DARTMOUTH, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA — September 11, 2026 — Some books are just good for a quick escape. Others stick around in your head because they dig into the messy parts of human nature. That’s the sweet spot David R. Canning hits with Ambition’s Price, A Game of Shadows, and The Three Boys. They span totally different genres, but they’re all tied to one core truth: every choice you make leaves a mark, and chasing power, justice, or deep secrets always comes with a bill you have to pay.

Ambition’s Price: A Nova Scotia Tale

This one drops you straight into 18th-century Nova Scotia, focusing on Mary “Polly” Cannon. It’s an incredible character study; she starts out as a bright girl helping run her family’s inn and grows into a remarkably sharp, influential businesswoman.

David Canning surrounds her with a lot of moving parts: political games, Freemason secrets, hidden treasure, and constantly shifting loyalties. What makes Polly stand out is her intuition. She uses her wits to navigate brutal colonial power struggles and heavy moral choices. Instead of just using history as a pretty backdrop, Canning uses the era to really look at what happens when ambition takes over and what it takes to hold onto your integrity.

A Game of Shadows

If you want a total 180 in pace, this is a gritty, fast-moving psychological thriller built around corporate espionage. The hook is great: three elite assassins, all dealing with serious emotional baggage, get played into hunting each other down through anonymous hit contracts.

Naturally, the betrayal gives way to an uneasy alliance. They end up stumbling into a massive global conspiracy involving international arms deals and shadow organizations. They join forces with Colleen Masters, a woman on a desperate hunt for justice after her father is assassinated. It’s a wild, action-heavy ride, but underneath the gunfire, it’s really a story about paranoia, revenge, and the mental toll of living a life of violence.

The Three Boys

David Canning heads back to Nova Scotia for this one but skips forward to the summer of 1922. It kicks off with a classic childhood-adventure vibe; three young friends become obsessed with local rumors about a buried treasure near Parrsboro.

But what starts as an innocent summer trip spirals into a massive, decades-spanning mystery. It pulls you in with old journals, long-buried family secrets, and questions that just won’t stay hidden. While the treasure hunt is a lot of fun, the real heart of the book is its look at legacy, showing how the choices one generation makes ripple down to shape the lives of the kids who follow them. It’s a genuinely moving story about friendship and memory.

About the author

Canning has some serious range as a writer. Jumping from deep historical fiction to modern espionage, and then to a multi-generational mystery isn’t easy, but he makes it work by focusing on the people. The plots are big, but the characters’ internal struggles matter just as much as the chaos around them.

If you appreciate immersive fiction that delivers rich history, tight suspense, and characters who feel like real people, these books are well worth your time. They’re great standalone reads, but together they drive home a great point: our toughest fights aren’t usually against the villains outside, but the ones inside our own heads. Together, the novels suggest that history, ambition, loyalty, and truth are deeply connected, and that every important choice leaves consequences that reach far beyond the moment it is made.

Media Contact
Company Name: David R. Canning
Contact Person: D.R. Canning
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Phone: 1 902 830-4965
Country: Canada
Website: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FWN882DS