Why Chief Justice?

As she has in both Full Disclosure and Denial, former Chief Justice of Canada Beverley McLachlin creates legal issues during Proof that draw my attention.

While McLachlin is very convincing on the challenges of family life for a lawyer, the obsession of her lawyer, Jilly Truitt, over the murder case she is conducting on a pro bono basis is not realistic. For a firm with two partners, herself and Jeff, I cannot see how she can devote all her time to the case and incur major expenses for the defence. I have been practising law for decades with 1-2 partners besides myself and there is no way she could limit herself to this case. There is reference to other income producing cases but no time spent upon them by her. Having but one case is good fiction but weak reality. In Denial, the second book featuring Truitt, McLachlin had Truitt dealing with the challenges of managing a major case and other files. There is abundant drama in that process. Law office economics demand she continue to bring income into the firm.

Later in the book she spends an inconsequential amount of time assisting other lawyers in the firm with their files. The firm continues to hemorrhage money for months.

As she works on Kate’s defence Truitt decides to personally question a major Crown witness, Selma Beams, the nanny for Tess.

For a lawyer to question Crown witnesses before trial is a delicate area. They have already provided statements to the police which are provided to the defence. They have no duty to respond to questioning by the defence. 

Truitt made me twitch when she did not identify herself as Kate’s lawyer at the start of a conversation with Selma. She passes herself off as a single mother looking for a nanny. Only when Selma asks Truitt who she is does Truitt identify herself for “lawyers aren’t allowed to misrepresent who they are”. Her recognition of her ethical responsibility is late, very late, in the conversation.

Beyond her questionable ethical approach Truitt risked her ability to defend Kate by questioning Selma. She is seeking new evidence or at least evidence that contradicts Selma’s existing evidence. If a lawyer elicits new or contradictory evidence, especially if it is in the form of a conversation with neither recording nor signed statement, from a witness that the witness subsequently denies or recants or claims she was misled, the lawyer risks becoming a witness. If a lawyer becomes a witness they must withdraw as counsel and another firm must take over the case.

There is a further issue involving Selma. It irritates me when McLachlin controverts legal procedure. She had Selma swear an affidavit in family law custody proceedings, that took place before the book, in which she states that she is entitled, because of her time with the parents, to give opinion evidence on their parenting abilities. She is not an expert. Only experts can give opinions. More subtly, Selma could have advised what she observed that gave her concern over Kate’s parenting of Tess and what actions she took because of those concerns. Selma’s opinion in the book would be disregarded by a real life judge and subject her admissible evidence on parenting to be regarded skeptically. Her conclusions on the best interests of Tess would be struck and sanctioned.

There is an adoption proceeding involved in the book which is purported to be legally done through a hospital. Only in fiction can a lawful adoption proceed without the consent of both parents or a court order dispensing with consent. The issue of an unlawful adoption would have been fascinating in the aftermath of the case concerning the rights of the biological and adoptive parents. A twist in the plot eliminated the question.

As with the earlier two books there is a legal aspect to the conclusion that is a purely creative legal proceeding that would never happen in a Canadian court. 

Once a charge is withdrawn the judge is functus. The judge cannot hear an admission of guilt to charges pending in a different court for any reason. Court is over with the withdrawal.

Authorial licence has been repeatedly invoked yet again by the former Chief Justice of Canada in her legal fiction. I despair.

****

McLachlin, Beverley - (2018) - Full Disclosure and Full Disclosure Within Full Disclosure; (2024) - Denial and The Law in Denial and What Would You Do If a Suffering Loved One Asked You to Kill Him/Her?; (2025) - Proof

Proof by Beverley McLachlin

(55. - 1238.) Proof by Beverley McLachlin - Jillian Truitt is depressed. Edith, the social worker who rescued her as a baby and as a teenager, considers it post-partum depression 15 weeks after the birth of her daughter, Claire. Truitt is also depressed over the death of Mike, her lover and father of Claire. She has feelings of guilt as he was shot by an assassin trying to kill her in the previous book, Denial. I think she is further depressed by being away from practising law as a criminal defence lawyer. She thrived in the high paced life of a prominent lawyer.

