Plus get our latest book recommendations, author news, and competitions right to your inbox.
Published by ECW Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
Award–winning novelist William Deverell is back with a new Arthur Beauchamp legal thriller.
Lawyer Arthur Beauchamp is facing the most explosive trial of his career: the defence of seven boisterous environmentalists accused of sabotaging an Ontario plant that pumps out a pesticide that has led to the mass death of honeybees. The story zigzags between Toronto, where the trial takes place, and Arthur’s West Coast island home, where he finds himself arrested for fighting his own environmental cause: the threatened destruction of a popular park. The Toronto trial concludes with a tense, hang-by-the-fingernails jury verdict. Realistic and riveting, Stung is a propulsive legal thriller by a beloved author at the height of his powers.
Lawyer Arthur Beauchamp is facing the most explosive trial of his career: the defence of seven boisterous environmentalists accused of sabotaging an Ontario plant that pumps out a pesticide that has led to the mass death of honeybees. The story zigzags between Toronto, where the trial takes place, and Arthur’s West Coast island home, where he finds himself arrested for fighting his own environmental cause: the threatened destruction of a popular park. The Toronto trial concludes with a tense, hang-by-the-fingernails jury verdict. Realistic and riveting, Stung is a propulsive legal thriller by a beloved author at the height of his powers.
Excerpt
Cuddling a nearly new laptop — I just got it today — I pause halfway down the stairs and listen to Arthur taunt Ariana Van Doorn in the moose room. She will make her debut tomorrow, and Arthur and Nancy are prepping her.
“Necessity? Necessity? My dear Professor Van Doorn, why was it so critical, so necessary, to commit a serious criminal offence, a surreptitious break-and-enter by night, when no one’s life was in immediate peril?”
“Excuse me, my field is biology—”
“It’s a simple question, madam, I’d like an answer, please.” Arthur has Khan’s slightly old-school accent down pat.
“Okay, in my opinion, people have been hurt, they were in immediate peril. According to the pesticide poisoning statistics we heard yesterday, one in 12,500 users accidentally imbibe insecticides in any given year—”
“Immediate peril, not some accident in the vague future…”
“Objection, counsel is baiting the witness, and is also being ridiculous.” That’s Nancy.
Ariana gives a throaty laugh. I carry on down to the back patio with the Dell notebook. Okie Joe will be stopping over to make sure it isn’t rigged to explode in my face. I pack a pipe with pot.
I’m seeing criminal law in a new light. There’s flexibility to it. I find it profoundly creative of Arthur and Nancy to have made adjustments on the fly to the frail defence of necessity. They’ve narrowed its focus to real people, like the unlikely duo of Barney Wilson and Charlie Dover.
Most people are deaf to the climate crisis, they don’t want to hear about the bees, it’s all too depressing and abstract. It was maybe asking too much of our jury to conclude we had to knock over an insecticide lab as a wakeup call against planetary collapse. But the poisoning of a fellow hominid brings it home.
Because we raided the Vigor-Gro plant, because we exposed their corrupted tests, because we spoke up, because of the publicity, because of this very trial, we have rescued farmers susceptible to what we now call the Dover-Wilson Syndrome.
That’s the essence of today’s testimony from an agricultural economist, a climatologist, and an actuarial scientist with a doctorate in statistics. Together, with reams of tables and stats and graphs and international sales figures for Vigor-Gro, they made a case that it’s statistically likely that a “significant” number of pesticide users out there are allergic to ziegladoxin. And it’s also statistically likely that our action has warned a “significant” number of accidental imbibers to get flushed out right away. Something like that.
It’s a pretty stretchy theory, so taut it could easily snap as the jury tussles with it. But if they’re desperate to find reasonable doubt … just, possibly, maybe?
“Necessity? Necessity? My dear Professor Van Doorn, why was it so critical, so necessary, to commit a serious criminal offence, a surreptitious break-and-enter by night, when no one’s life was in immediate peril?”
“Excuse me, my field is biology—”
“It’s a simple question, madam, I’d like an answer, please.” Arthur has Khan’s slightly old-school accent down pat.
“Okay, in my opinion, people have been hurt, they were in immediate peril. According to the pesticide poisoning statistics we heard yesterday, one in 12,500 users accidentally imbibe insecticides in any given year—”
“Immediate peril, not some accident in the vague future…”
“Objection, counsel is baiting the witness, and is also being ridiculous.” That’s Nancy.
