Riga Blanca, the latest mystery novel by Latvian-Canadian writer and artist Ilze Berzins, is due to be released Nov. 28 by local publisher Albert Street Press of Ottawa.

The book is a follow-up to last year’s Riga Mortis, which introduced the characters of Vizma Gross and Arnie Dambergs, two Latvian expatriates who teamed up to solve a crime.

“The novel,” Berzins said, “jets the reader from legal Ottawa to the criminal underworld of present day Rīga and explores the relationship between expats, local Latvians and the Russian ‘minority.’” The central character is Valeria Atnikova, a prosecutor who counts on financier and philanthropist George Soros to send her to America, from where she vows never to return.

Also in the story is Ottawa attorney Andy Laci and his wife Paulette, as well as Gross and Dambergs.

Berzins credits the title to a character in the story.

“Andy’s French-Canadian wife imagines Rīga to be another Casablanca with noir little bars, shady louche ex-KGBs, sexy femme fatales,” she said. “Casablanca is also the film Paulette and Andy watch on the night of their wedding anniversaries and it has become their film—their film and ultimately their nemesis.”

Cost of the book will be USD 20 plus postage and will be available direct from Berzins, who may be contact by e-mail at ilzeberzins@hotmail.com.

A retired Latvian professor’s tale about an 800-mile canoe expedition in northern Canada has been published by Toronto-based Natural Heritage Books.

The 176-page book, From Reindeer Lake to Eskimo Point, includes a foreward by George (Juris) Luste, a fellow Latvian who led the trip, Kazaks said.

The expedition took Kazaks, Luste and two other men from Reindeer Lake on the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, north into Nunavut province to Hudson Bay, according to the publisher’s description of the book.

Kazaks, who studied at McGill University, Yale University and the University of California at Davis, is a retired physics professor from New College in Sarasota, Fla. He now lives in Davis, Calif.

From Reindeer Lake to Eskimo Point is available for CAD 22.95 direct from Natural Heritage Books.

Latvia will face Turkey in games Nov. 15 and 19 as it vies for a spot in the UEFA Euro 2004 football (soccer) finals, according to Latvian media reports.

The first game is scheduled at 8:15 p.m. local time in the Skonto stadium in Rīga, but the Nov. 19 match will be played in Istanbul, Turkey.

Latvia is one of 10 teams in the playoffs for a spot in the final tournament. The five winners of the playoffs will join 11 other teams already qualified for the finals, which are scheduled between June 12 and July 4 in Portugal.

Latvia earned a spot in the playoffs by gaining runner-up status in its group in qualifying games played between September 2002 and October 2003. Other national teams in Latvia’s group included Hungary, Poland, San Marino and Sweden, which came in first and advanced to the finals.

Other teams already in the finals are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Switzerland.