The 5 year old daughter of soft rock star, Tristan “Trist” Jones, and his separated wife, Kate Sinclair-Jones, has been kidnapped. She was with her father on a beach at the time of the abduction. He briefly fell asleep.

After court proceedings Trist has had full custody with Kate limited to supervised access. Such a parenting decision meant that the Court had concerns over the safety of Tess with her mother.

Truitt considers herself unready to return to work. Advice around her is plentiful. About half the people she knows say she needs to stay home longer with Claire while the other half state she should return to work.

She gets a call from Senior Crown Prosecutor, Cy Vance. The police want to interview Kate but she is “hysterical” and the police want a lawyer present to protect her rights.

Every defence counsel knows the police and prosecutor believe she has committed crimes by wanting Truitt present.

Truitt resists until Vance says the police cannot waste hours. They need answers as Tess’s life may be in danger.

Truitt cannot resist the lure of a life and death situation and goes to the police station.

Credible evidence exists of Kate being at and near the abduction.

How long do you search for a missing child on a small island when you do not know if the child is on the island?

Subsequently, Truitt wrestles between disclosing new evidence discovered by the defence to the Crown that could assist in renewing a search for Tess against keeping the evidence a secret until trial when it could be sprung upon the Crown prosecutor. The dilemna is very real. 

Truitt commits to a perilous course of defending based upon the truth. Unless the whole truth is discovered she risks Kate’s conviction in a trial where not all the facts are revealed. There are strong reasons for defence counsel to focus on reasonable doubt rather than attempting to prove innocence.

Truitt, very adept at perceiving what is missing from Crown disclosure and client disclosure, is convinced both sources are keeping information from her. The greater difficulty is getting what her client is holding back.

There is far more defence investigation than usual in a Canadian criminal case. The story is more like an American case.

Truitt is floundering as she struggles to assemble a realistic defence to what I consider a strong case except for the absence of a body.  

While I do not need the action there is enough Hollywood to get a reader’s heart pumping though, in true Canadian fashion, not a person is killed.

It gets bizarre at the ending, in and out of court.

McLachlin has a great feel for the complexities of being a litigator with a 7 month old child. As a single mother the issues for Truitt, related to balancing law and baby, increase dramatically. She could not do it without the aid of her always available friend, Edith, and daycare.

I feel McLachlin, former Chief Justice of Canada, who spent time as a lawyer in private practice and lost her first husband when her son was 12 are reflected in the depths of Truitt’s traumas.

McLachlin has become an accomplished writer. Her plots move briskly. Her characters are credible. I enjoy reading them while I am occasionally frustrated with how she deals with legal principles and procedure. Details of my frustration for Proof are in my next post. (Nov. 11/24)

****

McLachlin, Beverley - (2018) - Full Disclosure and Full Disclosure Within Full Disclosure; (2024) - Denial and The Law in Denial and What Would You Do If a Suffering Loved One Asked You to Kill Him/Her? 

A Short Life by Nicky Greenwall

(7. - 1250.) A Short Life by Nicky Greenwall - Set in Cape Town the opening chapters are far from a narrative. 

In the middle of the night Nick and Franky are at the site of an accident where a car has crashed down a slope. 

In the next chapter, set earlier in the day, Sebastian (usually Seb) and Charley are having discussions with a German client over the filming of a car commercial in Cape Town. A host of car commercials have been made in the scenic regions around Cape Town.

Next, at an evening meal, between the day discussions and the night accident, six friends gather in a dark pretentious restaurant. They are celebrating the 5th anniversary of Nick, an engineer, and Franky, an advertising copywriter. Charley and Sebastian own an advertising agency. Adam is “a failed software designer” and Maria “a former model, stay-at-home-mother-of-three who dabbles in sculpture”.

Back to the accident scene, Nick takes a drunk Adam, who had been driving the crashed car, to the home of Franky’s mother. Franky is appalled with them.

