I was born in Nova Scotia, Canada; a first-generation Canadian of Dutch parents.
My debut novel, Family Business, was shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize. I have two other Historical Fiction; with my novel Torn Asunder, published in 2019, receiving several readers’ awards from the U.K., Canada and the U.S. including an Honorable Mention from the Readers’ Favorite International Book Contest (U.S.A.). In 2019 I was commissioned to produce a coffee-table non-fiction book about the military history of my former regiment, called 32 Signal Regiment, Royal Canadian Corps of Signals: A History.
In 2021, I published the first in a series of mysteries with Garden Girl, a police procedural set in Cape Breton, N.S. In 2022, book two in the series was launched with Sea Child and in 2023 book three Heritage House was published and shortlisted for a prestigious Whistler Independent Book Award.
Late in 2023 the first in a new series of cozy mysteries called Canadian Cottage Country Mysteries was launched with Lakeside Beauty. This book features a realtor named Shannon Coyne who lives in Port Hope Ontario and specializes in the cottage market around Rice Lake, but her real vocation seems to be in solving murder mysteries with her cocker spaniel, Dusty, by her side.
I have a BA in English Literature from Trent University and studied creative writing at Ryerson University. I live in rural Ontario with my Great Pyrenees and Golden Retriever, and vacation at my cottage in Nova Scotia.
Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rennyvdegroot/
Twitter: @renny_degroot
Instagram: @renny_degroot
TikTok: @rennydegroot
Memberships:
The Writers Union of Canada
Crime Writers of Canada
The Writers’ Community of Durham Region
Sudbury Writers’ Guild
Regimental Advisory Council, 32 Signal Regiment
SOCAN (The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada)