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Boiling Point and Cold Cases: More Saskatchewan Crime Stories
“The body would have been nearly impossible to identify. There was so little of it left, for one thing.”
Thus begins the sordid tale of the “Scissors Grinder,” one of 40 heart-pounding true crime stories that will have you looking over your shoulder. Or keeping your bedside light on at night.
With this and other blood-curdling accounts veteran crime writer Barb Pacholik offers up another installment in her best-selling series of true crime books set in Saskatchewan. This time she pursues cadaver dogs, unearths charred remains, explores the horrifying “killing room,” and delves into cold cases―those unsolved crimes, some whose perpetrators still lurk out there.
Reconstructed from court transcripts, these all-too-true stories expose the greed, desperation, and inhumanity living just down the street and around the corner.
Thus begins the sordid tale of the “Scissors Grinder,” one of 40 heart-pounding true crime stories that will have you looking over your shoulder. Or keeping your bedside light on at night.
With this and other blood-curdling accounts veteran crime writer Barb Pacholik offers up another installment in her best-selling series of true crime books set in Saskatchewan. This time she pursues cadaver dogs, unearths charred remains, explores the horrifying “killing room,” and delves into cold cases―those unsolved crimes, some whose perpetrators still lurk out there.
Reconstructed from court transcripts, these all-too-true stories expose the greed, desperation, and inhumanity living just down the street and around the corner.
246 pages, Paperback
First published October 13, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 27, 2026
Interesting stories about cold cases in Sask!!!
July 29, 2017
More excellent Saskatchewan stories , 👍
May 24, 2022
The stories covered in this are ones I'd never heard of before. Most dated back before my time, and a few were more recent. All definitely deserved to be brought back into light.
Read
October 18, 2023some more interesting local history
December 1, 2014
I would rate this book a 3.5/5.
I have read the author's previous two books before, but I would have to re-read for a rating on those (it was quite awhile ago).
Maybe my rating would be higher but the last story really pisses me off and makes me mad. I knew the victim very well and I did not like the author's cold telling of the story (to be fair I maybe would be pissed off by any author's re-telling of the story). I wish the author would use more terms to describe the murderers in these stories like scum bags, wastes of skins, etc. She doesn't take sides, which bugs me, she's just a regurgitater of tales.
I also found some stories to be jumbled and hard to follow. Other stories were straight forward and a much better read. Despite my mixed feelings about this book it still is a good read for those interested in true crime stories.
Not Author Related: This book shows how the justice system in Canada is an absolute failure!!! Big time joke! I feel the majority of these criminals did not get the time deserved! Definitely need harsher punishments!
I have read the author's previous two books before, but I would have to re-read for a rating on those (it was quite awhile ago).
Maybe my rating would be higher but the last story really pisses me off and makes me mad. I knew the victim very well and I did not like the author's cold telling of the story (to be fair I maybe would be pissed off by any author's re-telling of the story). I wish the author would use more terms to describe the murderers in these stories like scum bags, wastes of skins, etc. She doesn't take sides, which bugs me, she's just a regurgitater of tales.
I also found some stories to be jumbled and hard to follow. Other stories were straight forward and a much better read. Despite my mixed feelings about this book it still is a good read for those interested in true crime stories.
Not Author Related: This book shows how the justice system in Canada is an absolute failure!!! Big time joke! I feel the majority of these criminals did not get the time deserved! Definitely need harsher punishments!
October 28, 2013
A nice page-turner! Pacholik researched a litany of Saskatchewan crime stories and gives them a creative turn. These aren't regurgitated newspaper stories; she presents them in structures that are sometimes clever, sometimes straight-forward, sometimes jumbled all out-of-sorts only to see the narrative come together at the last moment. Each is condensed to some six to ten pages at most, making the stories easily digestible. A fun read!
November 25, 2013
Love me some good hometown true crime!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews