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William Herbert Deverell (born March 4, 1937) is a Canadian novelist, activist, and criminal lawyer. He is among the most well known authors of crime fiction in Canada; the recipient of the 1997 and 2006 Arthur Ellis Awards for best Canadian crime novel, and the Dashiell Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing in North America for his novel "Trail of Passion". William Deverell’s first novel, "Needles", which drew on his experiences as a criminal lawyer, won the McClelland & Stewart $50,000 Seal Award. Since "Needles", he has published fourteen novels including "High Crimes", "Mecca", "The Dance of Shiva", "Platinum Blues", "Mindfield", "Kill All the Lawyers", "Street Legal", "Trial of Passion", "Slander", "The Laughing Falcon", "Mind Games", "April Fool", "Kill All the Judges" and "Snow Job". He is the author of the true crime book "A Life on Trial — the Case of Robert Frisbee", based on a notorious murder trial which he defended. He has also published numerous magazine articles and short stories.

William Deverell’s work includes the screenplay for the feature film of "Mindfield", released in l990. He also wrote the screenplay "Shellgame" for CBC-TV drama, which served as the pilot for CBC's "Street Legal ". He has authored several one-hour radio plays performed by the CBC Radio in the "Scales of Justice " series and numerous film and television scripts.

Early in his career, William Deverell worked as a journalist with the Canadian Press in Montreal and the Vancouver Sun, and while working his way through law school at the University of Saskatchewan as night editor of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. As a lawyer, he was counsel in more than a thousand criminal cases, including thirty murder trials, either as defender or prosecutor.

He is a founder and honourary director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. In 1991-92, he served as Visiting Professor in the Creative Writing Department, University of Victoria. In 1994, he served as Chair of the Writers' Union of Canada, and again in 1999, and he is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada, International Pen, Crime Writers of Canada.

William Deverell has been guest of honour at Canada's main crime writer's venue, Bloody Words, and received the Best Canadian Crime Writer award at the Scene of the Crime Festival in Ontario. He lives on Pender Island, British Columbia, and in Quepos, Costa Rica.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "William Deverell", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0