Trial of Passion

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

No Canadian writes courtroom drama as well as B.C. lawyer William
Deverell. Since he won the Seal $50,000 First Novel Award, he has
written eight novels and a work of true crime. In Trial of Passion,
Deverell has written perhaps his best novel to date, leaving us with a
wonderfully memorable character: Arthur Beauchamp, classical scholar,
recovering alcoholic, cuckold, and one of Canada’s top criminal
lawyers.

Beauchamp has deserted the arena of the courts and moved to a property
he has purchased on an idyllic Gulf Island populated by a number of
amiable eccentrics and leftovers from the hippie 1960s. But, inevitably,
he is drawn back to a courtroom for a case that “reeks of disaster and
damaged lives.” He is to defend the acting dean of law at the
University of British Columbia, who stands accused of the
sadomasochistic rape of one of his students. The trial itself does not
begin until the last third of the book; most of the narrative deals with
pretrial investigation and with Beauchamp’s sometimes humorous
adjustments to his new life on the island.

Most of the novel is written in the first person, by Beauchamp, and in
the present tense, in a style reminiscent of Scott Turow. The exceptions
are transcripts, such as the therapy sessions of the alleged accused and
the victim. There are perhaps too many of these; they become tedious and
one wants to return to the life and viewpoints of the narrator.

Trial of Passion was awarded the Crime Writers of Canada’s Arthur
Ellis Award for best crime novel of the year.