Nick Fonda has worked as a lumberjack (hauling logs with horses not skidders), farmer, carpenter, restauranteur and raconteur and squeezed in a career as a teacher, both in the UK and Canada. Based in Richmond, Quebec, he presides the Richmond County Historical Society and contributes regularly to The Record, The Townships Outlet and the Quebec Heritage News.

Nick Fonda's profile page

"Fonda is a strongly visual and conversational writer who has created a very believable setting for this work. ... My final impression of Murder on the Orford Mountain Raiway is that it is an entertaining read and also that it might make an engaging Young Adult semi-novel-mystery-love story for older high school students, especially with its local flavour of last century small town Quebec." Sandra Stock,Quebec Heritage News “ The details are so precise, so well turned, that one cannot help but imagine it's all real. And a lot of it is — So along with a great fictionalized murder mystery, the reader is privy to a fantastic history lesson about the railway system in our very own Eastern Townships. ” Sharon Morrissey, Montreal Review of Books

“(Fonda's) poet's ear brings a delicate lightness to his work that contrasts wonderfully with the dark subject matter?” Forward Reviews' review of Fonda's Principals and other Schoolyard Bullies.

“ Fonda's characters are well-drawn, coming to life on the page with intelligence and imagination. ” “Zoe Whittall

“Nick Fonda has a great sense of compassion. (?) These stories are memorable for what they say and for what they suggest. We are made better, as individuals, for listening to Nick Fonda's voices. ” Alistair MacLeod, winner of the 1999 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

“midway between a piece of historical fiction and an account of true crime” it is an engaging step back in time, one that will leave readers enlightened and engaged about our forebears and the world they lived in.” Jim Napier, Ottawa Review of Books