Dyed in the Green by George Mercer

Dyed in the Green by George Mercer – Ben Matthews arrives at Cape Breton Highlands National Park in Nova Scotia as the new Assistant Chief Park Warden. The park is located in the northern part of the island and spans the island.

Matthews is joining his girlfriend, Kate Jones, a seasonal warden at the park. Life is a little more complicated with Matthews being the supervisor of Jones.

The park is in the midst of Acadian Nova Scotia. French is spoken as much as English. The Acadians see themselves as distinct from the English population.

Matthews arrives with a clear purpose. He is committed to the ideal of protecting the park from poachers. In recent years park wardens have not vigorously sought out poachers. Some local residents have been making a habit of poaching salmon and deer.

In particular, John Donald Moores views the park as a part of his regular hunting grounds. While he earns an income from commercial fishing he is a passionate hunter and fisher of salmon.

Moores is a man who believes rules and laws were meant for other people. At times contemptuous of the wardens he also views poaching as a game. There is a thrill in outwitting the wardens.

As is the way of governments throughout the world not all rules make sense. All hunting is prohibited in the park but non-commercial fishing for salmon is allowed.

Catching poachers means long lonely hours for the wardens. They will have all night patrols and stakeouts. On cold fall nights they bring sleeping bags to get some warmth.

Tensions can run high if the wardens confront a poacher. Still when murder occurs it is startling.

American readers may be surprised to know the wardens of 20 years ago and earlier did not carry firearms as they patrolled the parks. They confronted poachers, often armed, without guns themselves. Some carried guns, contrary to regulation, but many were unarmed.

Matthews fits well with the other wardens and park personnel. His staff sees him spending as much or more time as themselves on night duty.

I enjoyed learning about the life of park wardens some years ago, Parks Canada as explained by Mercer, re-organized in 2008 and there are no longer wardens. At the same time I do not think I will read another in the series.

It is an earnest book. Mercer clearly loves Canada’s national parks and the park wardens with whom he worked for over 30 years. I am sure, as with other professions, that almost all of them are dedicated to their work. At the same time I am sure that they have never thought of themselves as saints. The only flaw I could detect in Matthews is that he is a workaholic, overly dedicated, to being a warden. The other wardens except for Joe, on the verge of retirement, are equally without blemish. Joe’s flaw is a more relaxed approach to being a warden that is reflective of his age and impending retirement.

I certainly do not need sleuths to be dysfunctional individuals but they need to be real people.

11th Canadian Book Challenge Half Way

For its 11th year the Canadian Book Challenge moved last July from the Book Mine blog to The Indextrious Reader blog of Melanie. I am glad she was willing to carry on the Challenge. I have read several new Canadian authors as I read at least 13 books each year of the Challenge to meet the Challenge.

With January upon us we are half way through the year in the Challenge. The Challenge each year runs from Canada Day, July 1, to June 30.

The surprise for me in this Challenge is that almost half of the Canadian books I have read are non-fiction.

The books read are:

Fiction

1.) Wishful Seeing by Janet Kellough

2.) The Winners' Circle by Gail Bowen

3.) Heart of the City by Robert Rotenberg

4.) Glass Houses by Louise Penny

Non-Fiction

5.) More Tough Crimes edited by William Trudel and Lorene Shyba

6.) The Mighty Hughes by Craig McInnes

7.) The Work of Justice by J. Pecover

Out of the fiction my favourite to date is The Winners' Circle. For long time readers of the Joanne Kilbourn series there will be a surprise in the plot of this book.

From the non-fiction I expect to long remember The Work of Justice. The book is the story of Robert Raymond Cook, the last person to be executed in Alberta. He was convicted of murdering his father, stepmother and five half-siblings. He asserted he was innocent and never wavered. He went to the gallows stating he was innocent.

As usual I have no plan for the last half of the Challenge year beyond reading books from the shortlist for Arthur Ellis Award for Best Canadian Fiction Novel.

