With the advent of Conrad Black’s new appeal, Steven Skurka is back to deliver a thorough, in-depth account of the controversial businessman’s legal difficulties. It was the trial that captivated observers on both sides of the Atlantic. Media titan Conrad Black, by turns respected and reviled for decades in Canada and around the world, faced off with U.S. prosecutors on charges of criminal fraud stemming from his activities with Hollinger International. As the only Canadian writer to attend the trials of Conrad Black, lawyer Steven Skurka delivers a thorough, in-depth account of the controversial businessman’s legal difficulties. Skurka offers analysis, insights, and personal anecdotes to present the clearest picture of the trials to date, featuring interviews with key members of the prosecution and defence, as well as a peek into the jury room during final deliberations. In the first edition of Tilted , Skurka showed how the prosecution attempted to «tilt» the trial in its favour, but he also demonstrated how Black unsuccessfully attempted to tilt the trial his way. Black lost his appeal to the Court of Appeals and began serving a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence in Florida. Black’s legal battles moved to the U.S. Supreme Court, followed by a second appeal in Chicago and leading eventually to a dramatic conclusion. Now Skurka brings the reader up to date on all of the recent developments in Conrad Black’s case, including new interviews and behind the scenes strategy.
Few people have read as widely in the field of Canadiana as has John Robert Colombo. The curiosity of this Toronto writer, editor, and anthologist knows few if any bounds when it comes to the lore, literature, history, culture, and character of Canada. He has an inquiring mind and he seems able to find national and even international twists to subjects of interest or importance. Fascinating Canada , his latest book, is the product of over half a century of research, reading, writing, and thinking. Some years ago the author produced a trilogy of question-and-answer books 1 ,000 Questions about Canada, 999 Questions about Canada, 1,000 Questions about Canada . The first two were published by Doubleday Canada, the third one in 2001 by Dundurn Press. The same format is adapted to the material in the present book, but this time the majority of the questions are short whereas a good many of the answers are quite long discussions of the subjects at hand: concise questions followed by considered answers. Here is a book about the Canadian past, present, and future. The information in Fascinating Canada is organized under four headings (People, Places, Things, Ideas) and there is a detailed Index for ready reference. This book may serve as a work of popular reference, but it has been written to stimulate inquiry and spark the sense of surprise in the minds of readers who know something about this amazing country but perhaps not as much as the author. Open this book and begin to read … and match wits with author and researcher John Robert Colombo.
The verdant lushness of Vancouver Island is not without its dangers… Summer on Vancouver Island gets off to a rocky start with the discovery of the body of a homeless man. RCMP Corporal Holly Martin notices drug paraphernalia nearby, and the autopsy reveals death from a combination of heroin and a synthetic opiate. Information leads Holly to believe that he had hidden something of value at the site of his death. As Holly struggles to connect the dots, a record drought heats up the vacation paradise, and one match could send Canadas Caribbean into flames.
Anger is simmering under the bucolic facade of Tanglewood vineyard… All Ben Taylor wants is to get away from the police force where he worked undercover for years. The RCMP has cleared his name in an Ottawa shooting, but that hasn’t cleared his conscience. He arrives anonymously at Tanglewood Farms in Southwestern Ontario, where he worked in his youthful summers. Back then, it was a simple family-run vineyard, but it is a far different place today. The farm has become the hub of a powerful family empire. When a body is discovered in a shack on the farm, Ben is drawn into the investigation. Meanwhile, the woman who was once the love of his life now lives as a recluse behind the darkened windows of the farmhouse. As she begins to reveal to Ben her own dark secrets, they become suspects in the eyes of the police, the migrant workers, and even each other.
Inspector Green explores a web of betrayal and deceit. In the dead of night, the phone rings in the missing persons unit of the Ottawa Police. A brutal blizzard is howling, and a wealthy social activist has not heard from his fiance in over twenty-four hours. Friends, family and police are mobilized to search the snowbound city. He comes to believe that his partner is fleeing for her life, possibly from his own family. When a frozen body is found in the snow, just blocks from the mans home, Green knows that someone is conspiring to keep the truth hidden.
The untold story of scandal and political intrigue in early Toronto. Anna Jameson arrives in the tiny settlement of Toronto in November, 1836. She has come at the request of her estranged husband, but she intends to gather material for a new book, which will eventually be published in England years later. At first, Anna finds herself in an alien world. She has little in common with Toronto women whose interests centre on gossip and their families, but as she begins to move into adventures like sleigh-riding and helping to fight a major fire, she enters a new life. And she also meets man-about-town Sam Jarvis. But Jarvis has a loving wife, a pile of debts and a violent past. The story is told from both their points of view. She travels alone into the wilderness, becomes the first white woman to descend the Sault rapids in a canoe and discovers the joy of freedom. On Manitoulin Island, she and Sam Jarvis meet again. During a long canoe trip down Lake Huron, they wrestle with the conflicts in their relationship and arrive at a settlement.
After her mothers suicide, Maja Cleary turned her back on her family and Duved Cove, Minnesotauntil a desperate phone call reveals that her father has been murdered and her brother Jonas is the prime suspect. She flies home, knowing that she will have to confront shared memories of an abusive father. Even as she works to prove her brothers innocence, she cannot ignore the evidence that he had every reason to kill their father. The frigid, stormy Minnesota landscape sets the mood as she battles against time, the local police and the relentless snow.
Short-listed for the 2011 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel Some bullets take years to find their mark… Former Toronto Detective Charlie McKelvey is puttering through the first year of his forced retirement. His tedious life is torn wide open when a friend enlists his help in locating a recent Bosnian immigrant who has simply disappeared without a trace. Her teacher and recent lover, Tim Fielding, suspects foul play. At first hesitant, McKelvey is quickly drawn into the case as the bodies and clues pile up. When the body of an unidentified woman turns up in Fieldings apartmentand Fielding is nowhere to be foundMcKelvey finds himself a prime suspect in an increasingly obscure murder investigation.
Toronto at the close of 1999. It is a time of change, but Detective Charlie McKelvey’s life is stuck on pause since the murder of his runaway son, Gavin. As his wife focuses on healing, McKelvey is burdened with guilt for his role in kicking the teen out of the family home—and his inability to move the case to resolution. Obsessed with the stalled murder investigation, McKelvey’s behavior becomes increasingly unhinged. He is convinced the person responsible for the murder is an ex-convict sent to Toronto to establish a chapter of a biker gang, The Blades. The question is, does McKelvey have the right man, or is he blinded by his grief? When unexpected illness forces McKelvey’s early retirement—and his wife heads to the west coast to live with a relative—the conditions are finally ripe for McKelvey to focus entirely on his plans for revenge. This novel explores the daily and random decisions we make and their consequences as it stares into the heart of grief and sees the impact violent crime has on all of us.
In this new series by the acclaimed author of the Belle Palmer mysteries, RCMP Corporal Holly Martin takes charge of her first post, a detachment in tiny Fossil Bay on the wild south coast of Vancouver Island. Drunk drivers, speeders and the occasional theft from tourist cars lead the crime roster, but her first day starts with a distress call. A scuba diver has found the body of a girl in the surf. A tragic drowning caused by a fall? The late arrival of tox-scan results for crystal meth, the most recent plague to hit the island, raises ugly questions. Just before Holly makes an arrest, a record-setting typhoon roars in, empowered to destroy everything in its path. As the wind howls and trees crash around her, Holly struggles to survive and to bring a murderer to justice.