Ariana gives a throaty laugh. I carry on down to the back patio with the Dell notebook. Okie Joe will be stopping over to make sure it isn’t rigged to explode in my face. I pack a pipe with pot.
I’m seeing criminal law in a new light. There’s flexibility to it. I find it profoundly creative of Arthur and Nancy to have made adjustments on the fly to the frail defence of necessity. They’ve narrowed its focus to real people, like the unlikely duo of Barney Wilson and Charlie Dover.
Most people are deaf to the climate crisis, they don’t want to hear about the bees, it’s all too depressing and abstract. It was maybe asking too much of our jury to conclude we had to knock over an insecticide lab as a wakeup call against planetary collapse. But the poisoning of a fellow hominid brings it home.
Because we raided the Vigor-Gro plant, because we exposed their corrupted tests, because we spoke up, because of the publicity, because of this very trial, we have rescued farmers susceptible to what we now call the Dover-Wilson Syndrome.
That’s the essence of today’s testimony from an agricultural economist, a climatologist, and an actuarial scientist with a doctorate in statistics. Together, with reams of tables and stats and graphs and international sales figures for Vigor-Gro, they made a case that it’s statistically likely that a “significant” number of pesticide users out there are allergic to ziegladoxin. And it’s also statistically likely that our action has warned a “significant” number of accidental imbibers to get flushed out right away. Something like that.
It’s a pretty stretchy theory, so taut it could easily snap as the jury tussles with it. But if they’re desperate to find reasonable doubt … just, possibly, maybe?
Product Details
- Publisher: ECW Press (March 30, 2021)
- Length: 592 pages
- ISBN13: 9781770415959
Browse Related Books
Raves and Reviews
“Elegant prose and an endearing lead ease the way through the thicket of environmental issues. Fans of character-driven mysteries will be rewarded.” — Publishers Weekly
“Along with its humor, every chapter of Stung offers both the cost of taking moral action, and the deep suspense of being human.” — NY Journal of Books
“Deverell’s Stung is relevant, rich with countless memorable characters, loaded with courtroom suspense, and above all, tremendously readable. Up there with some of my favourite legal thrillers, a list that includes Turow and Connelly.” — Linwood Barclay, New York Times bestselling author of Elevator Pitch and A Noise Downstairs
“Stung — a blistering ride on a flaming meteor.” — Joy Kogawa, author of acclaimed, award-winning novel Obasan
“Canada’s Raymond Chandler is at the top of his game in this rollicking, riveting tale of youthful valour versus corporate villainy. Both laugh-aloud funny and profound, Stung is a feast of wit, satire and suspense to keep you up all night.” — Ronald Wright, author of A Short History of Progress
“Some writers get better with age. Stung, William Deverell’s 9th Arthur Beauchamp novel, might be the best yet: it is deliciously witty, politically and ecologically timely, and filled with characters you’d happily spend time with. Deverell isn’t just one of our best crime/mystery writers. He’s one of our best writers, period.” — Brian Fawcett, author of Virtual Clearcut, winner of the 2003 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction
“No lawyer-turned-writer captures the hurly-burly of practicing real-life criminal law quite like William Deverell with his hilarious, enthralling plots. Stung is vintage Deverell at his razor-sharp best.” — Michael Slade, author of the Special X Mountie Noir thrillers
“Irreverent, bawdy, and boisterous, Deverell’s foray into radical environmentalism on trial keeps the reader riveted until the last page. The courtroom scenes are brilliant.” — Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, author of Full Disclosure and Truth Be Told
“Deverell deftly takes the sobering ecological catastrophe of crashing bee populations and turns it into a raunchy, rollicking, and riveting tale. It kept me up late laughing, and I wolfishly read it in a couple of days, cheering on the spunky heroine.” — Dr. David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment
“Arthur Beauchamp fans will not be disappointed as William Deverell takes us on another romp through politics, eco-saboteurs, and all things Green. This time, he adds a great character in Rivie Levitsky. A first-class page-turner!” — Elizabeth May, MP, and former leader of the Green Party of Canada
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Stung Hardcover 9781770415959
