An Arthur Beauchamp Novel Series

A new edition of the Arthur Ellis Award winning crime novel Arthur 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, with a big dollop of humour.

Complex, fascinating, and fun … Kill All the Judges is a classic crime work, from an author heralded as one of Canada’s best, and with good reason.” — Shelf Life Finalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour Prize Is someone systematically killing the judges called to the British Columbian bar? At least one has been murdered and several have disappeared. Arthur Beauchamp returns from retirement once again to take on the case, this time defending his former nemesis, backwoods poet Cudworth Brown. He finds himself chasing all kinds of leads, including tracking down a mystery novel that Brown’s unreliable former lawyer has been writing, just as Beauchamp’s own wife, Margaret, has announced her candidacy for the Green Party. Complex, madcap, and peopled with some of the most delightfully eccentric characters to be found between two covers, Kill All the Judges proves William Deverell’s mastery of the hilariously comedic crime novel.

“Smart, beautifully written, and really, really, funny satire featuring Arthur Beauchamp.” –– The Globe and Mail Finalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour Award In this zany political thriller, the leader of the despotic Asian nation of Bhashyistan declares war on Canada after a limo bearing its visiting delegation is blown sky-high in snowy Ottawa. The suspected assassin, Abzal Erzhan, a Bhashyistani revolutionary, disappears. Was he kidnapped, was he murdered, or did he get away scot-free? Enter famed trial lawyer Arthur Beauchamp, dragged from retirement on his idyllic Gulf Island farm. As he prepares to represent Erzhan, he must ponder a hard, ethical question: is the alleged terrorist guilty, or has he been set up to take the fall? Arthur soon finds himself tangled up with wily civil servants, scheming cabinet members, an abrasive Bhashyistani propagandist, and a government spy who stumbles about like a bull in a china shop. Meanwhile, the international pressure mounts as Canadian oil executives are taken hostage while three Canadian female tourists, fearing terrorism, hide out in Bhashyistani’s wintry wilds.

Finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Crime Novel. “Deverell touches on the evils of the Native residential school system as this literate mystery builds to a surprising solution. Readers will hope they haven’t seen the last of the endearingly complex, fallible, and fascinating Beauchamp.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review Arthur Beauchamp, after a successful and much-lauded career at the criminal bar, is now retired to Garibaldi Island. His immediate desire is to win the Mabel Orfmeister Trophy for the Most Points in Fruits and Vegetables at the Garibaldi Island fall fair. With his crop picked and packed, Beauchamp is ready to do battle. While waiting for the judges, he can muse on his recently published biography by one Wentworth Chance. It is appropriately florid, with enough catty references to make it readable. And it takes Beauchamp back to his first big criminal case in 1962, the one, in legal terms, that “made him.” The trial of Gabriel Swift was front-page news. Swift was the Indigenous gardener of Professor Dermot Mulligan, but he was far more than a servant. He was one of Mulligan’s stars, a brilliant mind to mentor. Arthur Beauchamp knows all about that, because he, too, was one of Mulligan’s best and brightest. When Mulligan disappears, in unusual circumstances, suspicion falls on Swift even though Mulligan’s widow insists he couldn’t have done it and much of the evidence leans toward suicide.

Now in paperback! Montreal journalist Lou Sabatino, under witness protection after nearly being gunned down by the Mafia, is sucked into the quirky world of a conniving Russian dominatrix who has secretly recorded herself putting the whip to the bare bottom of a high-ranking federal cabinet minister. It’s the scoop of the century, but too hot a potato — if Lou breaks the story, he risks exposing himself to the mercies of the Mafia. Instead, he shows the video to Green Party leader Margaret Blake. The video is leaked, and Margaret is sued by the minister for $50 million. Enter Arthur Beauchamp, Margaret’s husband and famed criminal lawyer, who had found — or so he hoped — blissful retirement on idyllic Garibaldi Island on the West Coast. But now he’s representing the woman he loves while tormented by fears that she’s embroiled in an affair.  Whether you’re encountering Arthur Beauchamp for the first time or have followed him from his first case, the paperback release of award-winning William Deverell’s Whipped is not to be missed.