Whipped by William Deverell

(43. – 930.) Whipped by William Deverell – Arthur Beauchamp is determinedly tending to his vegetables, goats, sheep and chickens on Garibaldi Island, one of the Gulf Islands, near Vancouver while his wife, Margaret Blake, with equal determination fights for environmental causes as the leader of the Green Party in Parliament in Ottawa. There could not be a greater difference in lifestyles.

Many days Arthur walks to the general store, a 7 km round trip, to pick up his mail and supplies such as netting to keep the robins off his strawberries. He enjoys conversations over a tea and muffin at the Brig, the local tavern. On his return he may savour some of the Roman poets, in Latin of course.

Margaret’s days in Ottawa are a scripted blur. She roars through meetings, addresses the myriad details of running a political party, works out policy positions with her staff, considers a coming election with the Deputy Leader and makes sure to attend sessions of Parliament.

Margot is a firebrand. There are not many in Canadian politics. While our politicians are not always as nice as the rest of us they strive for a gravitas and non-offensive speaking style that can make it hard to distinguish between them.

Margaret has no trouble speaking her mind. Words explode from her emotions. One fractious encounter with the Minister for the Environment, Emil Farquist, begins over a proposed oil pipeline to the West Coast and continues on to the effects of fracking for natural gas. The exchange, started in Parliament, extends to a media scrum in the hallway. Margaret gets off a parting shot by yelling “Frack you” at the Minister.

Back on the island a new movement has arrived. The Personal Transformation Mission Society establishes itself at Starkers Cove. Their handsome, even beautiful, guru, Jason Silverson is enticing islanders to join his devotees known as Transformers.

Back in Ottawa the Green Party is proving that it is like all other parties in digging for political dirt. Margaret meets with a journalist in Montreal, Lou Sabitino, who shows her a video of The Honourable Farquist engaged in a spirited session of BDSM with a dominatrix, Svetlana.

As Margaret ponders how to use the information she indiscreetly describes the video over an open microphone at a conference. Her words are overheard and become a viral sensation when tweeted.

The Minister immediately launches a massive lawsuit asserting defamation.

Margaret convinces Arthur, her life companion (the newest politically correct phrase for a spouse), to yet again interrupt his retirement to return to the courtroom to defend her. There will be no retreat from her dramatic description of the Minister being whipped. Her plea is that the words were the truth. It is a perilous approach to defending defamation. Should the defence not be able to prove truth in court the judgment will be far higher as there has been no apology and the integrity of the plaintiff has been further damaged by the failure to prove the defamatory words were truthful. Margaret is undaunted by the risks but the reporter and the dominatrix have disappeared.

In some books having a spouse as your lawyer would be implausible. Adding to the challenge is that Arthur has practiced criminal defence not civil litigation. Deverell makes Arthur’s representation of Margaret convincing. Arthur does not succumb to emotional excess. He keeps the process in perspective. Most important for credibility he draws on juniors in the firm with extensive experience in civil actions to assist him. Most realistically tensions arise between the lawyer and client arising from the marital relationship.

The story rollicks forward with The Transformers agitating the island folk as they promote love and peace while freely distributing a special drink, Gupa. As for Margaret she is fighting a two sided war - a fall election and the lawsuit.

An issue I had not comtemplated is raised in a newsletter published by a fictional national BDSM group. In today’s world does a practictioner of BDSM, whether whipper or whippee, suffer damage to his/her reputation by public relevation of their private pastime? You can only get a large judgment in defamation by showing actual damage to your reputation. Certainly political pretension is skewered in the book.

Tension rises through the winter. Svetlana has left Canada and a private investigator cannot find Lou. Readers learn Lou has found refuge in a rural Saskatchewan town with a real name. (I will discuss his experiences and the town in my next post.)

