Victims and survivors, angels and demons, intersect along winding roads to imperfect justice.

“Bare light bulbs shone against walls painted with graffiti and dried blood, the rooms reeking of a sweet pungent odour like burnt plastic …” So writes award-winning Hamilton Spectator journalist and author Jon Wells in one of four harrowing murder stories in Death’s Shadow.

Wells take readers up close into multiple homicide investigations, the agony of victims and their loved ones, and the chilling dance of death between cold-blooded killers and the hard-boiled investigators hunting them. His research draws upon jailhouse interviews with three of the killers as well as with homicide and forensic detectives, and the stories are augmented by crime-scene photographs and portrait photography of all the players.

Wells writes of victims and survivors, angels and demons, travelling winding roads to imperfect justice in intimate glimpses of horrific crimes.

JON WELLS reports on crime and a variety of other subjects for The Hamilton Spectator, and he has written seven books. He has won two National Newspaper Awards and sixteen Ontario Newspaper Awards, including Journalist of the Year for his true-crime series on James Kopp. Post-Mortem was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime non-fiction. Born in Montreal, Wells has a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa. His true-crime research has taken him into forensic laboratories and shooting ranges, and to India, Ireland, France, San Francisco, New York City and western Canada. He has interviewed a half dozen convicted killers in prison. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Jon Wells' profile page

The extra background and depth Wells gives the stories sets them apart from less ambitious crime reporting, and make the book a worthwhile addition to any Canadian true crime library.

Death's Shadow by Jon Wells …[is]a true to form riveting page turner. Recounting true crime details of four murders in Hamilton (some of which remain unsolved), Jon skillfully captures all aspects of intrigue, while weaving in the human impacts of these tragedies, as well as the grisly and often shocking details of the murders.

thehamiltonian.com