The Death of Donna Whalen

When Donna Whalen is stabbed thirty-one times in her home on Empire Avenue in St. John's, her friends, family and neighbours believe the culprit to be her abusive boyfriend, Sheldon Troke. But the evidence is circumstantial, the testimonies tainted by personal bias and attempts at deception. Police and prosecutors face a daunting challenge, and the course of justice, with all its intricacies and failings, takes many unpredictable turns before the truth is finally revealed.

• Michael Winter on why he writes sex scenes

In this extraordinary novel, Michael Winter has mined the records of Sheldon's trial thousands of pages of court transcripts, police wiretaps, newspaper reports, private letters and diary entries and distilled their raw, naked truth into a mesmerizing work of documentary fiction that captures the myriad voices of the people involved. (FromPenguin Canada)

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The Next Chapter12:38Robert J. Wiersema: If you liked "In Cold Blood" you'll love...

Columnist Robert J. Wiersema says that Michael Winter's novel "The Death of Donna Whalen" is a Canadian counterpart to Truman Capote's classic book.