Deverell proves that civil litigation, here defamation, can be as interesting as a criminal case for a legal mystey. It may be that authors are grasping the possibilities of fictional civil cases. My favourite fiction of 2017 was Last Days of Night in which Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse were battling in court over alleged patent infringement concerning the light bulb.

And, as always, Deverell is witty throughout the book.

Robert Raymond Cook Facing Execution

In my last trio of posts I have been discussing The Work of Justice by J. Pecover which deals with the conviction of Robert Raymond Cook for murder in Alberta. I have outlined the case, discussed the evidence and assessed the question of whether there was a wrongful conviction. In this post I will be discussing my reaction to the book and Cook’s execution.

The book is not structured how I want to read the story of a real life criminal case. There is a forward and an introduction that I avoided reading as I could tell they had more information than I want before reading the complete book. The opening two chapters then summarized the events. The rest of the book fleshed out what happened and provided analysis. I would have preferred a narrative that was chronological either ending with the trial and appeals or going through the trial and providing back story as the evidence of witnesses was recounted.

The section of the book I found best written and most moving dealt with the appeals, the review with regard to commutation and the execution.

Despite the issues noted I was glad I read the book. I appreciated the scrupulous effort of Pecover to get the facts right and probe the evidence and the actions of the lawyers. The book also caused me to reflect on capital punishment, especially in Canada. It has been 55 years since there was an execution in Canada.

While the book did not convince me there had been a miscarriage of justice in convicting Cook I do not believe he should have been executed. I acknowledge I am biased in this area as I oppose the death penalty. At the time of Cook’s conviction in 1960 I would have been considered an abolitionist seeking the end of capital punishment.

There were numerous legal issues with regard to the conduct of Cook’s first trial. It appeared to me that the Alberta Court of Appeal chose but one of the grounds (the trial judge refused the defence’s application to recall a witness) available for overturning the conviction when they ordered a new trial.

If anything there were more issues with the second trial. It was unbelievable that the trial judge summed up the facts and law in a charge of half an hour to the jury. It was impossible for the judge to properly set out the law and the defences. He spent but a minute on the alibi defence.

Unfortunately the Court of Appeal was not willing to see a third trial take place. While criticizing the trial judge, especially with regard to his charge on the defence of alibi, they found the charges as a whole adequate and resorted to the section of the Criminal Code that allows a conviction to stand on appeal notwithstanding errors because “there was no substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice”. By invoking that clause they believed he was guilty.

Early in my career as a lawyer I argued an appeal in which the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal used the same clause to dismiss an appeal. It stung then and stings now. I consider that clause one of the worst sections in our Criminal Code.

The Supreme Court of Canada dismissed the appeal without even giving reasons.

At that point Cook sought a commutation.

It was remarkable reading the book how many people in the provincial and federal correctional services found it difficult to believe Cook could have committed mass murder and supported commutation.

Through the book Cook’s personality is of a likeable non-violent boy and man. What could have motivated him to commit mass murder is unknown. Pyschiatric examination did not indicate mental health issues. All I can say is that I have known people to do terrible things to family members because of emotional family issues that overwhelmed them.

Pecover also sets out how many in Alberta, despite the the murder of the family, did not want execution.

The civil servants who reviewed the case recommended a commutation.

Though he had little formal education Cook wrote an eloquent letter in support of his commutation. In his letter (his spelling) he said:

My appeal Sir is not one of mercy for a crime but for time wich will reveal beyond doubt innocence. I respectfully put it Sir, that when the facts replace the unaswerd questions and inference the err of this confiction will be proved.

It was a powerful misspelling that sets out the heart of his position when he wrote “confiction” instead of “conviction”.

The federal Cabinet made commutation decisions. The Prime Minister of the time, John Diefenbaker, was from Saskatchewan. A former defence counsel he was an avowed abolitionist. (In my review of Diefenbaker for the Defence by Garrett Wilson I set out a case where he had recommended a client pursue an acquittal rather than seek a conviction for manslaughter. His client was convicted of murder and hung.)