In the morning after the accident a distraught Seb calls Franky. He says Charley is gone. For some reason she went out after they went to bed and collided with an oak tree. 

There is a powerful scene where Sebastian waits with Franky to identify the body of Charley. The faint hope the body will not be Charley is extinguished at the identification.

Franky, at 39, is pregnant for the first time. She had been waiting to tell Charley.

Sebastian, Nick, Franky, Adam and Maria are haunted, even months later by the question:

Where had Charley been going that night?

Sebastian copes through denial.

Adam cannot remember what happened.

Franky tries to just get on with life.

Nick is pragmatically getting on and is irritated with the amount of time Franky is spending with Sebastian.

Maria spends most nights sleeping with the children.

In a brilliant line on their frustration, Greenwall, through Franky, captures modern life:

…. so confusing. The not knowing …. like we can’t Google it …

Sebastian hires a private investigator, Jan, as the police have stopped investigating when they concluded it was just an accident. They are uninterested in the Question.

The surviving five cannot move past the Question.

Months after the accident Sebastian has refused to move the blazer Charly left on a chair in their bedroom. Suddenly feeling the need for action he starts cleaning out Charley’s closets. There is a surprise. 

They are the Beautiful people with lives of luxury but unsettled minds. They spend much of their time on introspection; obsessively at times. The story is more about their lives than answering the “Question”. Secrets slip around the characters. Initially I thought all the time in their minds distracted me from the story. Then I realized the portions of the book solving the mystery were more the distraction. At the end all the thoughts and solving the mystery come together. I found Greenwall skilled at penetrating the minds of her characters. All the time on introspection took me time to read as I considered their minds.

The book is a series of very short chapters. As the story proceeds go back and forth into the lives of the characters. Each chapter is in the voice of a major character. Six narrators plus (the six main characters and another) are a lot of voices, especially when they are going back to and fro in history. The story proceeds somewhat choppily. 

I found it an interesting book though it took 150 pages before it really had me gripped. It was an unusual mystery. The ending was brilliant, touching and unique. It answered the Question in a way I would never have guessed. 

A Letter Exchange with Elizabeth Heider

After reading May the Wolf Die I wrote to the author, Elizabeth Heider. She kindly replied. I appreciate her candour. Our exchange of letters is below. I look forward to her next book.

****

Dear Elizabeth

Occasionally I write to an author about a book I have enjoyed and am reviewing in my blog, Mysteries and More from Saskatchewan.

I purchased May the Wolf Die late last year after seeing the New York Times recommendation. Whether through some form of divine guidance or merely coincidence I began reading May the Wolf Die the day after returning to Saskatchewan from a 37 day cruise which went from Rome to Cape Town.

Our first stop was in Naples where Sharon and I went on a tour to a pasta factory in Gragnano. As noted in my review we experienced the continuous drama of driving in Naples.

After leaving Europe the cruise went down the west coast of Africa, an area of the world with which you are very familiar through your work with the U.S. Navy.

I find being on a cruise ship for weeks to be an escape from the world. I lose track of the date and day of the week. Having no military experience I have wondered whether it is the same being on a warship. Was orientation to time different for you when deployed with the U.S. Navy on lengthy voyages?

I prefer reading a book by a new author to me before learning about the writer lest my thoughts on the book be influenced by their life. With May the Wolf Die I did not quite reach the end of the book before going online to read about you. The depth of knowledge about Naples and the U.S. Navy in the book prompted me to find about your life.

I was surprised when I read of your work history in physics and the U.S. Navy and the European Space Agency and Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence Science Research Laboratory and the commercial spaceflight industry. It is rare in my crime fiction reading experience to read an author who is both an accomplished scientist and a writer of mysteries.

Nothing I learned about your life affected my thoughts on the book. There is a link at the end of this letter to my review. I consider it a great book.

You stated in your website bio that:

I’ve always processed my experiences through writing. Fiction is particularly helpful because it helps me identify and tell the emotional truth of a situation while keeping my analytical proclivities at bay. My attempts at nonfiction become very academic - replete with facts and analyses, but absent the emotional and spiritual elements that are often the most essential parts of narrative truthtelling.

