Daring, Devious and Deadly by Dean Jobb

Daring, Devious and Deadly by Dean Jobb

Filled with surprising twists and courtroom drama, these are historic true crime stories of greed, murder and vengence.

Welcome to a rogues' gallery of murderers and pirates, a pair of brazen bank robbers and a fraud artist who fooled Halifax's elite. A supporting cast includes a wise-cracking Cape Breton judge, legendary journalist-turned-politician Joseph Howe, circus showman P.T. Barnum, and future prime minister John Thompson. Daring, Devious and Deadly is a collection of fifteen true tales of crime and justice that spans more than 150 years of Nova Scotia's history, from a triple murder in 1791 at a farm near Lunenburg to 1947, when Angus Walters, skipper of the racing schooner Bluenose, was attacked in the pages of an American magazine.

The stories are drawn from communities across the province, from Sydney and Amherst to Halifax, from the rugged coast of the Eastern Shore to the historic town of Annapolis Royal. Filled with surprising twists and courtroom drama, these stories of greed, murder and vengeance offer a window on the past. But justice can be far from blind. Religious hatred, partisan rivalry, social status, ethnicity, or political corruption sometimes invaded the courtroom, threatening to upset the delicate balance between guilt and innocence. Was justice done in each of these cases? You be the judge.

DEAN JOBB's most recent book, Empire of Deception, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best True Crime Book and the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award. It was also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-Fiction, as well as three Atlantic Canada book awards. Dean Jobb is the author of six other books, including Calculated Risk: Greed, Politics and the Westray Tragedy. His work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Chicago Tribune, the Irish Times and other major publications. He is a journalism professor and a faculty member in the MFA program in creative nonfiction at the University of King's College in Halifax.