William Deverell reads in Miguel Antonio, Costa Rica, to raise funds for a library.
This just in. Award-winning Canadian author William Deverell will be the featured speaker at my upcoming writers’ retreat: Namaste Gardens Writing & Yoga Retreat in Playa Herradura, Costa Rica, January 21 to 30, 2012.
William, who divides his time between homes in Pender Island in Canada and near Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, has a wealth of writing background to draw from for his presentation. A former journalist and criminal lawyer, he is best known for his crime novels, which have been translated into 14 languages and sell around the world, and as the creator of the popular, long-running CBC TV series Street Legal, which has aired in 80 countries. His latest novel, I’ll See You in My Dreams, was released just this month (and a partial memoir is at the plot’s centre, by the way).
William wrote for Canadian Press and the Vancouver Sun and put himself through law school working as night editor for the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, then practised law for many years before turning to novel writing in the 1970s. Needles, his first foray into the genre, won the $50,000 Seal Prize in 1979 and the Book of the Year Award in 1981. Fifteen more titles have followed. He is also author of A Life on Trial: The Case of Robert Frisbee, a true crime story based on a notorious murder trial he defended, and he’s written numerous articles, short stories, radio plays, and TV and film scripts.
Trial of Passion launched his first crime series, starring “the classically trained, self-doubting” criminal lawyer Arthur Beauchamp. That novel won the 1997 Arthur Ellis Award for best Canadian crime novel, and the Dashiell Hammett Award for Literary Excellence in North American Crime Writing. The Arthur Beauchamp series gained momentum with April Fool, also an Ellis winner, Kill All the Judges, and Snow Job. Each of his other works has been shortlisted for the Ellis Award since its inception. Kill All the Judges was also a finalist for the Stephen Leacock Humour Medal. His most recent, I’ll See You in My Dreams, challenges Arthur Beauchamp, legend of the criminal bar, yet again.
William has been guest of honour at Canada’s main crime venue, Bloody Words, and received the Best Canadian Crime Writer award at the Scene of the Crime Festival in Ontario.
Before getting together in Costa Rica, retreat participants will read two of William’s personal essays, as well as The Laughing Falcon (2002), a mystery that’s set — where else? — in Costa Rica.
According to his publisher, McClelland & Stewart, “William Deverell’s 11th novel is an adventure thriller layered with startling twists. All that Maggie Schneider, a romance writer from wintry Saskatoon, wants is a glorious holiday in the tropics and maybe a little real romance to stir her creative juices. What she gets instead, soon after she arrives in Costa Rica, is a nasty surprise. First she is robbed of most of her money. Then she is kidnapped and held for ransom somewhere in the steamy jungle by self-styled revolutionaries led by a charismatic man with a mysterious background.
“Comical and fast-paced — and drawn from true events — The Laughing Falcon transports readers to the lush rain forest of Costa Rica, where the author himself has lived for much of the last 20 years.”
Of The Laughing Falcon, the Vancouver Sun says: “What Deverell does so brilliantly — and totally without pretension — is play with the notion of genre, subverting all our programmed expectations while giving us a truly moving story that satisfies on a number of levels. This book is somewhat similar to, and every bit as good as, Kate Grenville’s The Idea of Perfection, which recently won the Orange Prize … he’s an author who keeps improving his vintage. For those who have stayed away or failed to take him seriously, this book should be proof that we have something of a treasure in our midst.”
Says the Ottawa Citizen: “As with all Deverell novels, the beauty lies in the detail, the lush description and the plots. There are few mystery writers who could carry such an outrageous cast in such far-flung Central American locations. Deverell, some might suggest, is getting away with murder here – murdering the competition, that is.”
Says the Toronto Star: “The Laughing Falcon displays the craftsmanship and plot spins of an inventive storyteller successfully trying on a new approach to his work.”
For more about William Deverell and his writing, visit his site.
Jamie Wood, owner of Namaste Gardens. (Don't worry, she won't make you do this.)
There are still a few spaces left in Namaste Gardens Writing & Yoga Retreat. Find out what this retreat offers here, and visit retreat host Jamie Wood’s site for Namaste Gardens. Interested? Contact me at lattamemoirs@gmail.com to request a Travel Details Sheet with rates and more.