@ William Deverell.com
Winner of the Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in North American Crime Writing
April Fool
"Hugely entertaining." Calgary Herald
"The insular life of isolated places - Bamfield, Garibaldi - expensive law firms and the courtroom are handled with an insider's knowledge and an iconoclastic sense of humour. Deverell writes breathless prose. 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 when Margaret leaves her perch. He manages to be a scholar, a courtroom wonder and a doofus. April Fool spills over with idiosyncratic characters. The novel blasts out of the starting gate, rockets along, is hugely entertaining. Deverell plays with the blending of good and bad, but one thing is transparent - the fight for the environment, however goofy at times, is essential." Edmonton Journal
"A lively courtroom drama with elements of a traditional puzzle mystery, punctuated by periodic returns to the ecological protest and to the loveliness of Nature itself. Deverell got right through my defences this time, especially in the attractive portrait of his ageing protagonist, with his insecurities, his Latin tags, his courtly, unintentional sexism, and his formidable cross-examination skills. His loving descriptions of the natural landscape, based on his own residence on Pender Island, BC, are also delightful. www.reviewingtheevidence.com
"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 legendary legal prowess - indeed his very mind - is fading, not to mention having to deal with all these new-fangled gadgets like cellphones and computers. Then there's a catastrophic experiment with Viagra . . . Can Arthur solve the Faloon case by fingering the real killer Perry Mason-style and play knight-in-legal-armour for his bride at the same time? Deverell will have readers smiling and thumbing pages anxiously. The Canadian Press
"A master storyteller with a wonderful sense of humour. The story flows effortlessly, and readers are twigs on the river, along for one hellof a ride." Quill and Quire.
"Tough, puckishly cynical, with a cunning eye for detail and whippet-like sense of humour, Deverell has ventured into the tumultuous heart of the justice system... with a book chock-full of delightful characters." 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
"This novel is memorable for its nuanced characters. Deverell burrows into Beauchamp's soul, and we see almost everything unfold through his addled but fascinating perspective." Vancouver Province
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Mind Games
Psychiatrist Dr. Tim Dare’s life is falling apart: his wife has just left him, he’s being hauled before a disciplinary committee, and now someone’s threatening to kill him
In his gripping new novel, Mind Games, William Deverell returns to the intriguing territory of the law and lawyers and of human psychology and motivation, and he does so in familiar Deverell surroundings: the streets, courtrooms, and waters of Vancouver.
Dr. Tim Dare is a forensic psychiatrist whose life is in a mess: his wife has just left him to find herself; his mother is being sued for libel by a small-town mayor over a mystery novel; he’s been made the monitor of a man just out of psychiatric hospital, a man he considers a psychopathic murderer; he’s being hauled before a disciplinary committee; one of his patients is transferring feelings to him rather too romantically; and now someone’s threatening to kill him. He can’t even get into an elevator without falling apart. No wonder he thinks he needs to see a shrink himself. Under the guidance of fellow psychiatrist Dr. Allison Epstein, Dare gradually learns how to face the demons within – and those in the real world that are really out to get him.
"William Deverell is well known for his erudite legal thrillers... His best novels combine the insider's knowledge of the strength and foibles of the justice system with dense, complicated plots, great dialogue, and very human protagonists. In Mind Games, Deverell has turned his attention to psychiatry...
Mind Games is an exciting story, well told. The characters are engaging, a sense of impending doom penetrates every page. Which threat is imagined, and which one real? Whose version of the "truth" is to be believed? Are characters deluding others, or just themselves? Mind games, indeed!" The Globe & Mail
"William Deverell has a knack for surprising his readers while giving them exactly what they want. Rather than fall into predictability over the course of his dozen novels (a tempting rut that attracts many genre writers), he has experimented with setting and approach, characterization and theme to such a degree that a new Deverell novel is always genuinely unexpected and unique. What's common to all his writing is storytelling strength and a deft hand with characterization.
His latest novel, Mind Games, is no exception.
