William Deverell (2) (1937–)

Montreal police offer Kellen O'Reilly spent time in a psychiatric clinic where he was part of treatment that used mind-altering drugs. He has teamed up with a lawyer who is now trying to bring a suit against the doctor who they believe was on the CIA payroll to perform the mind-programming experiments. O'Reilly is having flashbacks and doesn't know if they are real or planted memories but they are becoming more frequent making his personal investigation a race against time.

Although a good mystery, this is not Deverell's best. He was pointing a finger at the horrific experiments which were real, known as MK-Ultra, after which many suffered permanent disabilities when they sought help for comparatively minor problems.

Deverell is founder of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Foundation.… (meer)

Like his character, Deverell is also a criminal lawyer, founder of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, whose books draw on his experiences in the courtroom and as an activist. In the highly entertaining Arthur Beauchamp mystery series he successfully merges satire, comedy and eccentric yet believable characters while engaging in criminal investigations. His courtroom dramas are highly entertaining. In this story, it is the judges who are being targeted. The accused is an island neighbour, activist and author of ribald poetry. He has created some friction with Beauchamp because as a forestry clearcut protester he was up a tree for weeks with Beauchamp's wife and made a pass at her. His defence lawyer is in hiding suffering from a nervous - or possibly cocaine - breakdown and whose imagination has been unbalanced by his writing a novel similar to the case. Beauchamp's harried junior and hero-worshipper is also being influenced by his own imagined version of the case, where he too is a legal star. Complex, funny and clever.… (meer)

Garibaldi Island is a fictional island in the Gulf Islands, a thirty-minute float plane flight from Vancouver. Like the author, Arthur Beauchamp is a lawyer who is about to retire to the islands. He has been asked to defend a law professor accused of rape by one of his students. The story follows Beauchamp's move to his island home, handling the legal battle, as well as getting to know the eccentric locals with whom he uses his gift of tolerance and patience. After a bad start, the widowed farmer next door becomes more attractive by the day adding a little romance to the story. This is the first in the Arthur Beauchamp series, a great story that is literate and funny and set on the Gulf Islands, one of my favourite places in the world. Highly recommended.

Deverell is a lawyer and founder of the BC Civil Liberties Foundation. He writes a great courtroom drama that is light and highly entertaining.… (meer)

This book won the Arthur Ellis Award in 1997 for best crime novel and I can see why. William Deverell was a criminal lawyer just like the protagonist in this book, Arthur Beauchamp. It would be interesting to know how much is autobiographical because, just like Beauchamp, Deverell now lives on one of the Gulf Islands.

In the book, Beauchamp is coaxed back to Vancouver to do one last trial. The acting dean of the Law School has been charged with sexual assault on one of his female students. He initially denies any contact with her, then admits they had intercourse but says it was consensual. He denies tying her up or drawing on her with lipstick but is he believable? Beauchamp just wants to be back on his island, working in his garden, reading his classics and wooing his next door neighbour. But he sticks with the case in part because he identifies with his client who seems to be on the road to alcoholism which was almost Beauchamp's undoing.

The pre-trial and trial scenes are well-done as you would expect from a former barrister. They have a definite Canadian flavour about them which might surprise people who only know about trial procedure from American shows and books.

The ending is somewhat unbelievable but it does tie up all the loose ends nicely and I'm willing to give Deverall some leeway because the book as a whole is very true to life.… (meer)