Books by Debra Komar

In 1869, in the woods just outside of the bustling port city of Saint John, a group of teenaged berry pickers discovered sme badly decomposed bodies. The authorities suspected foul play, but the identities of the victims were as mysterious as that of the perpetrator. During a coroner's inquest, an unlikely suspect emerged to stand trial for murder: John Munroe, a renowned architect, well-heeled family man, and pillar of the community. Munroe's trial was the first in Canada's fledgling judicial system to introduce the accused's character as a defence. His lawyer's strategy was as simple as it was revolutionary: Munroe's wealth, education, and exemplary character made him incapable of murder. The press and Saint John's elite vocally supported Munroe, sparking a legal debate that continues to this day. Re-examining this precedent-setting historical crime with fresh eyes, Debra Komar addresses questions that still echo through the halls of justice: Should the accused's character be treated as evidence? Is everyone capable of murder?

Is it possible to reach back in time and solve an unsolved murder, more than 170 years after it was committed? Just after midnight on April 21, 1842, John McLoughlin Jr., the chief trader at Fort Stikine, was shot dead by his own men. The Hudson's Bay Company had high expectations for this remote post on the Pacific Northwest coast, but within two years it had devolved into a cesspool of paranoia, violence, misrule, and revolt. The fort's complement claimed the shooting was their only means of stopping McLoughlin's drunken and abusive rampages, and HBC Governor George Simpson took them at their word. The case never saw the inside of a courtroom. McLoughlin was buried withotu ceremony, and the Company closed the book on his death. Now Debra Komar uses archival research and modern forensic science, including ballistics, virtual autopsy, and crime scene reconstruction, to unlock the mystery of what really happened the night John McLoughlin died. The story of his murder provides a glimpse into the sometimes brutal reality of life in the Hudson's Bay Company and the role it played in shaping the Canadian north.

In the winter of 1896, young Annie Kempton was brutally murdered. Throat slashed, face beaten, she bled to death on the floor of her family home in Bear River, Nova Scotia. An entire community and a salacious media rose and pointed their finger at one man: Peter Wheeler. According to the newspapers of the day, not only had Peter Wheeler killed Annie Kempton, he had also committed the unforgivable sin of being dark-skinned and foreign-born, a hired hand who had never learned his place. Thanks to a Halifax detective, the self-proclaimed Sherlock Holmes of the Maritimes, Wheeler was strung up in the dead of night. The case was among the first in Canada to introduce forensic science into a courtroom. In a riveting, fast-paced narrative, Komar re-examines the evidence using modern techniques and reveals how Peter Wheeler was the victim of a state-sanctioned lynching, executed for a crime he did not commit. The Lynching of Peter Wheeler is Debra Komar's second book on historic crimes. Her first, The Ballad of Jacob Peck, was met with considerable critical acclaim.