Kill All the Judges

In this sequel to April Fool, winner of the 2006 Arthur Ellis Best Novel Award, Deverell brings back his most popular characters for a fast-paced, hilarious tale of madness, mayhem, and murder. Is someone systematically killing all the judges in B.C., or is this just coincidence at work? Several have disappeared, some under suspicious circumstances, and at least two have been murdered. But the man accused of killing Judge Whynet-Moir -- the self-aggrandizing backwoods poet Cudworth Brown -- is being represented by Brian Pomeroy, a lawyer who has gone off his rocker. The retired Arthur Beauchamp, legend of the B.C. bar, once again has to leave his beloved Garibaldi Island to take over the case. The timing couldn't be worse, as his wife, Margaret, has just announced her candidacy for the Green Party in a forthcoming federal by-election. Yet Beauchamp has no choice but to take over the defence of the poet, cajole Pomeroy to check into a clinic, and somehow get his hands on the manuscript of a mystery novel about the murder the demented lawyer has been writing. Complex, madcap, and hugely inventive, Kill All the Judges more than proves William Deverell's mastery of the laugh-out-loud crime novel.