Books
FIFTEEN LANES

Noor has lived all of her fourteen years in the fifteen lanes of Mumbai’s red light district. Born into a brothel, she is destined for the same fate as her mother: a desperate life trapped in the city’s sex trade. She must act soon to have any chance of escaping this grim future.
Across the sprawling city, fifteen-year-old Grace enjoys a life of privilege. Her father, the CEO of one of India’s largest international banks, has brought his family to Mumbai where they live in unparalleled luxury. But Grace’s seemingly perfect life is shattered when she becomes a victim of a cruel online attack.
When their paths intersect, Noor and Grace will be changed forever. Can two girls living in vastly different worlds find a common path?
Award-winning author S.J. Laidlaw masterfully weaves together their stories in a way that resonates across class and culture. Fifteen Lanes boldly explores the ties that bind us to places and people, and shows us that the strongest of bonds can be forged when hope is all but lost.

The Voice Inside My Head

Seventeen-year-old Luke’s older sister, Pat, has always been his moral compass, like a voice inside his head, every time he has a decision to make. So when Pat disappears on a tiny island off the coast of Honduras and the authorities claim she’s drowned – despite the fact that they can’t produce a body – Luke heads to Honduras to find her because he knows something the authorities don’t. From the moment of her disappearance, Pat’s voice has become real, guiding him to Utila, where she had accepted a summer internship to study whale sharks. Once there, he meets several characters who describe his sister as a very different girl from the one knows. Does someone have a motive for wanting her dead? Determined to get to the bottom of Pat’s disappearance, Luke risks everything, including his own life, to find the answer.

 

Reviews

This absorbing mystery might or might not be paranormal, but it’s certainly constantly interesting…A satisfying mystery peopled with characters readers will be happy they’ve come to know.
Kirkus Reviews

An Infidel in Paradise

Sixteen-year-old Emma is no stranger to moving. The daughter of a Canadian diplomat, her life has been a series of changing landscapes, cultures and friendships. But when her parents split up and she and her siblings are forced to move to Pakistan with her mother, her feelings of loss and culture shock are overwhelming . Add to that rising political tensions, and her attraction to a local boy who has been promised to someone else, and Emma’s life very quickly spirals out of control, putting herself and those she loves in mortal danger.


Reviews

“Emma’s first-person, present-tense narration is realistic and compelling”
— VOYA Magazine

“Laidlaw does not hold back from depicting some of the less-attractive aspects of Pakistani life, but she also conveys a sense of the beauty and wonder of this culture.”
— School Library Journal

“An Infidel in Paradise is a very well-written evocation of both a tormented teen and the exotic setting she finds herself in.”
Quill and Quire

“Laidlaw has created a rich and layered text… Highly recommended”
CM Magazine

“. . . I hope every teen reads this book, and that everyone who knows a teen reads it.”
About.com

CBC recommended reading