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Who Killed Janet Smith?
Literary Nonfiction. New Edition as part City of Vancouver's Legacy Book Project, with foreword by historian Daniel Francis. WHO KILLED JANEY SMITH? examines one of the most infamous and still unsolved murder cases in Canadian the 1924 murder of twenty-two-year-old Scottish nursemaid Janet Smith. Originally published in 1984, and out of print for over a decade, this tale of intrigue, racism, privilege, and corruption in high places is a true-crime recreation that reads like a complex thriller.
Anvil Press is pleased to be reissuing this title as part of the City of Vancouver's Legacy Book Project. This new edition features a Foreword by historian Daniel Francis.
"…drug traffic, Roaring Twenties hedonism, official corruption, cutthroat competition among newspapers, a public taste for occultism, etc.—and entrust the whole works to a good storyteller, and you have one terrific political history of Vancouver."— Geist Magazine
"Starkins has written an engaging and well-crafted popular social history of Vancouver in the ostensibly hopeful, materially buoyant 'flapper era' between the end of the slaughter of the Great War and the onset of the Depression. He reveals the serious fault-lines and profound anxieties of a community emerging in this decade from both its recent frontier past and a costly war into becoming a settled North American city.…this is a very worthwhile and informative case study, one that is likely to keep the conundrum in the title alive and encourage further research on the topic.…And who did kill Janet Smith and why? Despite the author's attempt to follow up as many leads as he could find, the answer remains elusive. Despite the presence of a smoking gun, whose hand pressed the trigger is still a mystery, although in an updated afterword Starkins warms to one explanation. As with all mysteries, that should remain for now a mystery." — BC Studies
"Mr. Starkins excavates each layer of the story like an archaeologist with a trowel and camel-hair brush. He misses nothing. The result is one of those unputdownable reads that stays in your memory."—Howard Engel
Anvil Press is pleased to be reissuing this title as part of the City of Vancouver's Legacy Book Project. This new edition features a Foreword by historian Daniel Francis.
"…drug traffic, Roaring Twenties hedonism, official corruption, cutthroat competition among newspapers, a public taste for occultism, etc.—and entrust the whole works to a good storyteller, and you have one terrific political history of Vancouver."— Geist Magazine
"Starkins has written an engaging and well-crafted popular social history of Vancouver in the ostensibly hopeful, materially buoyant 'flapper era' between the end of the slaughter of the Great War and the onset of the Depression. He reveals the serious fault-lines and profound anxieties of a community emerging in this decade from both its recent frontier past and a costly war into becoming a settled North American city.…this is a very worthwhile and informative case study, one that is likely to keep the conundrum in the title alive and encourage further research on the topic.…And who did kill Janet Smith and why? Despite the author's attempt to follow up as many leads as he could find, the answer remains elusive. Despite the presence of a smoking gun, whose hand pressed the trigger is still a mystery, although in an updated afterword Starkins warms to one explanation. As with all mysteries, that should remain for now a mystery." — BC Studies
"Mr. Starkins excavates each layer of the story like an archaeologist with a trowel and camel-hair brush. He misses nothing. The result is one of those unputdownable reads that stays in your memory."—Howard Engel
340 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2011
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February 6, 2025
This book was written 40 years ago, the murder happened 100 years ago. I feel like I'm in multiple time zones in Vancouver. The Vancouver audience that this book may have been written to then 40 years ago, all dead. No one remembers this time of Vancouver anymore, when the book was written they did.
That being said, for Vancouver history this is an interesting book. Not only is the story telling of Vancouver life during that period, but also the fact that the gossip around this murder was so pervasive is revealing of the envy and fantasy and economic disparity within Vancouver. The newspapers could sell the gossip with this story and this book is the continuation of that forgotten juicy TMZ style wealth gossip. The reason this murder carried on to be talked about because it was a very elite and wealthy part of the city/town (not sure what you want to call Vancouver in the 1920's, I'd probably consider it a town).
The book is also eye opening with regards to the racial history of Vancouver with regards to the Chinese, I mean, how does any of the judicial system work or how do you give a murder charge credibility when you know the Chinese guy is going to be the scapegoat. Was it a cover up and used the Chinese guy as a fall guy, probably. It's always easy to blame the foreigner, the immigrant, etc.
This is a Canadian past time, we need the foreigner to work for us (in this case Wong was a 'houseboy' whatever that means, why not just call him the butler? difference between butler and houseboy is that one is asian), and once we have a problem we blame the foreigner.
This book is also eye opening in the history of elite wealth in Vancouver, the landed elite who made money from natural resources, and just the hokey English kind of silence culture that was a result of the city still being a part of the British commonwealth. If you think Vancouver is lame now, I can imagine a much more divisive Vancouver of that period. But probably with much more natural beauty).
With regards to who killed Janet Smith? The author engages in some wild speculation (remember that the book needed to sell at the time it was published)... I infer the real reason was some benign accidental death/murder. Who really cares? And yes there was a cover up, but that's clearly because of the colonial edge of empire kind of world where elites don't pay for certain crimes. So what's more interesting than the murder itself, is the setting and the characters. Thats what makes this an interesting and compelling book.
That being said, for Vancouver history this is an interesting book. Not only is the story telling of Vancouver life during that period, but also the fact that the gossip around this murder was so pervasive is revealing of the envy and fantasy and economic disparity within Vancouver. The newspapers could sell the gossip with this story and this book is the continuation of that forgotten juicy TMZ style wealth gossip. The reason this murder carried on to be talked about because it was a very elite and wealthy part of the city/town (not sure what you want to call Vancouver in the 1920's, I'd probably consider it a town).
The book is also eye opening with regards to the racial history of Vancouver with regards to the Chinese, I mean, how does any of the judicial system work or how do you give a murder charge credibility when you know the Chinese guy is going to be the scapegoat. Was it a cover up and used the Chinese guy as a fall guy, probably. It's always easy to blame the foreigner, the immigrant, etc.
This is a Canadian past time, we need the foreigner to work for us (in this case Wong was a 'houseboy' whatever that means, why not just call him the butler? difference between butler and houseboy is that one is asian), and once we have a problem we blame the foreigner.
This book is also eye opening in the history of elite wealth in Vancouver, the landed elite who made money from natural resources, and just the hokey English kind of silence culture that was a result of the city still being a part of the British commonwealth. If you think Vancouver is lame now, I can imagine a much more divisive Vancouver of that period. But probably with much more natural beauty).
With regards to who killed Janet Smith? The author engages in some wild speculation (remember that the book needed to sell at the time it was published)... I infer the real reason was some benign accidental death/murder. Who really cares? And yes there was a cover up, but that's clearly because of the colonial edge of empire kind of world where elites don't pay for certain crimes. So what's more interesting than the murder itself, is the setting and the characters. Thats what makes this an interesting and compelling book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review