April Fool

A new edition of the Arthur Ellis Award winning crime novel“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 MailArthur Beauchamp, the scholarly, self-doubting legend of the B.C. criminal bar, is enjoying his retirement on B.C.’s Garibaldi Island when he is dragged back to court to defend an old client. Nick “The Owl” Faloon, one of the world’s top jewel thieves, has been accused of raping and murdering a psychologist. Beauchamp has scarcely registered how unlikely it is that the rascally Faloon could commit a savage murder when his own personal life takes an abrupt turn. His new wife, Margaret Blake, organic farmer and environmental activist, has taken up residence 50 feet above ground in a tree of an old-growth forest that she is determined to save for the eagles and from the loggers. Beauchamp shuttles between Vancouver and the island, doing what he can to defend Faloon, save the forest, and rescue his wife. Part courtroom thriller, part classic whodunit, April Fool sees Deverell writing at the top of his form.

William Deverell was a journalist for seven years and a trial lawyer for 25, as defender or prosecutor in more than a thousand criminal cases, including 30 murder trials. The author of over 20 novels, Deverell has won the $50,000 Seal First Novel Prize and the Book of the Year Award, the Dashiell Hammett Award for literary excellence in crime writing in North America, as well as two Arthur Awards for best Canadian crime novel. His work has been translated into 14 languages and sold worldwide. He lives on Pender Island, B.C.