@ William Deverell.com

Winner of the Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in North American Crime Writing

Arthur Beauchamp is...

"Arthur is a wonderful creation. In his robes and suspenders and with his hawk-like nose, he has no par in the courtroom, a real Clarence Darrow. But privately he is racked with insecurities: about his new wife, whether his legal prowess  -- indeed his very mind -- is fading, not to mention having to deal with all these new-fangled gadgets like cell phones and computers."    -- John McKay, Canadian Press.

"Arthur Beauchamp is a lovely guy -- spouting Latin, worrying about getting up to speed in the courtroom after such a hiatus and fearing an inability to get it up [for] Margaret. He manages to be a scholar, a courtroom wonder, and a doofus."     --- Candace Fertile, Victoria Times-Colonist

"Arthur Ramsgate Beauchamp has risen yet again. The fusty, feisty, now-retired lawyer is … a wonderfully rich character -- heroic yet fallible, droll and cynical, yet almost helpless in his love for Margaret. He is also barely confident in what he sees as his eroding lawyer's skills."     -- Jeff George, Quill and Quire.

"For 20 years, Canadians of all ages watched The Beachcombers, a beguiling TV series set on British Columbia's Sunshine Coast. The show often strained credulity with its hokey plots, stilted writing and two- dimensional characters, but all in all, it was as Canadian as a Haida totem pole. With a plot set on Garibaldi Island, off the B.C. coast, April Fool, the latest offering by William Deverell, paddles up the same inlet but with far more sophisticated effect. A deliberate cross between the contrived slapstick of Gilligan's Island and multilayered sophistication of Law and Order, April Fool thrusts itself brashly into the reader's psyche like a lumber-jacketed logger at a black-tie affair.     -- Chuck Konkel, Globe and Mail

"Wily yet insecure Arthur Beauchamp is the kind of lawyer you might see arguing the defence in one of the big criminal trials. He's a terrific character, brought to life in this novel by veteran writer (and lawyer) William Deverell." — Ian Bailey, Vancouver Province.

“April Fool thrusts itself brashly into the reader’s psyche like a lumber-jacketed logger at a black-tie affair. Ruggedly individualistic, demanding and determined, its characters are shrewdly etched and realistically rendered.” — Globe and Mail

“The dialogue crackles, the style is sharp and compelling, and it’s a treat to spend another book with Beauchamp.” — Vancouver Sun

Trial of Passion

"Now, in the estimable Arthur Beauchamp, he [Deverell] has a lawyer-detective who deserves to live beyond this book.... Beauchamp is a marvelous character, his mind crammed with failures and poetry, pompous and funny."     -- Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail

"The lawyer in question is the splendid creation Arthur Beauchamp, formerly a leading Vancouver criminal lawyer, now retired to the (ahem) Gulf islands to recover from alcoholism and escape the daily pain of his wife's infidelity.... This isn't the first time Deverell fans have met Arthur Beauchamp. In the mid-80s thriller The Dance of Shiva, Beauchamp was a roaring alcoholic who had to defend a guru accused of murdering all his followers near Desolation Sound. Beauchamp collapsed and a younger lawyer had to take over."     -- Max Wyman, book editor, Vancouver Sun

"Arthur Beauchamp is the character who holds the novel together.... [He] is a delightful character, verbose, slightly pompous, who refers to himself as a 'harmless pouf who prefers to be a lone with his dead Latin poets.'"     -- Anna Asimakopulos, Montreal Gazette.

"…not to mention comic relief in the 'greening of Arthur Beauchamp' who moves to an island on the West Coast and in a short time loses his Rolls, his big-city addiction to material things, and the taste for a lifestyle that has left him impotent and alcoholic.         -- Sharon Adams, Calgary Herald.

"Arthur Beauchamp is a complex man beset by many personal demons, from his alcoholism to his sexual impotence. Self-described as pedantic and donnish, Beauchamp is nonetheless endearing... His reappearance here [after The Dance of Shiva] is a testament to the interest and sympathy he generates in his readers."     --- Catherine Thompson, Saint John Telegraph-Journal “The mystery aspect of this novel is top-notch, but it is easily surpassed by the larger-than-life character of Arthur Beauchamp, a truly memorable person. Perhaps every five years or so I re-read a mystery -- it is a rare occasion. I will re-read this book. It was such a delight. It is the best book that I have read in the 1990s, the only book in my 13 years of review that I have ever given five stars to.” --- George Easter, editor, Deadly Pleasures Magazine