A rogues’ gallery of murderers and pirates, plus a pair of brazen bank robbers and a fraud artist who fooled Halifax's elite. A supporting cast that includes a wise-cracking Cape Breton judge, legendary journalist-turned-politician Joseph Howe, circus showman P.T. Barnum and future prime minister John Thompson. Daring, Devious & Deadly is a collection of fifteen true tales of crime and justice that spans more than one hundred and fifty years of Nova Scotia’s history, from a triple murder in 1791 at a farm near Lunenburg to 1947, when Angus Walters, skipper of the racing schooner Bluenose, was attacked in the pages of an American magazine.

The cases are drawn from communities across the province, from Sydney and Amherst to the provincial capital of Halifax, from the rugged coast of the Eastern Shore to the historic town of Annapolis Royal. Filled with surprising twists and courtroom drama, these stories of greed, murder and vengeance offer a window on the past. They showcase advances in investigative techniques and forensic science that revolutionized policing, the legal system and the search for justice. But justice can be far from blind. Religious hatred, partisan rivalry, social status, ethnicity or political corruption sometimes invaded the courtroom, threatening to upset the delicate balance between guilt and innocence. Was justice done in each of these cases? You be the judge.