At its heart, this is a novel of character and growth within the context of violence and fear. The gradual dissolution of Dare's marriage, for example, is as significant as the identity of the murderer." Vancouver Sun
"When William Deverell is firing on all cylinders, as he is in Mind Games, he's as good a crime-thriller writer as anyone on the planet." Winnipeg Free Press
"Mind Games is a romp of a novel. It revs ever faster and faster. All the characters, even secondary ones, are fully realized, and irreverent humour abounds." Kingston Whig-Standard
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The Laughing Falcon
William Deverell's 11th novel is an adventure thriller layered with startling twists. All that Maggie Schneider, a romance writer from wintry Saskatoon, wants is a glorious holiday in the tropics and maybe a little real romance to stir her creative juices. What she gets instead, soon after she arrives in Costa Rica, is a nasty surprise. First she is robbed of most of her money. Then she is kidnapped and held for ransom somewhere in the steamy jungle by self-styled revolutionaries led by a charismatic man with a mysterious background.
Comical and fast-paced - and drawn from true events - The Laughing Falcon transports readers to the lush rainforest of Costa Rica, where the author himself has lived for much of the last 20 years.
"What Deverell does so brilliantly - and totally without pretension - is play with the notion of genre, subverting all our programmed expectations while giving us a truly moving story that satisfies on a number of levels. This book is somewhat similar to, and every bit as good as, Kate Grenville's The Idea of Perfection, which recently won the Orange Prize ... he's an author who keeps improving his vintage. For those who have stayed away or failed to take him seriously, this book should be proof that we have something of a treasure in our midst." Vancouver Sun
As with all Deverell novels, the beauty lies in the detail, the lush description and the plots. There are few mystery writers who could carry such an outrageous cast in such far-flung Central American locations. Deverell, some might suggest, is getting away with murder here - murdering the competition, that is." Ottawa Citizen
"The Laughing Falcon displays the craftsmanship and plot spins of an inventive storyteller successfully trying on a new approach to his work." Toronto Star
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Kill All the Lawyers
"A lawyer is killed shortly after he has astonished everyone by successfully defending an undoubtedly guilty client. A second lawyer who has a similar success is shot at, and the legal community begins to think that someone out there is attempting to correct undesirable verdicts by sentencing lawyers to death … The social comedy is hilarious. This is a brilliantly wrought novel, ingenious, entertaining, and continually surprising. Deverell deserves an award for this one." - Robin Skelton, Books in Canada
"Terrific new crime novel." Toronto Sun
"This is just an all-round great romp of a book, a wonderful and uproarious whodunit with a magnificently convoluted plot and a cast of characters to die for – a bunch of which do – by one of the country’s best (and most irreverently funny) crime and mystery writers." Ottawa Sun
"As usual, Deverell has whipped up some of the slimiest, scummiest and hilarious characters you’re ever going to find between the covers of a book. It’s a first-rate whodunit, populated by folks you won’t want to forget." Regina Leader Post
"This is a fast, funny novel, West Coast thriller king William Deverell’s response to the blockbuster legal potboilers of such lesser, wealthier writers as John Grisham and Scott Turow." Quill and Quire
"A bitingly funny whodunit." Maclean’s
"Sly, wickedly amusing, … irreverent, refreshing." Vancouver Sun
"A smart, witty book with great characters and a clever plot." Toronto Globe and Mail
Slander
Set in Seattle, Slander is written in the first-person voice of Elizabeth Finnegan, a feisty young trial lawyer who finds herself locking horns not for the first - or last - time with Hugh Vandergraaf, an arrogant yet charismatic Supreme Court judge.
Outraged by the lenient sentence Vandergraaf has just handed down to a convicted rapist, Elizabeth makes a statement that causes a stir. Vandergraaf, flirting with accusations of slander, publicly berates her. One day soon after, Elizabeth is visited by a Beatrice Struthers, a woman who claims that she was raped by Vandergraaf when they were both university students. When the firm's senior partners try to dissuade Liz from taking on a case of this complexity and controversial nature, her determination to nail Vandergraaf is only heightened.
