Mysteries often begin with a question.
For Ottawa editor Anne Howland, the question was whether the worlds she knew best — journalism and horseback riding — could come together in fiction. The answer became her debut novel and the start of a new mystery series.
Howland, editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Business Journal — which, like the Kitchissippi Times, is owned by Great River Media — recently released her debut mystery novel, Jumping to Conclusions, the first in a planned series centred on Fanta Delaney, a 25-year-old community newspaper reporter who becomes entangled in a murder investigation connected to the competitive horse-show circuit.
“It’s the first in a series,” Howland said. “And my sleuth, who’s named Fanta, she has just started at her local community newspaper … but in her personal life, she loves horses.”
In Jumping to Conclusions, Fanta uses her reporting instincts and familiarity with the equestrian world to investigate the killing of a prominent show-jumping rider near a major competition — someone she had admired from afar.
For Howland, who writes under the name of A.V. Howland, combining those settings felt natural.
She spent much of her youth riding competitively before building a career in journalism, and the overlap between those experiences shaped the foundation of the book. She was also inspired by mystery writers who place their stories inside specialized communities, giving readers a glimpse into worlds they might not otherwise encounter.
“One thing that is a real theme throughout the series is (Fanta’s) work in the media,” Howland said. “And I really tried to give an accurate portrait of what it’s like to work in local journalism.”
That realism extends beyond newsroom routines to the uncertainty many reporters experience early in their careers — including the pressure to prove their value while navigating shrinking newsrooms and financial challenges facing the industry.
Although Howland has spent decades working as a journalist and editor, shifting into fiction required rethinking how stories are told.
News writing emphasizes clarity, structure and objectivity, while fiction demands immersion in a character’s perspective and emotional world. Learning how to move beyond the traditional “inverted pyramid” structure of journalism and instead build character arcs, suspense and misdirection took time.
She also faced the challenge of balancing technical accuracy with accessibility when describing equestrian competition scenes. The goal, she said, was to make the book credible for experienced riders without overwhelming general readers with detail.
While the novel centres on a murder investigation, the series also explores broader themes about early adulthood, relationships and identity.
“At its core, it’s about not judging people by their appearance,” Howland said.
Through Fanta’s experiences, the story touches on navigating friendships after school, balancing finances with personal passions, building independence from parents and trying to establish a career in a competitive field. Those themes also reflect Howland’s own perspective looking back across decades of life and work.
“I just turned 60 and you look back and you think about things that you learned or things that you wish you’d known – your relationship with your parents now that both of them are gone – and, you know, it’s a tough journey, I think, for all of us.”
Animals also play an important role in the series. Alongside the horses central to the setting, Howland intentionally gave dogs meaningful roles in the story rather than treating them as background details.
“It was very important to me that the dogs not just be props,” she said.
The novel’s origins trace back to 2021, when Howland began writing during a difficult stretch professionally. After several layoffs in a short period, she stepped away from corporate life and took a job as a grocery store cashier during the pandemic — a period she describes as a turning point.
“In 2021, I’d been laid off from three jobs in the space of three years,” she said. “I probably had a bit of a breakdown, to be honest, and I just wanted out.”
Writing mysteries started as a creative exercise rather than a publishing goal. She approached the process almost like solving a puzzle, experimenting with classic mystery structures and storytelling techniques she admired as a reader.
Over time, that experiment grew into multiple manuscripts. Howland wrote five books before eventually securing representation and moving toward publication. The plan now is to release the books gradually as part of an ongoing series, with the second instalment, Off Course, expected later this year.
Jumping to Conclusions is available for purchase on Amazon, at Perfect Books on Elgin, and at many Indigo locations.