That passage prompted me to think about my own writing. I have not written fiction. As a lawyer for almost 50 years I have written letters, briefs, arguments, memos and opinions. As a sports columnist for 46 years I have written columns focused on the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League. As a blogger I have written over 1,500 posts, mostly about books and authors. As a member of the Roman Catholic parish in Melfort I write and deliver reflections once or twice a year when the parish priest is absent and we have a lay presided service.

Reflecting on my writing made me realize it is analytical. There are few “emotional and spiritual elements” in my writing. There are personal reactions in my sports columns and blog posts but they are limited. The reflections for church are spiritual but also analytical in examining the readings from the Bible for the service.

I would be interested in knowing how you keep your “analytical proclivities at bay” in your fiction. I did not find May the Wolf Die analytical. I have read fiction that was essentially non-fiction with dialogue added. Your characters have developed personalities.

I would be equally interested in knowing your approach to learning about a new author to you.

Lastly I would be interested in knowing where you find the time to write crime fiction.

I will be posting this letter in my blog in a few days. If you are able to reply and are willing I would post your response with this letter or in a separate later post if I have already posted this letter. A reply can be sent to me at mysteriesandmore@gmail.com.

I look forward to reading more of your crime fiction. I think I will forgo looking up your scientific non-fiction.

All the best.

Bill Selnes

****

Dear Bill,

Thank you so much for reaching out and for your thoughtful review of May the Wolf Die! I truly appreciate the time and care you put into reading and reflecting on my book. It’s wonderful to hear that it resonated with you. I'm glad to tell you that the next book in the series will come out in 2026 (I'm working on the edits right now).

Your cruise sounds like an incredible journey. Rome to Cape Town is an ambitious and fascinating route, especially with that stop in Naples. You’re absolutely right about the drama of driving there! It’s something that both fascinates and terrifies me in equal measure. I'm proud of my ability to maneuver in traffic there, and I have the traffic tickets to prove it. I also loved much of West Africa - I'm so glad you had those experiences and can treasure them for the rest of your life!

To answer your question about orientation to time on a Navy ship: yes, it is absolutely different. Long deployments, especially at sea, create an insular world where time takes on a strange elasticity. Without the usual markers of daily life, days blend together in a way that’s both disorienting and oddly liberating. There’s a rhythm to shipboard life - but it’s separate from the way time moves on land. Your description of losing track of the date on a cruise actually resonates a lot with my deployed experiences. The Navy culture on the ship was also a new experience for me (and a complete culture shock). The living conditions could be quite harsh, and this created an interesting dynamic with my shipmates. As a civilian, I struggled to earn my place and, at the end of a long deployment, felt intense gratitude and love for some people, and utter loathing for others. 

As for keeping my analytical tendencies at bay when writing fiction, that’s something I’ve had to learn over time. My background in science and analysis trained me to prioritize facts, logic, and clarity, but storytelling requires something different - an ability to sit with ambiguity, to allow characters to make imperfect decisions, and to prioritize emotional truth telling.

For me, writing about emotional and spiritual truths comes from two places. First, a personal need to understand and describe my own emotional landscape and also to sit in the discomfort of those emotions. It’s a process of discovery - one that fiction allows me to explore. I've tried to do this with non-fiction stories about my life, but I think that there's an instinctive shying-away from the vulnerability that's required. I'm somehow able to short-circuit this when I imagine fictional scenarios and people. Second, I love people, in all their messiness and beauty. Fiction gives me a way to inhabit different perspectives, to understand characters from the inside out, and to explore the contradictions that make them human. I think that’s why I gravitate toward crime fiction in particular. It’s a genre that naturally pushes into the most extreme moments of human experience.

Regarding how I approach a new author, I love the way you describe reading a book before learning about its writer. I often do the same. I prefer to enter a story without preconceived notions, allowing the writing itself to shape my perception. Only after finishing a book do I typically look into the author’s background, sometimes as a way of better understanding what shaped their perspective.