Prior to Cook’s application the Cabinet, essentially Diefenbaker, had commuted 26 of 32 convictions for capital murder but there was no commutation for Cook.

Cook had the misfortune of making his application shortly after a murderer from Calgary who had raped and killed a 10 year old in a church had his sentence commuted because he was clearly insane. There was intense public anger over the commutation. Despite protestations to the contrary it is hard not to think the earlier commutation had an impact on Cook’s application.

The substantial number of commutations for capital murder convictions by the Federal Cabinet of that time does illustrate the arbitrariness of the death penalty. Men and women found guilty of capital murder were hung or spared by politicians deciding whether to extend or withhold mercy.

Cook went to his death with dignity and courage. There is a moving statement by one of the two Lutheran pastors who spent the final four hours before the midnight hanging with Cook .

At the execution, moments before the hood was placed over his head, he said “Father, forgive them”. Cook was reciting the Lord’s Prayer with the pastors when the trap was sprung.

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Pecover, J. - (2017) - The Work of Justice - The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook and Assessing the Evidence and Considering the Judgment from Causes of Wrongful Conviction 

Considering Causes of Wrongful Conviction and Robert Raymond Cook

In two previous posts I have been discussing The Work of Justice by J. Pecover concerning the conviction and execution of Robert Raymond Cook for murdering his family in 1959 in Alberta. Pecover believes there was a miscarriage of justice. In this post I will examine the conviction from another perspective.

In Canada and the U.S. there have been a signficant number of cases of wrongful conviction in the past couple of decades. In Canada several cases of wrongful conviction for murder have brought about public inquiries. Innocence Canada (formerly the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted or AIDWYC) is dedicated to the cause of the wrongfully convicted.

At its website they list the leading causes of wrongful convictions:

            1.) Eyewitness identification error;

            2.) Jailhouse informant testimony;

            3.) False confessions;

            4.) Tunnel vision;

            5.) Systemic discrimination;

            6.) Evolution of and errors in forensic science; and,

            7.) Professional misconduct.

To provide a different examination on Cook’s conviction I have analyzed the case by considering these causes:

1.) Eyewitness identification error – There was no eyewitness identification of Cook as the killer. The evidence of the Crown was circumstantial. At the same time the jury  considered Cook’s evidence asserting innocence and that he had an alibi. They also had the evidence of Albert Wilson supporting the alibi though his testimony was crushed on cross examination;

2.) Jailhouse informant testimony – There was no jailhouse informant. The Crown did not plant a police officer with Cook. No fellow prisoner claimed Cook had confessed to the murders;

           

3.) False confessions – In some cases of wrongful conviction the accused has been aggressively questioned by the police and eventually confesses to a crime he/she has not committed. Cook never confessed. In the hours before his execution he insisted he was innocent;

           

       4.) Tunnel vision – At Innocence Canada tunnel vision is   
       defined as:

Tunnel vision is a significant problem under the umbrella of professional misconduct. In the Morin Inquiry tunnel vision was defined as “…a single-minded and overly narrow focus on a particular investigative or prosecutorial theory, so as to unreasonably colour the evaluation of information received and one’s conduct in response to the information.” In some cases, police and prosecutors seek to find evidence that fits their theory as opposed to developing a theory on the basis of existing evidence.

  

In Cook’s case the Crown completely focused on Cook. The problem for Cook’s defence is that there was never a credible alternative suspect.

Innocence Canada provided an example of tunnel vision:

Tunnel vision played a significant role in Thomas Sophonow’s wrongful conviction. In that case the police were in contact with the actual killer, however, they were so focused on Sophonow that they lost sight of any potential alternative suspects.

Cook’s defence counsel spoke of a mysterious stranger who could have been a prison mate of Cook released at the same time but the only possibility was a man who was in Edmonton at the time of the murders but there was no evidence he was ever in Stettler or had reason to kill 2 adults and 5 children.