In what promises to be the trial of her career, Elizabeth pieces together a portrait of a man who enjoys wielding power over women; someone seemingly addicted to sex. But all does not go according to plan. Along with the nagging feeling that her client is holding something back, a key witness is convinced not to testify. As Liz unconsciously follows the trail of her own instincts, she unexpectedly finds the answer to Beatrice Struther's secret, bringing about a startling revelation.
"He can move a plot ahead like no one else in this country... Deverell pulls the threads of his plot together in a most surprising way, but it would be criminal to disclose how he does it." Montreal Gazette
"Deverell is a brilliant craftsman of suspense. Not since Ross MacDonald have I read an ending with such a breathtakingly unpredictable twist." Kitchener Record
"An engrossing page-turner that kept me up way past my bedtime." Vancouver Province
"Fans get the full Monty with this compelling tale of high courtroom drama." Quill and Quire
"The real thrust of Deverell's book is political... As the courtroom drama is played out, we come to understand that Finnegan is up against more than one man: she's battling the entire institution of the old boys' network." Edmonton Journal
"Deverell gets inside a woman's head right down to the reinforced toe of her panty-hose. When Elizabeth Finnegan enters the male-dominated arena of the law, even the judge stands naked." Susan Musgrave.
"Ingeniously plotted and well written. More than just another courtroom drama, Slander is an apt commentary on the fraying fabric of modern human relations." Hamilton Spectator
Trial of Passion
Winner of the Dashiell Hammett award for literary excellence in crime writing in North America, and the Arthur Ellis award for best Canadian crime novel. Arthur Beauchamp, the brilliant lawyer first introduced in William Deverell's acclaimed novel The Dance of Shiva, is healing from a marital crisis in the peace of Garibaldi, a Gulf Island off the coast of British Columbia, where his biggest problem is dealing with his gently eccentric island neighbours. But his relative idyll is interrupted when his former law colleagues plead for his return to lead the defence in the trial of Jonathan O'Donnell, the charming acting Dean of Law at the University of British Columbia. O'Donnell has been charged with raping one of his students, Kimberly Martin, a sexy, intelligent woman used to getting her own way. Whether or not O'Donnell is found guilty, he has a lot to lose, but so does Martin – her engagement to a wealthy but pathologically jealous boyfriend.
"WOW! It was one of the most pleasurable reading experiences of my life. 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 memorableperson. 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. It is the only book in my 13 years of review that I have ever given five stars to." Geroge Easter, Editor, Deadly Pleasures.
"A distinct departure for Deverell, moving him to a richer and more complex area that retains a thriller's tension but brings depth of character and complex social issues into the mix." Vancouver Sun
"Brilliantly realized characters. A complex and surprising novel." Montreal Gazette
"A masterful job, a terrific book." Financial Post
"The pithy exchange between lawyers in court is more rivetting than the real thing... Literary suspense fiction which readers will find hard to put down." Calgary Herald.
"It is about love, passion, and fine lines too easily crossed. Deverell handles his material like the skilled artist he is, deftly keeping the reader in suspense until the astonishing conclusion." Saint John Telegraph-Journal
Street Legal
This is the novel that brings back the beloved characters of the CBC television series Street Legal, written by the creator of that series. It is set in 1980, when Carrie Barr, Leon Rubinovitch, and Chuck Tchobanian were young, struggling and ambitious, and making a name for themselves.
Carrington Barr, fresh from her successful defence of a drifter charged as the notorious Midnight Strangler, takes on the case of a suave, handsome hit man. Her new client is proving to be far more dangerous - and alluring - than she could have imagined. Soon she finds herself drawn into a web of terror involving a rogue police operation, a ruthless drug lord, and a series of brutal murders that threatens to tear apart the firm of Rubinovitch, Barr, Tchobanian. Meanwhile, the Midnight Strangler is still at large. Has he chosen Carrie as his next victim...
