- Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
- Publisher: Seal Books (May 9 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0770429629
- ISBN-13: 978-0770429621
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 10.9 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#3,167 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Books > Nonfiction > True Accounts > Murder & Mayhem
- #6 in Books > Nonfiction > True Accounts > True Crime
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Karla Homolka is an enigma. After a decade of investigation, a previous book about the case (Invisible Darkness), access to police officers, attorneys, doctors, and internal documents, and correspondence with the subject herself, that is the upshot of author Stephen Williams's updated account, Pact with the Devil. No kidding. People who commit the kind of crimes Homolka committed--drugging, raping, and ultimately killing her own sister and helping to abduct and sexually assault two other teenaged girls--cannot be knowable to the rational. The gist of the author's new, rambling book is that everything about the case--not just the crimes--was a travesty. Few people in Pact with the Devil emerge worse than Inspector Vince Bevan, head of the Green Ribbon Task Force that investigated the deaths of abducted teens Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. Williams states flatly that Bevan's ineptitude and hubris were the real reasons Homolka received a lenient plea-bargain deal in exchange for testifying against her husband, Paul Bernardo, and not a lack of evidence. "The deal with Karla was precipitated by Vince Bevan so that he could participate in the arrest of Paul Bernardo and execute his own search warrant on their matrimonial home." (The Toronto Police already had DNA evidence fingering Bernardo as the "Scarborough Rapist"; Bevan, Williams argues, wanted to keep him in his own Niagara-region jurisdiction to face murder charges first.) Williams also contends that Bevan's "unusual and arguably inappropriate relationship" with the owners of the Port Dalhousie home rented by Homolka and Bernardo led him to withhold "the internal devastation another police force ... would have invariably unleashed on the interior of the house." And indeed, after 69 days, the search failed to discover trace vomit from French on a carpet or the videotapes Homolka and Bernardo had made of their brutal attacks and hidden in an upstairs bathroom. Also compelling is Williams's summary dismissal of Homolka as a compliant victim of a sexual sadist or a battered woman suffering post-traumatic stress disorder--diagnoses supported by many of her doctors. As Williams points out, those assessments conveniently overlook the fact that prior to her marriage, when Tammy Lyn Homolka was killed, Karla Homolka was living with her parents and sisters, not alone under the influence of Bernardo.
But Pact with the Devil is also a frustrating, uneven read. The author favours 10-dollar words, goes off on ludicrous tangents, and soapboxes against his critics. While the graphic nature of many scenes will sicken readers, the sensationalized jailhouse correspondence between the author and Homolka consists mainly of longwinded and mundane accounts of her incarceration. Perhaps most odious, the victims' families, despite everything else they've endured, must now deal with photos in the first printing of Williams's book depicting the Tammy Lyn post-mortem and Mahaffy dismembered and encased in cement--photos gathered as part of the investigation that should never have been made public (future printings will not include the photos). All that aside, Williams succeeds in leaving little doubt of bungling across the board. Tammy Lyn's death was initially ruled an accident in part because the investigating officers photographed--but failed to watch!--the videotape Homolka and Bernardo had made of her rape and left in plain view. Millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars were needlessly squandered. And Karla, thanks to her deal, walks absolutely free in July 2005 despite her documented participation in these crimes. --Kim Hughes --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
“Homolka Book for French Eyes Only: Sandra Martin finds publishers in English Canada feeling squeamish.” -- The Globe and Mail, November 2, 2002
“I thought some of the content was excellent but they were unanimous in their opposition. Some of them even said they would resign before selling this book.” -- Diane Martin, Associate Publisher, Knopf Canada Ltd.
“Karla contains much that is controversial, including details of unreleased psychiatric assessments..." -- The Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 2002
“My sense is that publishers don’t go looking for trouble, and this book – and Williams himself – spell trouble.” -- Lynn Cunningham, Professor of Journalism, Ryerson University
“I thought some of the content was excellent but they were unanimous in their opposition. Some of them even said they would resign before selling this book.” -- Diane Martin, Associate Publisher, Knopf Canada Ltd.
“Karla contains much that is controversial, including details of unreleased psychiatric assessments..." -- The Ottawa Citizen, December 7, 2002
“My sense is that publishers don’t go looking for trouble, and this book – and Williams himself – spell trouble.” -- Lynn Cunningham, Professor of Journalism, Ryerson University
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best on Karla, the Williams' best,
By John Corson (Montreal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Karla: A Pact with the Devil (Paperback)
On the many books on the Bernardo-Homolka case, this one is the more complete and the more accurate. For someone who don't know anything about the murders, I think it's the best way to learn everything on that strange case, where the justice had fail to impress me on a very big scale. I would'nt be very proud to be a police officer involved with that prosecution. My only hope: with this, we'll learn our lessons and try to make good justice. Good for the people, not for the criminals.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Canadian Criminal "Justice" System,
By It is very unfortunate that the big Canadian publishers rejected this finely researched work. As a result, the book is sloppily edited and contains minor factual errors (Winona played Veronica in Heathers, and was really an antihero, not a villian - okay, it's minor, I know, but things like this bug me). These little mistakes, along with some grammar issues, would have been checked by a bigger publishing house. Williams' anger is so on the surface that his passion makes you wish for more footnotes, an index, just a more orderly presentation. As a result, the book, at times, feels convoluted - but there's no ignoring the content. Justice was blindsided by bureaucracy, bumbling and brazen lies. Karla will get out of prison - and it will be very soon. She'll probably leave Canada, and live out the rest of her life in another country, where nobody will know the evil that lies beneath, and behind, her.
14 of 18 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Canadian Criminal "Justice" System,
By It is very unfortunate that the big Canadian publishers rejected this finely researched work. As a result, the book is sloppily edited and contains minor factual errors (Winona played Veronica in Heathers, and was really an antihero, not a villian - okay, it's minor, I know, but things like this bug me). These little mistakes, along with some grammar issues, would have been checked by a bigger publishing house. Williams' anger is so on the surface that his passion makes you wish for more footnotes, an index, just a more orderly presentation. As a result, the book, at times, feels convoluted - but there's no ignoring the content. Justice was blindsided by bureaucracy, bumbling and brazen lies. Karla will get out of prison - and it will be very soon. She'll probably leave Canada, and live out the rest of her life in another country, where nobody will know the evil that lies beneath, and behind, her.
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