            5.) Systemic discrimination – Innocence Canada states:

Research has shown that race and gender play a significant role in wrongful convictions. The New York Innocence Project reports that more than 70% of those exonerated by DNA evidence were racialized persons. As a point of comparison, over 70% of the American population are of Caucasian descent. It is clear that racial minorities are at a higher risk of being wrongly convicted.

Since Cook was white and male the issues of race and gender considered for discrimination would not have a role.

While he did not come from a wealthy background his family was an average working family.

6.) Evolution of and errors in forensic science – In Cook’s case little forensic evidence really aided the Crown or the defence. There was no further identification of the blood stains on his suit beyond they were blood stains.

What was of some significance is that they did not find any trace of blood upon him including under his fingernails. Whoever committed the murders had moved bloody bodies and sought to clean the house.

There were some unidentified fingerprints in the house.

What was not available in 1960 was DNA evidence. DNA analysis has often been at the core of proving wrongful conviction. Had there been DNA evidence of a mysterious stranger it could have helped Cook but if there was no DNA of a mysterious stranger the Crown case would have strengthened.

7.) Professional misconduct – Cook was tried in an era when there was no mandatory disclosure of the Crown case. Still in his case the Crown provided its evidence. Some of that evidence was contradictory. Parts of the investigation appear to have been poorly done but there was not a plan to keep evidence from Cook.

The Innocence Project provided examples of withholding evidence in a pair of wrongful convictions:

Research has shown that race and gender play a significant role in wrongful convictions. The New York Innocence Project reports that more than 70% of those exonerated by DNA evidence were racialized persons. As a point of comparison, over 70% of the American population are of Caucasian descent. It is clear that racial minorities are at a higher risk of being wrongly convicted.

Pecover points to examples of what he considered the prosecutor acting improperly in the trials but I did not see professional misconduct.

The importance of the above factors was highlighted in an article Judging Innocence by Brandon Garrett in the Columbia Law Review in 2008. He analyzed the first 200 American cases where DNA evidence proved wrongful convictions.

He examined the evidence which had produced the convictions:

A few predictable types of unreliable or false evidence supported these convictions. The vast majority of the exonerees (79%) were convicted based on eyewitness testimony; we now know that all of these eyewitnesses were incorrect. Fifty-seven percent were convicted based on forensic evidence, chiefly serological analysis and microscopic hair comparison.18 Eighteen percent were convicted based on informant testimony and 16% of exonerees falsely confessed.

For careful readers the percentages do total more than 100%. Most wrongfully convicted, as in most trials, had more than one form of evidence led agains them.

In considering the 7 primary causes of wrongful conviction with regard to the Cook case I do not see them showing a wrongful conviction of Cook.

My fourth post will add some thoughts on the book and discuss the end for Cook.

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Pecover, J. - (2017) - The Work of Justice - The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook and Assessing the Evidence 

Assessing the Trial Evidence Against Robert Raymond Cook

Robert Raymond Cook

In my last post on The Work of Justice - The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook by J. Pecover I outlined the circumstances of the brutal slaying of Robert Raymond Cook’s family for which he was convicted and hung in 1960.

Pecover provides a great amount of detail on the evidence at Cook's the trials with one huge gap in his review and analysis. From the start Pecover is clear that he thinks Cook should not have been convicted on the evidence presented at his two trials for capital murder.

Pecover gets so caught up in detail at times. He goes over small issues with contradictions such as why Cook was stopped by the police during the day prior to the murders. He spends pages dealing with the missing Friday newspaper and speculation it was used to help cover the bodies.

There were areas where the defence could realistically raise questions. While not well done the defence did raise the issues.

It was never established whether the shotgun used in the killings was owned by Cook’s father or was brought to the house the night of the killings.

That there were 15 unfired shotgun shells in the suit, bedroom and garage is unusual as Cook’s father was not actually hunting.