"A rollicking romp of a read." Edmonton Journal
"Restores the excitement, humor and intelligence portrayed so well on screen." Quill and Quire
"Deverell injects more electricity into his novels than anyone currently writing in Canada – perhaps anywhere." London Free Press
A Life on Trial
"A Life on Trial is the first non-fiction work by William Deverell, his own account of the author's own defence of Robert Frisbee, a man accused of the vicious murder of his 89-year-old employer, Muriel Barnett. The setting is a luxury cruise ship sailing along the Alaska coast. In the penthouse suite, Robert Frisbee, a genial alcoholic gentleman, has passed out on the bed. A few feet away, an equally sodden Muriel Barnett lies dead, her head beaten in by (allegedly) a bottle of champagne. When he wakes, Robert is devastated to find Muriel’s body. Could a stranger have entered the room, killed Muriel, and departed, leaving Robert asleep? Or was he fed up with his position as servant to a rich and demanding woman, one who had signed a will leaving Robert two thirds of her very large estate?
"Deverell becomes a character in the book as he explains how he maneuvered and fought to free his client… Using all his considerable skills as both a novelist and a lawyer, he takes us into the pathetic little world of Robert Frisbee (a man whose most annoying trait was his compulsive knitting), then guides us through the legal maze to follow. Was Frisbee a murderer? Read this one and decide for yourself. - Margaret Cannon in the Toronto Globe and Mail
"Startlingly moving." - Toronto Sun
"Succeeds admirably." - Vancouver Sun
"For trial junkies, this is as good as it gets, the real goods from an ultimate insider. And it helps enormously that the book is gorgeously written." - Jack Batten, Books in Canada
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Mindfield
A psychological time bomb is triggered in Kellen O’Reilly as he begins to experience disturbing “flashbacks” of his unresolved and turbulent past. Meanwhile, Dr. Satorius, head of a psychiatric clinic just outside Montreal, is taken to court by former patients for conducting unorthodox drug-testing and brainwashing experiments 25 years earlier.
The much-publicized trial draws O’Reilly into an ever-widening web of intrigue involving the CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the police force itself.
As events in his past become linked to secret government experiments, O’Reilly finds himself running for his life.
The film, Mindfield, writtten by William Deverell, starred Christopher Plummer and Michael Ironside.
"Another high-octane Canadian thriller from Deverell" Kirkus Reviews
"The tension of this clever action-packed adventure builds to a chilling midnight finale." Toronto Star
"The reader, glued to the page, has no choice but to discover the outcome. An after having finished, the beDeverelled reader hungers for more of the same." Ottawa Citizen
"An entertaining and cleverly woven whodunit ... many fast-paced, highly visual scenes." Western Report
"Mindfield is reminiscent of William Goldman's books, such as heat and magic. A page turner..." Montreal Gazette
Platinum Blues
Oliver Gulliver is a small-town lawyer in northern California, and he's slowly going broke. When Elora, his 18-year-old daughter, returns home, dragging a once-famous but now burnt-out rock star, Oliver is dismayed. But a quirky friendship begins, and C.C. Gilley starts writing songs again. Then his love song to Elora is stolen and recorded by highly promoted glitz band, and Oliver finds himself taking on the music barons of Los Angeles.
"Hilariously pointed observations on the legal chicanery and artistic hornswoggling that goes on in the record industry." New York Times
"This is a fast, credible and very funny novel." London Sunday Times
"A fast-paced, wickedly funny sendup of a rock music industry incestuously bedded down with corporate America." Publishers Weekly
"Deverell mixes some man curves and off-speed pitches with his trademark fast balls - and comes up with his best book yet." Kirkus Reviews
"William Deverell presents a sardonic look at the inner workings of the music industry. The left turn at the end was deliciously unexpected." Graham Nash, of Crosby, Stills and Nash
"The people who liked Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent will enjoy Platinum Blues. Because it is crammed with real people in real situations that tingle with menace, the people who like anything by Elmore Leonard will enjoy Platinum Blues. That ought to cover just about everyone." Hamilton Spectator
"The trial scenes are good, the romance believable, and the dialogue as crisp as a new $20 bill – definitely a bullet." Globe and Mail
"Deverell writes with a snappy pace and a fine sense of humor." Chicago Tribune
The Dance of Shiva
In a grisly Canadian echo of Jonestown, 20 members of a cult are found savagely executed in an isolated island on Canada's West Coast, and their leader, Shiva Ram Acharya, is brought to trial for their murder.
