The Dance of Shiva

Twenty members of a cult are found massacred on an isolated island on Canada’s West Coast. Their leader, Shiva Ram Acharya, is brought to trial, and the great Arthur Beauchamp defends him, assisted by his junior counsel Max Macarthur. Shiva claims to have amnesia and refuses to participate in his own defence. But Macarthur gradually becomes convinced of his innocence, embarking on the greatest challenge of his career — a dangerous quest for the true murderer — and falling under the sway of the brilliant, enigmatic Shiva. Is Shiva a madman or a messiah?

AUTHOR

William Deverell

After careers as a journalist, criminal lawyer, and political activist, William Deverell turned to fiction and on his first effort won the $50,000 Seal First Novel Award. Since then, he has earned multiple prizes for his 20 published novels, including the Dashiell Hammett Prize for Literary Excellence in Crime Writing in North America, two Crime Writers of Canada Awards (formerly the Arthur Ellis Award) for Best Canadian Novel, and two runners-up for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. He holds two honorary Doctor of Letters degrees and lives in Pender Island, British Columbia.