As well there was a blood stained white shirt that no direct evidence could explain how it ended up in the family home.

While the suit was blood stained in the crotch and legs there were no blood stains on Cook’s shorts or his socks.

The gap in Pecover’s book concerned the the details of the commission of the murders. Not surprisingly Pecover does not want to dwell on the gruesome particulars. The parents, in bed, were killed by shotgun blasts fired at close range and the children, from 3 to 9 years of age, were beaten to death by the shotgun. No defence counsel or advocate for an accused will want to explore those details but they cannot be ignored and how the killings were done may support the prosecution or the accused. He spends not even two paragraphs on how the murders were committed. It was a major weakness in the book not to analyze the evidence of the killings in the same detail as the other evidence.

I wondered from the opening pages what alternative killer the defence would present to the jury. I knew the defence could not succeed without either an alternative or an alibi. Cook had been at the house the night of the murders and the next day he possessed his father’s identification and the family car. Those facts effectively prevented a successful defence limited to questioning the sufficiency of the Crown case.

At both of his trials his defence counsel sought to advance the theory of a mysterious stranger entering the house Thursday night after Cook had left the house and brutally killing his family. The defence of the mysterious stranger is among the most difficult in criminal defence. Who might this stranger be? Cook had no credible suspect.

Cook did present an alibi defence but it arose in questionable circumstances being only being raised by Cook to his counsel shortly before the first trial.

Cook had asserted that at the time of the murders he was in Edmonton committing the break and enter of a dry cleaning business with another professional criminal, Albert Victor Wilson.

While there was no proof of communication between them they were inmates at the same time in the Fort Saskatchewan jail prior to Cook's the first trial.

Any chance of success for the alibi was shattered in a Hollywood moment of cross-examination. In his evidence Wilson stated that he had searched a toolbox in the station wagon Cook was driving for a screwdriver so they could pry open a grate to gain access to the dry cleaning business. On cross examination the Crown Prosecutor, Wallace Anderson, had Wilson go from the witness box to the evidence table and open the toolbox and pull out what Pecover describes as “a torrent of screwdrivers”.

What was shocking to me as a defence counsel is that Cook’s counsel had insisted the toolbox be an exhibit. He had clearly never looked inside the toolbox. How could a defence lawyer not check the contents of the toolbox?

Pecover identifies other flaws in the work of defence counsel. I expect he is correct but beyond the startling gaffe with the toolbox I do not think they played a significant role in the trials.

I thought Pecover underplayed the significance of the jury seeing the witnesses. It is stated repeatedly and correctly by appellate courts that it is as important to see how the witnesses give their evidence as what they say in court. Cook and Wilson were not credible.

With no identifiable alternative killer and the alibi defence in tatters and Cook acknowledging he had lied to police in parts of his statements Cook was doomed to conviction. 

In my next post I will assess the reliability of the conviction.

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The Work of Justice - The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook by J. Pecover

The Work of Justice – The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook by J. Pecover

(41. – 928.) The Work of Justice – The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook by J. Pecover – Cook was the last person hanged in Alberta when he went to the gallows on November 14, 1960. He was 23 years old.

At the heart of the book was a horrific crime. Cook’s father, stepmother and 5 half siblings were murdered in their home in Stettler and dumped into a grease pit in the garage attached to the house.

To try to understand Cook Pecover delves into his personal and criminal history. Growing up in the small towns of Hanna and Stettler in Alberta Cook started stealing cars when he was 12. I was startled. Growing up on a farm in Saskatchewan a generation later I cannot recall knowing or hearing about anyone in my area becoming a thief before becoming a teenager.

It was not clear why Cook chose the criminal life. His primary life skill was hot wiring cars but he could have been a mechanic like his Dad. He was undoubtedly affected by family circumstances. His natural mother died when he was 9 and his father remarried about 3 years later and moved to Stettler. Almost immediately Cook began stealing cars.

He was a professional thief before he was 15. Of the last 3,247 days of his life he was out of jail but 243 days.

