More Maritime Murder

For history enthusiasts looking for material of a grimmer nature, Steve Vernon’s latest book, More Maritime Murder, recounts some of Atlantic Canada’s most sensational crimes.

Derived from primary sources such as trial statements and police records, More Maritime Murder dallies with fiction as it blends fact and embellishment, complete with crafty characterizations and imagined dialogue. The chapters, which are set between the mid-1800s and the mid-1900s, bring readers to locations in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick where things have taken a turn for the worse.

Vernon’s collection of twenty short stories joins his previous mystery-inspired books, including its prequel, Maritime Murder. He leans into the darkly humorous side of the genre, from cheeky chapter headings to sardonic segues. “Fortune was kind to Ben Atkinson — up until the point when he was murdered, which kind of put a damper on things,” he writes about one victim.

In another story Vernon writes, “that was the very last time that anyone in the little farming community of New Ireland saw Mary Ann McAulay alive. Besides her murderer, that is.” Indeed, readers will almost be able to hear the uncanny cackling behind Vernon’s Tales from the Crypt-style witticisms.