The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master, and the Trial That Shocked a Country

by Charlotte Gray

368 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published May 6, 2025

About the author

Charlotte Gray is one of Canada’s best-known writers, and author of eight acclaimed books of literary non-fiction. Born in Sheffield, England, and educated at Oxford University and the London School of Economics, she began her writing career in England as a magazine editor and newspaper columnist. After coming to Canada in 1979, she worked as a political commentator, book reviewer and magazine columnist before she turned to biography and popular history.

Charlotte's most recent book is Gold Diggers, Striking It Rich in the Klondike. In 2008, Charlotte published Nellie McClung, a short biography of Canada’s leading women’s rights activist in the Penguin Series, Extraordinary Canadians. Her 2006 bestseller, Reluctant Genius: The Passionate Life and Inventive Mind of Alexander Graham Bell, won the Donald Creighton Award for Ontario History and the City of Ottawa Book Award. It was also nominated for the Nereus Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize, the National Business Book Award and the Trillium Award. Her previous five books, which include Sisters in the Wilderness, The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill, Flint & Feather, The Life and Times of E. Pauline Johnson and A Museum Called Canada, were all award-winning bestsellers.

Charlotte appears regularly on radio and television as a political and cultural commentator. In 2004 she was the advocate for Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, for the CBC series: The Greatest Canadian. She has been a judge for several of Canada’s most prestigious literary prizes, including the Giller Prize for Fiction, the Charles Taylor Prize for Non-fiction and the Shaunessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing.

Charlotte has been awarded five honorary doctorates, from Mount St. Vincent University, Nova Scotia, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, York University and Carleton University.

An Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of History at Carleton University, Charlotte is the 2003 Recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history. She is former chair of the board of Canada’s National History Society, which publishes the magazine Canada’s History (formerly The Beaver.) She sits on the boards of the Ottawa International Authors Festival, the Art Canada Institute/Institut de l’Art Canadien, and the Sir Winston Churchill Society of Ottawa. Charlotte is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Charlotte lives in Ottawa with her husband George Anderson, and has three sons.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very moving story, one I had never heard of before. I loved the history that comes with this book. Not just the history of Toronto, but also Canada’s place in WWI. As I was reading it I kept thinking - I wish I had found this book in its first publication so I could have shared it with my Dad. I think he would have enjoyed it as well.

[gabe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim at Indigo and was pleasantly surprised. I’m giving it a four-star instead of three-star rating because of the excellent commentary on the Great War. I also wasn’t expecting such a in-depth look at class, I thought it was going to be mostly commentary on gender struggle, really neat. I also enjoyed how many times it felt like the author wanted to turn to the reader and just say “can you believe this sh*t,” especially once the verdict was rendered.

[Olivia Madan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved learning what Toronto was like in 1915, was surprised at how much class and the war fed into this murder case.

[David Cavaco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history that reads like a novel! In 1915 Toronto, a poor domestic British servant killed her employer who belonged to Canada’s wealthiest families, the Masseys. This book interweaves WWI, women’s rights, legal machinations, xenophobia, colonialism, class struggles, newspaper wars and so much more. The trial of Carrie Davis now forgotten given that it took place during the frenzy of the Great War will still resonate today. Readers familiar with Toronto will especially appreciate the history of the city. Glad that I read this book!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative book about a piece of Canadian history I was otherwise unaware of. I found that on several occasions the author went off on tangents delving in to material that had temporal significance but really didn’t have much to do with the main topic. On several occasions I recall thinking “What does this have to do with the main persons of the story?” Thankfully, the tangents were also informative in their own right so they were still worth reading.

[Brynne Hervey · Rating 2 out of 5]

More of a work of fiction than a historical retelling — although the author acknowledges the gaps in the historical record (primarily relying upon news articles), some of the speculation strays so far from the source that it distracts from the facts of the case and character of the real-life people involved.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

True story and after went to Toronto to see the house and street where this happened

[Ida · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gave amazing historical insight. This book told many stories and perspectives of Toronto and Canada as a whole that I had never heard before.