Two days after his final release in June of 1959 he arrived in Stettler on a Thursday. That evening he met with his father. They went home together.

That night, probably around midnight, the family was slaughtered.

The next morning Cook is in Edmonton, over a 150 km away, trading off the year old family station wagon on an Impala, a flashy “brand-new white convertible, top down, red Naugahyde upholstery”. He uses his father’s driver’s licence to make the deal.

Cook spent Friday and much of Saturday cruising around rural Alberta with a trio of teenagers. Eventually he returns to Stettler on Saturday and spends about an hour at the family home. He is detained on Saturday evening by the police with regard to questions concerning the new car.

After the bodies are found on Sunday he is charged with murder.

Cook provides an explanation to the RCMP that he repeats at his trials. He says that while speaking with his father on Thursday evening they agreed that they would buy a garage in British Columbia and go into business together. He said his father, stepmother and 5 half-siblings would go to British Columbia on Friday to look for a business and call him early in the week at the house to tell him where to meet them. He continued that his father gave him his identification and the station wagon so he could get a new car.

He asserts he gave his father $4,100.00 from past break and enters that he had dug up after release. The funds were to help pay for the new garage. His father, Ray, was a petty thief but the defence led no evidence of that criminality to support Cook’s evidence his father wwas quite willing to accept stolen money from his son on the day of the murders. Such a sum was neither found at the house nor on Cook.

While his father had discussed with Cook getting a garage together and had looked around Alberta there were no plans to go looking in British Columbia at the time of Cook’s release. There was no indication on Thursday that father would not be at work on Friday and the siblings would not be in school.

The problems with Cook’s explanation are obvious. It defies credibility.

In the house are found Cook’s blood stained suit and a blood stained shirt that would fit him.

Cook states it must have been a stranger who entered the house after he left Thursday evening and killed his family and then put on Cook’s suit to move the bodies and try to clean up the house.

Cook breaks down crying uncontrollably when told by the RCMP his father is dead.

In giving his statements he is calm and direct in his answers to the RCMP. In trying to explain he tangles himself deeper. It was a surprise to me that as a career criminal he would think he could “explain” away a charge of murder. There was no chance of success. Defence counsel advise accused not to make statements as they cannot help the defence. As here too often the accused is caught in contradictions. Cook ultimately was forced to admit that he lied in parts of this statements.

Cook went through life lying to the police but he took pride that when “the game was up” he had never lied in court that he was not guilty. It is too subtle “a game” for a jury to appreciate he was telling the truth in court about not committing murder because, in the past, he had only lied to the police and not in court. 

Pecover, over hundreds of pages, analyzes the evidence and defence strategies at Cook’s trials. My next post takes a look at the evidence and trials.

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Here are my other posts on the book:

Pecover, J. - (2017) - The Work of Justice - The Trials of Robert Raymond Cook and Assessing the Evidence and Considering the Judgment from Causes of Wrongful Conviction and Robert Raymond Cook Facing Execution

The Winners’ Circle by Gail Bowen

(30. – 917.) The Winners’ Circle by Gail Bowen – Since Zack Shreeve came into Joanne Kilbourn’s life the Winner’s Circle has played a role in the series. The Winner’s Circle, a self-proclaimed group of law students, was formed by Zack and four other law students (Isobel, Chris, Kevin and Blake) in their first year of law school at the University of Saskatchewan. Blessed with brains and charisma they later founded a law firm that became prominent and successful in Regina. Almost 30 years have passed since they finished law school.

Legal prominence and financial prosperity has not shielded the Winner’s Circle from tragedy. Earlier books in the series chronicle the deaths of Chris and Blake’s wife, Lily. Though those deaths are years in the past they have left the survivors and their families heavily burdened.

It is early October and the members of the Winner’s Circle have gathered at Lawyer’s Bay where each of them has a cottage, more aptly summer homes. Having written a series that follows the lives of her characters for over 25 years Gail now has three generations within the families of the Winner’s Circle.

