Karla: A Pact with the Devil Mass market paperbound - 2004

First line

There are abiding mysteries in life such as who cleft the Devil's foot or what song the Sirens sang?

Media reviews

“On an aesthetic level, Karla is almost unique in our literature. It is an extraordinary act of the imagination brought to bear on the facts.”
—Barry Callaghan - Exile Magazine
 
“Williams uses letters from Homolka herself, unreleased psychiatric assessments and police statements along with other courses to craft a controversial account of what happened behind the scenes to land a sweetheart deal for a woman with a lengthy list of murders and rapes to her credit. He lets the copious research he has carefully compiled speak for itself and does an especially good job of presenting an honest portrayal of Homolka.”
—Jeffery Simpson - Halifax Chronicle-Herald
 
“The true crime is, in the hands of artists like Truman Capote and Stephen Williams, a kind of poetry, a kind of austere grand guignol, exuding gaudy horror.”
—Dr. George Elliott Clarke - Globe and Mail
 
“Williams book is possessed of a moral authority...Karla continues in Williams’ inimitable vein. It is not light reading, and it exacts attention and discomfort from its readers. As such, it is an imperative contribution to a school of writing that has mangled Capote by way of Yeats, asserting that the best ‘lack all conviction’; ‘the worst...passionate intensity.’
—Lynn Crosbie, Toronto Star
 
“I truly consider Stephen Williams to be the Norman Mailer of Canada.”
—Peter C. Newman - Macleans Magazine
 
“Karla is no slap-dash quickie aimed at culling sales from those with prurient interest in the degradation and murder of young women. It is investigative journalism at its finest, exposing how the police, Crown and certain psychiatrists have a lot of explaining to do..”
— Trish Wood, Globe and Mail
 
“He makes a strong case for Bevan (the detective who was head of the investigating task force) having bungled the investigation and then, to protect his own career, concocting a battered-woman/sexual-sadist-victim persona for Homolka in order to make her plea bargain palatable to the public.”
—Douglas J. Johnston - Winnipeg Free Press
 
“Karla is a nightmarish account of police, prosecutorial, judicial and prison bungling that should disturb everyone....this is solid investigative journalism uncovering ineptitude on a massive scale....The contradictions uncovered by Williams are astounding.”
—Jim McNulty - Vancouver Province