award

The sequel Always on Call: Adventures in Nursing, Ranching, and Rural Living published by Heritage House Publishing won a 2023 BC Arts Award and was a finalist for the BC Book Prizes Bill Duthie Award (2024).

Her biography Bloomsbury to Barkerville: The Life of Florence Wilson published by Heritage House Publishing (2026) won the Sunshine Coast Creative Non-fiction Award 2026.

Murder in Vancouver 1886 published by Epicenter Press Seattle, WA. (2025) won the Arts and Words Sunshine Coast fiction award (2025).

Writing – Non Fiction

(2026) Bloomsbury to Barkerville: The Life of Florence Wilson. Heritage House Publishing, Victoria, BC

(2022) Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin. Heritage house Publishing, Victoria BC
(2016) Thicker Than Blood: Adoptive Parenting in the Modern World. Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, BC
(2016) Writing for Children and Young Adults. 3rd edition. Self-Counsel Press. North Vancouver.
(2003) Out of the Darkness: Teens talk about suicide. Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver.

(2000) The Face in the Mirror: teenagers and adoption. Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver,

Fiction

(2026) Murder on Aston-on-Tinch The British Book Tour mysteries Book 7. Camel Press, Seattle, WA
(2025) Murder in Vancouver 1886. Epicenter Press, SEattle, WA
The British Book Tour mysteries Book 6. Camel Press, Seattle, WA
(2024) Storms in the Cotswolds The British Book Tour mysteries Book 6. Camel Press, Seattle, WA.
(2023) Shadows in Sussex The British Book Tour Mysteries Book 5. Camel Press, Seattle, WA.
(2022) Danger in Edinburgh The British Book Tour Mysteries Book 4. Camel Press, Seattle, WA.
(2021) Perils in Yorkshire The British Book Tour Mysteries Book 3. Camel Press, Seattle, WA.
(2020) Crime in Cornwall The British Book Tour Mysteries Book 2. Camel Press, Seattle, WA
(2019) Hazards in Hampshire The British Book Tour Mysteries Book 1. Camel Press, Seattle, WA.

Plays

Crook, Marion & Norris, Linda. (2010) Gibsons’ Gold. Original music, Gaetan Bergevin. Lyrics, Marion Crook. Three Act Musical Comedy. Eight performances. United Players, Gibsons, BC.

Conference Papers, speaking engagements and published articles

“A true mosaic: Representing cultural populations in nursing students”. With Gurm, B; Symonds, D. Edmonton: Society for Teaching and Learning Conference, June 2007. With Gurm, B; Symonds, D. Pacific Nursing Research Conference, Feb. 2006
“Crack cocaine addiction: Nursing student’s knowledge and attitudes”. Pacific Nursing Research Conference, Hawaii, Feb 2006
“Building capacity for healthy living”. National Aboriginal Injury Prevention Conference Winnipeg, MN June, 2004
“Writing narrative inquiry with skill and expertise.” Vaines Symposium, U.B.C.Sept 20, 2003.
“Despair/Hope The difficult metonymic space/generating emptiness and new life -The cr/ack of crack.” Winnipeg: Canadian Council of Teachers of English Language Arts. English Quarterly, Vol 33, no. 3 & 4, 2001.
“Working with Teens,” Transitions, Ottawa: The Vanier Institute of the Family, Autumn 2001.
“Rural high school education: the view of students around education in a northern rural high school in British Columbia,” American Educational Research Association, Seattle, April 2001
“Inter-racial Adoption” Adoption Education Program, guest appearance, Adoptive Parents Association, Victoria, June 23, 01
“As we see it: students= narratives of educational advantages and disadvantages in a northern, rural high school,” Ministry of Education Sponsored Research Symposium and Data Workshops, February 2001
“Writing non-fiction for teens,” Winnipeg Writers= Festival, Winnipeg, Oct. 13, 2000
Workshop on preventing suicide in aboriginal teens with Rod McCormick and Chris Patsey, CASP conference, Vancouver, Oct 11, 2000
“Writing for Kids and Teens,” Word on the Street, Vancouver, Sept 24, 2000
“Writing to Control the world: Aboriginal teen women and writing,” CSSE, Edmonton, May, 2000. Published English Quarterly, 2000.
“Controlling the Body: an exploration of the ways in which teens use their choice to live or die as a locus of social control,” Permeable Boundaries: disciplines in dialogue, UBC, February 2, 1999.
“Story as a Validation of Teen Culture,” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing Conference, Bloomington, Indiana, October 1998
“How Teens Can Help,” Let’s Live Conference, Regina, SK, October 1996
National Ethics Council on Research Conference, Feb, 2009
National Ethics Council on Research Conference, Feb. 2008, Ottawa
Aboriginal Research Conference, Nov 2008, Prince George, BC

Editorial Experience

Editing

Gangs: our Part by Dianne Symonds and Keiron McConnell September, 2019.
Editing full length manuscripts for authors.

Nursing

Public Health nurse in the Cariboo country of British Columbia and Richmond and Surrey, BC. and Cariboo Memorial Hospital.

Community Education and Public Relations

Member of the Research Ethics Board, Kwantlen University College, 2001 to 2004, 2006-2010
Chair Research Ethics Board, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 2009 – 2010
Member of committee for the organization of the Canadian Association of Suicide Prevention national conference Oct 11-14, 2000
Appointed by the provincial government as a member of the Advisory Council to the Minister of Health on Women’s Health Issues, member of the Mental Health Sub-committee 1997 – 1999
Approximately 30 guest appearances on television 1989 to present
Approximately 70 guest interviews on radio 1989 to present