The Death of Donna Whalen
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: April 5, 2017 7:16 PM | Last Updated: April 20, 2017
Michael Winter
When Donna Whalen is stabbed thirty-one times in her home on Empire Avenue in St. John's, her friends, family and neighbours believe the culprit to be her abusive boyfriend, Sheldon Troke. But the evidence is circumstantial, the testimonies tainted by personal bias and attempts at deception. Police and prosecutors face a daunting challenge, and the course of justice, with all its intricacies and failings, takes many unpredictable turns before the truth is finally revealed.
In this extraordinary novel, Michael Winter has mined the records of Sheldon's trial — thousands of pages of court transcripts, police wiretaps, newspaper reports, private letters and diary entries — and distilled their raw, naked truth into a mesmerizing work of documentary fiction that captures the myriad voices of the people involved. (From Penguin Canada)
From the book
Ruth never mentioned what she heard out of Sheldon Troke because she figured it was no one else's business, like you learn to stay out of it. And that is all she thought of it. When you hear rackets in around there, you close your door and hope and pray it will go away. You don't get involved.
From The Death of Donna Whalen by Michael Winter ©2011. Published by Penguin Canada.