Three teenage daughters of the legal partners - Taylor, Isobel and Gracie - call upon their parents and spouses to commit to exploring together their enduring griefs a few weeks later on October 31 in the way of the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos). Having learned that day “celebrates the lives of the dead by the living reminiscing and sharing some of the things that have brought their loved ones joy when they were alive” one of the girls, Isobel, says:

“That’s when we knew that the Day of the Dead offered something our families needed. We’ve all lost people we loved or people we wish we’d had the chance to love. Gracie and Taylor’s mothers both died. The sister who I never knew existed until three years ago died before I had the chance to meet her.”

She continues by talking to her Zack of what has been lost because of their family sorrows:

            “Every night we fell asleep to the sounds of the adults\\
            laughing,” ….

The adults agree to the request.

A few days later Gracie, whose mother Lily was a member of the Lakota First Nation at the Standing Buffalo Reserve near Lawyers’ Bay, talks to Joanne about her Aunt Rose from the Reserve who has reservations about them drawing on a different culture which they do not fully understand. Having grown up in “white culture and Dakota ways” Gracie has an appreciation of traditions and their power.

I can think of few other series where teenagers are given a meaningful role.

At the same time Falconer Shreeve, with Zack focused on being mayor of Regina and doubtful to return to the law firm, has major decisions to make about leadership and transition. The Winners’ Circle has maintained tight control of the firm. If the firm is to survive it must adjust to accommodate the young partners who have been kept from an equity position within the firm. Change for the founders is no easier for a close knit law firm than for any other business. It will not be seamless. There is bound to be relief that the firm is progressing but pain is inevitable.

The themes of exploring the past through personal lives and moving into the future for the law firm intersect at a gala banquet in Zack’s honour to raise money for the foundation created in honour of Chris. The foundation is “dedicated to funding initiatives that help young people overcome obstacles in their lives.”

At that banquet Regina Police Chief, Debbie Haczkewicz, speaks about how Zack, who has been in a wheelchair for decades, convinced her son, left paraplegic in an accident and wanting to die, that life is worthy living. She provides a creative image “that, like the orca and the great white shark, police officers and trial lawyers are natural enemies.” After recounting how Zack helped her son “overcome” she concludes:

“Zack will always be a great white shark and I will always be an orca, but we’ve learned to cherish the times when we’ve been able to swim side by side.”

However, the banquet ends in discord as law firm issues intrude upon them.

Drawn deeply into the compelling story I was shaken, which no longer happens often after reading a couple of thousand mysteries, by an act of violence that is shattering in its impact. The capable and efficient Joanne is left reeling.

Gail’s 17^th book in the Joanne Kilbourn series is among the best. It takes a truly gifted writer to write so well so long into a series.

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Bowen, Gail – 2011 Questions and Answers with Gail; 2011 Suggestions for Gail on losing court cases; The author's website is http://www.gailbowen.com/ - (2011) Deadly Appearances; (2013) Murder at the Mendel; The Wandering Soul Murders (Not reviewed); A Colder Kind of Death (Not reviewed); A Killing Spring (Not reviewed); Verdict in Blood (Not reviewed); (2000) - Burying Ariel (Second best fiction of 2000); (2002) - The Glass Coffin; (2004) - The Last Good Day; (2007) – The Endless Knot (Second Best Fiction of 2007); (2008) - The Brutal Heart; (2010) - The Nesting Dolls; (2012) - "B" is for Gail Bowen; (2012) - Kaleidoscope and Q & A on Kaleidoscope; (2013) - The Gifted and Q & A and Comparing with How the Light Gets In; (2015) - 12 Rose Street; Q & A with Gail Bowen on Writing and the Joanne Kilbourn Series; (2016) - What's Left Behind and Heritage Poultry in Saskatchewan Crime Fiction; Hardcover