Author Spotlight - Jeff Blackstock
"I think that my father murdered my mother." This terrible belief spurs Jeff Blackstock to investigate the circumstances of his mother Carol’s death when he was a child. Carol Blackstock died in 1959 at the age of 24 – poisoned by arsenic – but the cause of her death remained shrouded in mystery for decades. Jeff’s father, George, was a career diplomat in Canada’s foreign service, posted to glamorous Buenos Aires with Carol and their three children. Sixteen months after the family’s arrival, the vivacious young mother, now emaciated and in terrible pain, was transferred to Montreal for treatment of a mysterious illness that proved fatal. In the following year, George remarried and a young woman named Ingrid became the stepmother to Jeff and his siblings.
Carol’s parents soon had suspicions about their son-in-law but were unable to get justice for their daughter. Class privilege – George was the scion of a Toronto establishment family and Carol had modest origins – and an aversion to scandal all figured in the apparent cover-up. But secrets have a way of eventually disrupting all families. A damning autopsy report found among their grandmother’s effects, leads Jeff and his sister to horrifying revelations about their father.
An unforgettable, deeply felt story, Murder in the Family chronicles the legacy of buried secrets and betrayal in one's own family.
Murder in the Family was widely and very positively reviewed in the press in Canada and on the web. Margaret Cannon, the Canadian grande dame of true crime literature, had this to say in the Toronto Globe and Mail: “Jeff Blackstock…has stunningly reconstructed life in Buenos Aires in the diplomatic world of the 1950s.” “…no reader will want to put it down.” “This is a fine true crime book.” Quotes from Goodreads include: “I have been riveted to this devastating story, unable to put it down.” “What a story…Jeff Blackstock pulls off true crime meets memoir perfectly. Every time I had to close the audiobook version…I couldn't wait to get back to it.” “This well written tale had me hooked from the beginning.” “Astounding.” The book was also a finalist for the 2021 Crime Writers of Canada Award in the Nonfiction Crime Book category. Most rewarding to Jeff, however, were the countless reports from strangers and friends alike of how moving the story was to them.
Jeff was lucky enough to have been introduced by mutual friends to a published writer, Roy MacSkimming, who helped edit the manuscript and provided access to his agent and to publishers. If there is one piece of advice that Jeff would offer to new writers, it would be to explore collaboration with an established writer as a way of breaking into publication. Another would be to be prepared to accept tough criticism to have a realistic chance of fulfilling the dream of getting published. Finally, a writing routine which includes a venue for productivity is essential. In Jeff’s case, the cafés of Mérida provided a productive environment for the completion of Murder in the Family.
Jeff spent most of his career as a Canadian foreign-service officer and was posted to Costa Rica, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. The son of a diplomat, he has lived in all the major settings of his book Murder in the Family: Buenos Aires, New Orleans, Toronto, Ottawa, and the United Kingdom. A lawyer by training, he has degrees in English literature from the University of Toronto and the University of Kent at Canterbury, England. He and his wife, Marie Routledge, a former art curator at the National Gallery of Canada, have two children and two grandchildren, in Australia and the U.S. Now retired, Jeff and Marie divide their time between Mérida, where most of this book was written, Canada and Maine. For adventure and fun, they enjoy travel, music, art and family and friends wherever they go. Marie is active at the Mérida English Library and well known for her work on the annual Artist Studio Tour. Jeff is currently finishing a piece on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the 800-kilometer pilgrimage in Spain which he and Marie completed in fall 2022, while he continues to seek a film producer for Murder in the Family.
Murder in the Family has sold almost 3800 copies in print, e-book, and audio formats. It is part of the library’s permanent lending collection and available for purchase at Between the Lines bookstore.
