Slander »

Slander is award-winning author William Deverll's gripping new novel. Set in Seattle and British Columbia, it tells a hard-hitting story of shattered lives, of secrets long-kept and finally revealed, and of the often precarious road to justice.

Elizabeth Finnegan is a young lawyer, bright and headstrong, who finds herself locking horns, not for the first--or the last--time, with Hugh Vandergraaf, a brilliant and charismatic Supreme Court judge. Outraged by the lenient sentence Vandergraaf has just handed down to a convicted rapist, Elizabeth ignites a very public war of words with him both inside and outside the courtroom. When, a few days later, Elizabeth is visited in her office by a woman who makes a stunning claim against Vandergraaf, she takes on what promises to be the trial of her career, in spite of opposition from her firm's senior partners and the Attorney-General's office.

As Elizabeth builds her case against Vandergraaf, she pieces together a portrait of a brooding, ambitious man with powerful allies, who is seemingly addicted to sex and haunted by the demons of his past. But the trial, replete with complications and reluctant witnesses, takes a bizarre turn, and--in a very personal way--Elizabeth gets more than she bargained for.

Told from Elizabeth's point of view, Slander is an engrossing novel in which the genders are at ware and a feminist lawyer takes on the old boys' network. Dark, timely, and with a cast of vividly portrayed characters, Slander once again confirms William Deverell's reputation as one of Canada's most popular authors.