Playwright and screenwriter Ian Weir follows his well-received debut novel, Daniel O’Thunder, with another work of brash historical fiction. Will Starling (Goose Lane Editions, $29.95 cl., Sept.) follows the eponymous hero, a surgeon’s assistant during the Napoleonic Wars, as he tries to find the truth behind a botched grave robbery, a prostitute accused of murder, and the so-called Doomsday Men. • In Beth Goobie’s retelling of the Persephone myth, the high-school-age daughter of a prophetess and a deacon is rechristened Jezebel by an 18-year-old pagan, who also introduces her to a world of trauma and demonic possession. Second Story Press will publish The First Principles of Dreaming ($19.95 pa.) in September. • The first novel by Vancouver writer Chelsea Rooney tells the story of a 25-year-old woman who embarks on a cross-Canada bike trip after her boyfriend and her thesis adviser both dump her on the same day. Pedal ($21.95 pa.) appears from Caitlin Press in October.

A failed actor returns to Edmonton following the sudden death of his parents, only to discover evidence that his mother may have been conducting a long-term affair. Laurence Miall’s debut novel, Blind Spot ($19.95 pa., Sept.), is the 38th title in NeWest Press’s Nunatak First Fiction series. • Noted YA author Richard Scarsbrook’s new comic novel, The Indifference League (Dundurn Press, $19.99 pa., Sept.), asks whether it is possible to have heroes in a world that has blurred the lines between good and evil, right and wrong. • Richard Rosenbaum follows his spring non-fiction release, Raise Some Shell: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, with a new work of fiction. Described as “a semi-metafictional tale,” Revenge of the Grand Narrative (Quattro Books, $18 pa., Oct.) is about a writer who has penned the world’s most anticipated debut novel.

Q&Q’s fall preview covers books published between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2014 • All information (titles, prices, publication dates, etc.) was supplied by publishers and may have been tentative at Q&Q’s press time