As for finding the time to write crime fiction. Well, that’s the constant challenge! I often think of writing as something I'm always looking to make time for, rather than something I find time for. Even during demanding periods of my career, I’ve always written in the margins of my life- early mornings, late nights, stolen moments in between responsibilities. It’s not always easy, but storytelling is something I feel compelled to do, so I make room for it however I can.

Thank you again for your kind words, for reading my book, and for reaching out with such thoughtful questions. I’d be happy for you to share my response on your blog if you’d like. Wishing you all the best, and I hope you enjoy my future books!

Warmly,
Elizabeth Heider

****

https://mysteriesandmore.blogspot.com/2025/02/may-wolf-die-by-elizabeth-heider.html

May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider

(60. - 1243.) May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider - Nikki (Nina to her family) Serafino and Valerio Alfieri own a sailboat they have lovingly restored. They are only a couple as co-owner
s. Serafino works “in a special division with the US military police, an Italian liaison unit called Phoenix Seven”. Her English is perfect having lived in England for several years. She has a forceful personality.

Nikki is striking:

“She was an attractive woman ….. short and compact and muscular, with a dynamic, interesting face …. Nikki had several tattoos”. 

She is certified in Krav Maga. She hates rising saying it “was unnatural for anyone to be up before ten in the morning”.

As Nikki and Valerio get ready to return to Naples from a sunny afternoon of sailing and swimming they see a stunning young woman abandoned in the water by her companion. Nikki rescues her from drowning.

As they reach the Naples harbour something gets entangled in the ladder on the side of the boat. It is the body of a strongly built man who has been garoted.

The next day while escorting an American serviceman and his family on a rural road after an accident she comes across a shot up red Jeep with a dead man inside. 

She is shaken by the randomness of coming across two murder victims in two days.

The man in the Jeep is an American naval lieutenant.

The first Italian investigator on scene is Ciro, a carabineri officer, who is incensed when the NCIS investigator, Durant Cole, directs him on how to conduct the investigation. Fabizio Manieri from the Polizia Stradale homicide department arrives and asserts his priority. There is a fierce argument over jurisdiction and roles. Ultimately each man contacts his superior and everyone waits for the higher level negotiations to be completed. In the meantime, the body deteriorates.

Fabrizio openly gloats when he is designated to lead the murder investigation.

Cole initially wants Serafino’s help on the case but when the lieutenant is identified Cole dismisses Serafino as her security clearance is not high enough.

Serafino’s boyfriend, Enzo Di Pavola, is the son of a wealthy business tycoon. He has a nightclub and has avoided going into the family business. He is irritated that Serafino is content with a modest life. He thinks her lifestyle reflects badly upon him.

She has a challenging family with distance from her father, Raoul, a retired police officer and an immature brother, Gianni.

There is family tension as Francesca, the wife of Gianni, Nikki’s brother,  resents Beatrice, Nikki’s mother, bequeathing a valuable apartment to Nikki. Francesca wants Nikki to sell the apartment and divide the money with the family.

When the sea victim is identified as an American naval captain the investigative situation becomes intense. The commanding American admiral, Keith Radford, and ambassador, Paul Lissom, want a swift resolution of the murder of two American officers. The Italian government does not want trouble with America.

Serafino’s security clearance is no longer important. The NCIS reluctantly reveals classified information.

The multiple investigators must seek out the connections between Italians and American naval personnel. As a long time resident of Naples Serafino has personal connections and sources.

There is darkness in her past involving the killing of her brother, Adriano, who was also a police officer. The darkness comes back into her life.

Valerio, a member of the police anti-corruption unit, pursues separate investigations.

The oppressive heat has everyone edgy. Naples is a simmering city. Destructive riots erupt. Nikki is caught up in the chaotic violence of a riot. They are in a Dantean Inferno of the 21st Century.

The violence becomes personal.

Nikki persists in pursuing the truth, however inconvenient it may be to multiple governments, organizations and agencies.

