True Crime
Black River Road
By Debra Komar
Shortlisted, Arthur Ellis Best Non-Fiction Crime Book Award
In 1869, in the woods just outside of the bustling port city of Saint John, a group of teenaged berry pickers discovered several badly decomposed bodies. The authorities suspected foul play, but the identities of the ... Read more
Chris & Nancy
By Irvin Muchnick
The Benoit murder-suicide in 2007 was one of the most shocking stories of the year, and a seminal event in the history of wrestling.
In “The Ultimate Historical Edition” of his classic 2009 true crime account, Chris & Nancy, Irvin Muchnick extends his definitive record ... Read more
Crime and Policing in Maritime Canada
By Peter McGahan
Fascinating accounts of criminal and police life in major centres of the Maritimes. These are very human narratives of what policing meant in different places and at different times from the 1830s to the 1960s.
Dead Reckoning
By Carys Cragg
Finalist, Governor General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction
A Globe 100 Best Book of the Year
Finalist, Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize (BC Book Prizes)
When Carys Cragg was eleven, her father, a respected doctor, was brutally murdered in his own home by an intruder. Twenty years ... Read more
Final Appeal
By Colin Thatcher
On May 7, 1984, Colin Thatcher was convicted of killing his ex-wife JoAnn Wilson the previous year, and was sentenced to life in prison. The murder and the trial provoked a national media frenzy, and the once-prominent Saskatchewan politician was cast nationwide as a villain, ... Read more
Horseplay
By Norm Boucher
In his first true crime memoir, undercover operator Norm Boucher recounts eight months spent infiltrating Vancouver's heroin scene, a world of paranoia, ripoffs, and violence. It is 1983 and the War on Drugs is intensifying. From his observer's seat in barrooms, Boucher candidly ... Read more
Jersey Tough
By Wayne “Big Chuck” Bradshaw
With Douglas P. Love
Foreword by Renzo Gracie
The only patch-wearing outlaw biker to become a sworn police officer — and live to tell his tale
In 1977, Wayne “Big Chuck” Bradshaw was Jersey tough. He was a member of the outlaw Pagans bike gang, a One Percenter, and had earned his colours in a world of boozing, bloody ... Read more
Lynching of Peter Wheeler
By Debra Komar
At 2:21 am on September 8, 1896, authorities in Nova Scotia killed an innocent man. Peter Wheeler — a "coloured" man accused of murdering a white girl — was strung up with a slipknot noose. The hanging was state-sanctioned but it was a lynching all the same. Now, a re-examination ... Read more
Mickey Cohen
By Tere Tereba
Go deep into the L. A. underworld with the true story of one obsessive gangster’s unparalleled quest for privilege, power, and paydays
This biography of celebrity gangster Mickey Cohen digs past the sensational headlines to deliver a remarkable story of a man who captivated, ... Read more
Murder by Milkshake
By Eve Lazarus
Finalist for Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Prize (BC Book Prizes); Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award; City of Vancouver Book Award
When forty-year-old Esther Castellani died a slow and agonizing death in Vancouver in 1965, the official cause was at first undetermined. ... Read more