Behind the Shadows: A Sneak Peek at My Debut Thriller.
My Writing Journey / The Profiler's Shadow
If you had told me years ago that I would be sitting here, just forty-eight hours away from revealing the cover of my debut novel, I’m not sure I would have believed you. But on Tuesday, September 15th, The Profiler’s Shadow will officially get its face, thanks to the incredible team at DarkWinter Press and my talented niece Annie, who designed the cover art.
To celebrate the final stretch of this countdown, I wanted to share an exclusive, hyper-focused sneak peek of the cover art with my website community:
Those eyes carry a deliberate psychological intensity. For a psychological thriller, sight and observation are everything. But for me, this graphic represents something much deeper.
Stepping Into the Light
It has taken me a long time to say this fact out loud without a wave of imposter syndrome creeping in (thank you, Dharma Kelleher, for your book, Breakthrough), but it is an objective truth: I am currently the only out transgender woman author of dark, queer psychological crime thrillers in Canada. That last phrase carries a lot of weight, and I’m happy to hold this space for every other trans writer coming into this genre.
For decades, mainstream crime fiction has used marginalized communities—specifically trans women—as flat plot devices, convenient victims, or caricatured villains. When I set out to write my protagonist, Mary Dubois, I wanted to shatter those tropes entirely.
Mary is a transgender woman and a brilliant former Sûreté du Québec profiler. When a brutal new case forces her out of self-imposed seclusion, she comes close to panicking, but her sense of justice wins out. Instead, she subverts every expectation by turning her past trauma into a triumphant, strategic weapon of survival. She commands her intellect, commands her forensic training, and takes on the challenge.
Twenty-plus Years in the Landscape
This book feels incredibly personal to me. I lived in Sainte-Béatrix and other Lanaudière villages for nearly 25 years. I know the bone-chilling cold of those rural Québec winters and black fly-filled woods during the hot and humid summer months. I know the quiet, heavy stillness of those vast forests.
When you spend a quarter of a century rooted in a landscape, that geography becomes a character in its own right. The isolation Mary seeks in Lanaudière mirrors her internal psychological walls—walls that she must tear down if she wants to outsmart a killer.
Mark Your Calendars for Tuesday!
This journey has been about reclaiming space—both for Mary Dubois on the page, and for myself in the Canadian noir landscape. Stating who I am and what this book represents isn't an act of arrogance; it’s an act of clarity and pride.
The full, official cover reveal drops this Tuesday, September 15th.
Want to make sure you don't miss it? Sign up for my newsletter mailing list to get the reveal sent straight to your inbox the moment it goes live.
Let's chat: Leave a comment below! What do you think is hiding in the shadows of this artwork? What are you most excited to see in Mary's story?
Thank you for walking this path with me. The shadows are lifting.
Joelle
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/257506518-the-profiler-s-shadow
