William Deverell Books In Order

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Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

William Deverell is an author born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in March of 1937. The son of a newspaperman he followed those journalistic footsteps to pay his way through law school to become a criminal justice lawyer. That determination to become a lawyer was strong, but it still allowed him time to contribute to the newspaper of his university as an editor.

His law degree was just a short year away when the Sun newspaper in Vancouver drew him from his journey to cover the situation at the harbor. That time spent in 1962 among a group of newsmen that would someday become the newspaper legends of Canada. His days with those journalistic heavyweights would become the base for his future writing.

The following year of 1963 William Deverell returned to the University of Saskatchewan to finish his law degree. Standing as third in his graduating class took him on to win the Mckenzie a prize for excellence in the area of evidence. Once he had completed his degree at law school, Mr. Deverell not only began his career as a criminal lawyer but also became a civil rights activist.

Deverell has been known to describe his activism as the period in his life when he hoped to develop a strong reputation for his future in the area of criminal law. That ambition took him out west to seek work with an attorney in the dream to further his standings in the world of criminal law. However, after months of doing mostly typing, he was allowed to handle a case. That case, unfortunately, was surrounding nothing more than the theft of a Popsicle. Deverell’s successful future career was not swayed by the loss of that trial regarding issues of jurisdictional concerns.

Continuing with his career and his beliefs William Deverell founded the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association in 1962 and had remained as director in an honorary capacity. His failed attempt to run for political office was cut short by just a small number of votes, but that failure seemed to spark new life into the man as he plunged deep into his criminal justice career. Later Deverell claimed that the political loss allowed him to follow his literary career with greater insight into the criminal world rather than a stuffy politician’s outlook.

The hottest headline cases fueled a long, illustrious twenty years as a criminal justice attorney. Whether those headlines were due to client’s drawn to Deverell because of his past relationships with the media or just luck of the issues the sparked cases during the 60s and 70s wasn’t necessary. Mr. Deverell became a central focal point for the cases around civil liberties as the hard-driving Legal Aid that gathered every case he could grab each day. Pot possession, resisting arrest, and disturbances of all types were drawn to him as if by magnetic force after his many years of voluntary service to the Civil Liberties Union.

His long career saw Deverell’s participation in well over a thousand cases which would later become the research the aspiring novelist needed for detailed crime stories. That time as a crime lawyer was not spent only in the pursuit of legal aid situations but also consisted of civil liberties, labor, and murder. His murder trial experience saw his action as either prosecutor and defense in thirty cases.

From the comical example of the calendar filled with Kama Sutra stick figures to the notorious cruise ship killer, Deverell has seen everything in the criminal justice world allowing him greater literary insight. That unusual take on the seedier side of life allows creative writing that draws the reader deep into his stories.

William Deverell continued to work as a prominent criminal lawyer until he took a break to pursue his aspiring dream as a novelist. That goal went against the beliefs of his literary father. The elder Deverell held firm convictions against fictional works of literature, and it would have seemed that the beginning writer’s block of his son might have been the result.

While on sabbatical from his successful law practice Deverell ended that literary block with the success of his first novel. During the year away from his practice to pursue his writing career Deverell’s father passed away, alleviating the basis of his blocked creativity.

Mr. Deverell digs within his law experience for inspiration for the novels he writes, but he allows the environmentalist in his soul to enhance the stories. Today William Deverell, the self-described hippy lawyer, makes his home in both Costa Rica and on the British Columbian Pender Island.
Literary Works and Achievements

Needles, William Deverell’s first novel, won a $50,000 McClelland & Stewart Seal in 1997 and became the 1981 winner of Book of the Year. He followed that acclaimed novel with High Crimes sending Deverell into the world of best-selling novelist crime infamy.

The novel Trial of Passion won the 1997 Dashiell Hammett Prize in Excellence for literary writing in the crime genre as well as the Arthur Ellis 1998 award. Deverell achieved that same Ellis award in 2003 for his novel April Fool.

Those stories began his Arthur Beauchamp series which followed the career of a successful lawyer specializing in criminal justice. Beauchamp is drawn out of retirement by the former partners at his firm to help in the legal defense of a law school dean. The man accused of raping a former student. The popular series continues through multiple books following the life and cases of Beauchamp.

His awards include the Stephen Leacock, Canada’s award for satire, both for Snow Job and Kill All The Judges. Snow Job given the recognition on 2009’s list of top worldwide crime novels.

William Deverell is the author of the radio series, Scales of Justice and a film released in 1990, Mindfield where he supplied the screenplay. The Canadian television series Street Legal was a product of Deverell’s writing based on his screenplay Shellgame. Street Legal remained Canada’s leading drama for long running until 2014.

The series Street Legal followed the same sentiments of typical Deverell works, addictive, humorous, and slightly sentimental. Cases of the young partner in a law firm, Carrie Barr, are the stories that fill Street Legal. Those tales are the basis for the eight seasons of the drama on Canadian television.

His career is still continually bestowed on him as Deverell is considered one of Canada’s leading and most popular crime authors of all time.

Mr. Deverell uses his criminal law experience to create stories that intrigue and fill his readers with detailed crime stories. He has achieved worldwide fame receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award by Canada’s Crime Writers.