Black and white image of a family.

Murder Blackstock Family Revelations

Black and white image of a family.

“Murder in the Family”, 2021 Heritage Toronto Awards Book Nominee. Design: Kate Sinclair.

Author: Jeff Blackstock

Publisher: Penguin Random House

“I think that my father murdered my mother.” That terrible belief spurs author Jeff Blackstock to investigate the circumstances of his mother Carol’s death when he was a child. Carol Blackstock died at age 24 in 1959, poisoned by arsenic, but the cause of her death remained shrouded in mystery for decades. Carol’s parents soon had suspicions about their son-in-law George, a prominent diplomat in Canada’s foreign service, but were unable to get justice for their daughter.  A damning autopsy report about arsenic poisoning, found among their grandmother’s effects, leads Jeff Blackstock and his sister to horrifying revelations about their father. Eventually, they confront him and accuse him of their mother’s murder.


About the Author: Jeff Blackstock

Born in Toronto as a child in a foreign service family, Jeff Blackstock lived and was schooled in Argentina, New Orleans, Switzerland, as well as Canada. A lawyer by training, he has degrees in English Literature from the University of Toronto and the University of Kent at Canterbury, England. His career as a Canadian foreign service officer included postings abroad in Costa Rica, Australia, and Saudi Arabia.