After an accident immobilizes Shiva's lawyer, the great Arthur Beauchamp, junior counsel Max Macarthur faces the greatest challenge of his young career when he is thrust into the role of defence counsel.
Shiva claims to be amnesic about the events that led to the deaths, and refuses to participate in his own defence, but Macarthur gradually becomes convinced of his innocence and embarks on a tumultuous, danger-ridden quest for the true murderer. While doing so, he slowly falls under the sway of the brilliant and enigmatic Shiva, and find his Western-oriented philosophies in conflict with the escape from the bonds of the mind that Shiva teaches.
"An absolute delight, at times extremely witty, always urbane and gripping … Read and enjoy!" Victoria Times-Colonist
"The most gripping courtroom drama since Anatomy of a Murder." Globe and Mail
"A real winner … Deverell has become a national treasure." Windsor Star
"Written in such an intensely believable and interesting way ... it's impossible to put this book down." Edmonton Journal
"Truly engrossing." Winnipeg Free Press
Mecca
"Packs a saucy wallop … Here is another world-class thriller, fresh, bright and topical." Globe and Mail
"A readable thriller that matches the newscasts. Action. Action. Action. Literature in the fast lane. Sit back in your easy chairs, pour yourself a drink, and read about the end of the world." Toronto Star
High Crimes
A merry band of Newfoundland smugglers carrying on a grand tradition. A high-powered RCMP inspector obsessed with their capture. A day-dreaming police scientist caught in a dilemma between the call of duty and his infatuation with a voluptuous femme fatale. A multi-million-dollar cargo of pot on a creaky freighter. A merry high-seas romp from Newfoundland to Colombia to Miami and the North Atlantic. Undercover plots, double-dealing, triple betrayal, and murder. The events are drawn from one of the lawyer-author's celebrated trials.
"This is just a cracking good read...The story has more twists than the TransCanada highway and no less than three trick endings. Deverell is quickly becoming a national treasure." Toronto Star
"Deverell’s lean mean style gives off sparks. A thriller of the first rank." Publishers Weekly
"A fast-moving swinging story of intrigue, suspense, action and mayhem … he writes grittily, and all his characters are all colorful rogues." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Brilliantly written, deliciously crafted. Deverell is a master of suspense and fun." Sacramento Union
"Deverell is a master of the intricate plot that keeps the reader off balance, meanwhile allowing the suspense to build... A first-rate thriller." Memphis Commercial Apeal
"Every detail meshes like clockwork... Deverell is a great storyteller with a nice sense of timing and a pretty touch for black humor." Globe and Mail
"High Crimes is a gripping novel of power-mongering, suspense and intrigue, with a thrilling triple-twist conclusion." Mystery News
Needles
Winner of the $50,000 Seal Prize, Needles pits a brilliant prosecutor - himself facing personal disaster and heroin addiction - against a notorious, psychopathic heroin importer, Dr. Au, known as "the Surgeon," who goes on a killing spree in Vancouver's seedy world of prostitutes, pushers, and hit men. The action culminates in a rivetting courtroom scene and a bloody showdown
"A find, a find; it must be shouted from the rooftops" London Daily Telegraph
"Deverell has a narrative style so lean that scenes and characters seem to explode on the page. He makes the evil of his plot breathtaking and his surprises like shattering glass." Philadelphia Bulletin
"Spell-binding, first-rate … A brilliant craftsman of suspense." Buffalo News
"Masterful. Needles belongs in the top international class." Hamilton Spectator
"Seamy and steamy, sexy and sassy. A winner all around." Globe and Mail
"Chillingly suspensful." Montreal Gazette
"The potting is generous with wicked twists, the cops and lawyers are sweetly-and-sourly unromanticized, and the courtroom banter is thoroughly convincing." Kirkus Reviews