Non-Fiction

Who Killed Janet Smith?

By Edward Starkins

Who Killed Janet Smith? examines one of the most infamous and still unsolved murder cases in Canadian history: the 1924 murder of twenty-two-year-old Scottish nursemaid Janet Smith. Originally published in 1984, and out of print for over a decade, this tale of intrigue, racism, privilege, and corruption in high places is a true-crime recreation that reads like a complex thriller.

We are pleased to be reissuing this title as part of the City of Vancouver’s Legacy Book Project. This new edition features a Foreword by historian Daniel Francis.

“… drug traffic, Roaring Twenties hedonism, official corruption, cutthroat competition among newspapers, a public taste for occultism, etc.—and entrust the whole works to a good storyteller, and you have one terrific political history of Vancouver.”
— Geist Magazine

“Mr. Starkins excavates each layer of the story like an archaeologist with a trowel and camel-hair brush. He misses nothing. The result is one of those unputdownable reads that stays in your memory.” — Howard Engel

“Researched to the hilt, this study in prejudice and privilege tells the story not only of a mysterious murder but of high society, British Columbia-style, in the 1920s. Fascinating.”
— George Jonas

“Starkins cuts away at the layers with the delicacy of a neurosurgeon. What he uncovers almost defies belief.”
— Quill & Quire

ISBN 978-1-897535-85-1
6 x 9 | 406 pp
$24 CAN / $24 US
Rights available: World.