The complexities in the case and Nikki’s personal life multiply.

A reluctant witness says to Valerio:

“The world is run by wolves. It’s their system, their rules. We can’t change it.”

The wolves are roaming in Naples. Nikki and Valerio are ready to confront them but personal events force them to seek favours from the wolves. 

Heider writes smoothly. Her characters are vivid and interesting. She vividly describes the atmosphere of Naples. It is a vibrant, often chaotic, city pulsing with energy, especially at night. Serafino thrives on its vitality. (Having been driven through Naples on our recent cruise I can attest to the congested traffic and imperious drivers.)

May the Wolf Die is a remarkable debut. The story is as much allegory as noir fiction. It is a compelling work with a rich complexity in people and plot.

The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen

(57. - 1240.) The Hanging Girl by Jussi Adler-Olsen - Carl Mørck is relaxing in his Copenhagen office after a series of difficult cases. He brushes aside a call from a rural Danish police officer, Christian Habersaat, plaintively seeking help with a cold case that has haunted him.

When Habersaat commits suicide at his retirement party in protest over decades of official “indifference and thoughtlessness” especially concerning the cold case, Mørck is shamed by his assistant Rose into going to the island of Bornholm where Habersaat worked and died. Assad and Rose accompany him.

They are provided with the files for Habersaat’s case. A teenage girl, Alberte Goldschmid, was hit head on by a vehicle and thrown up into the branches of a tree where she died. Her death was 17 years earlier. There are neither non-investigated leads nor evidence ignored. They will have to go over the whole investigation again.

When Habersaat’s 35 year old son, Bjarke, commits suicide the day of his father’s suicide there is heightened attention to the case.

The Department Q team starts digging down into the cold case re-interviewing those closest to Alberte who was attending a folk school.

Assad effectively leads initial interviews with aggressive questions.

Alberte was a beautiful sensual teenager.

In the present June, Habersaat’s ex-wife and Bjarke’s mother, is a bitter resentful woman.

A guru, Atu Abanshamash Dumuzi, is operating the Nature Absorption Academy in Sweden not far from Bornholm.

Pirjo Abanshamash Dumuzi, his devoted aide, is obsessed with wanting to become his lover and bear his children. He is indifferent to her desire.

Atu is mesmerizing. Before his devoted, well paying, disciples:

When Atu stepped forward in his yellow robe with the beautiful detailing on the arms, it was as if a light in the darkness - an aura of energy - was suddenly lit. It was like beholding the truth of life itself when he opened his embrace toward the assembly and took them into his world.

How Mørck and his team connect them to the deaths in Bornholm is fascinating.

Department Q probes and challenges reluctant witnesses about past statements as it finds out who Alberte was associating with almost two decades earlier. They are meticulous in examining thousands of pages of evidence assembled by Habersaat.

The search for Alberte’s last lover is frustrating but convincing as the Department interviews, examines and analyzes information. Their thoroughness produces incremental breakthroughs.

Department Q is a team guided rather than led by Mørck.

Mørck barely talks to his family. The death and funeral of an outspoken cousin draws accusations against Mørck going back decades.

As with several previous books in the series the investigation delves deeply into an aspect of society. In The Hanging Girl, Department Q examines a New Age religion based on multiple ancient sun based beliefs. A focus is Norse religious worship and the use of sunstones. 

The ending is a thriller in the best American tradition. It need not have gone almost all the way to Hollywood. There was drama enough in what happened 17 years ago and the present.

You can quickly see in Adler-Olsen’s books where the investigation is going but the pleasure is following the investigation. Department Q eventually gets there. It is the endings which have surprises.

The books in the Department Q series are good but long at 500 pages. It would be interesting to see what Adler-Olsen could do in 350 pages.

****

Adler-Olsen, Jussi - (2011) - The Keeper of Lost Causes; (2012) - The Absent One; (2020) - A Conspiracy of Faith; (2020) The Purity of Vengeance and Involuntary Sterilization in Denmark and Canada; (2023) - The Marco Effect