Book ~ "Somebody's Daughter: Inside an International Prostitution Ring" (2016) Phonse Jessome

From Goodreads ~ A stunning exposé of prostitution in Canada, where a criminal syndicate traffics young women across the country, selling their bodies and murdering them at will.

Annie Mae Wilson was nineteen years old on the night she died. After five years working the streets of Nova Scotia, she had found a new pimp and cut ties with supermarket bag boy Bruno, who had called himself her man. Bruno was furious and demanded to be compensated. When Annie Mae refused, he lost his temper and killed her with a single punch. People like Bruno call prostitution “The Game,” and Annie Mae lost.

Annie Mae was one of twenty-two prostitutes killed in Canada in 1992, victims of an oppressive system of terror and violence that often leads to addiction, rape, and death. In this groundbreaking piece of investigative journalism, Annie Mae’s story is finally told, along with those of other young women caught in the vice of prostitution.

Impeccably researched and engagingly written, this true crime account from veteran reporter Phonse Jessome approaches a difficult subject without judgment. Relying on first-person testimony from prostitutes and their pimps, Jessome explores a side of modern life that few people have seen but which no one can afford to ignore.

Originally written in 1996 by Nova Scotia journalist Phonse Jessome, this book is about a prostitution ring with its roots in Nova Scotia (the ring was referred to as the "Scotians") in the early 1990s, which prompted a police task force to be formed in Halifax to combat this issue.

Young girls either willingly or were forced into prostitution (the "Game") and many of their pimps were from North Preston, which is just outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Many of the girls who went into it willingly thought they had no other choice ... they had no education and came from abusive homes where love was shown through beatings ... and this was the only way to make money.  Others were seduced by a pimp who made them think they were a couple and she was helping them make a better life by doing it.  Regardless they soon found out that their pimp was in control and there was no way to escape the life, even if they wanted to.  If they stepped out of line, they learned a lesson through vicious beatings.  Girls were regularly moved from Halifax to Toronto, Montreal and other places and sold among the other pimps.

With this book, I learned a lot about the issue of prostitution and pimps.  Some girls enjoy the lifestyle while others have no choice but to stay in it because they feel they have no other options, they are terrified to leave and/and can't afford the "fee" to their pimp to buy their freedom.  The book follows the lives of Annie Mae, Stacey, Taunya, Gizelle and others ... how they ended up involved, how/if they tried to get out and their status as a couple years after the task force had been set up.

Despite the subject matter, I liked the writing style and found this book interesting.  The editing could have been tighter as there were typos (it's too bad these weren't picked up when it was rereleased ten years later).  As a head's up, there is swearing and obviously violence.

Book ~ "Murder at McDonald's: The Killers Next Door" (2014) Phonse Jessome

From Goodreads ~ The true story of the Sydney River McDonald’s massacre, a botched robbery that would become the most sensational murder case in Canadian history.

It started with a broken conveyor belt. When the mechanical malfunction brought eighteen-year-old McDonald’s employee Derek Wood into the restaurant’s back room, he saw the safe and got a dangerous idea. It would be so easy to prop the back door open, allowing two friends to sneak inside and steal the money. Wood assumed there was at least $200,000 in the cashbox - an incredible haul for just a few minutes’ work - but things would not go according to plan.

The robbery went wrong from the start and within minutes, a fast-food restaurant in Nova Scotia was turned into a bloodbath. Wood and his accomplices attacked the employees, killing three instantly and leaving the fourth for dead. In the safe, where they had expected to find a fortune, there was barely $2,000. They fled the scene, instigating a manhunt that would captivate the nation.

In May 1992, 18-year-old Derek Wood had just started working at McDonald's in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, when he got the idea to rob the restaurant.  He talked to two unemployed friends, Freeman MacNeil (age 23) and Darren Muise (age 18), about it and they decided to do it.  They figured they'd score about $200,000.  Wood left his knapsack in a basement door to keep it open so they could sneak in late one night after one of Wood's shifts.  In the aftermath, Wood's co-workers, Jimmy Fagan (age 27),  Donna Warren (age 22) and Neil Burroughs Jr. (age 29), were brutally murdered and Arlene MacNeil (age 20) was left for dead (she ended up disabled and passed away this month).  All they got was about $2,000!

This book details the incident, the victims and killers and their families, the economy and mentality of Cape Breton at the time, the police investigation, the activities of Wood, MacNeil and Muise after the murders, their arrests and their trials.  It is written by Phonse Jessome, the ATV/CTV reporter who was covering it at the time.  Despite the subject matter, I liked the writing style and this book.  It's a sad sad story that didn't have to happen.  The editing could have been tighter as there were typos.  As a head's up, there is swearing and obviously violence.

Wood and MacNeil were given life sentences with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.  Muise was sentenced to life in prison with no parole for 20 years.  He was released in 2012 with full parole and is apparently living in British Columbia.

From 1977 until 1983 (ages 15 to 21), I lived in Sydney River, a couple blocks from this McDonald's.  By the time this incident happened in 1992, I was living here in Toronto.  I had followed it on the news at that time and hadn't thought about it until I heard that Arlene had passed away.

The McDonald's was torn down in 2000 and another one is a couple blocks away.  It sounds like it's just an empty lot now.

The McDonald's where the murders happened

Book ~ "Disposable Souls" (2016) Phonse Jessome

From Goodreads ~ The body of Pastor Sandy Gardner, a TV preacher with a global following, turns up near a Halifax container pier. The mysterious case lands with Cam Neville, a city cop with a dead wife, PTSD and a haunting past. Can Neville, a former biker and war hero, solve the killing and find himself?

In search of the truth, Neville and his partner, a Mi’kmaw Mountie named Blair Christmas, enter a perilous world of strippers, kiddie porn and corruption that threatens to destroy them. Meanwhile, Neville is torn between loyalties to his two brothers, one still with the Satan’s Stallion bike club founded by their father, and another, a priest who wants to save everyone, including Cam.

Cam is a police officer working in Halifax, NS.  His father was the founder of the Stallions, a motorcycle club, which Cam used to be in and his brother, Gunner, is currently a VP.  Cam had gotten married (then widowed), went to war in Afghanistan and as a prisoner was tortured.  He had a hard time handling everything once he got home.  His brother, Greg, a priest, straightened him out and he joined the police force.  His former biker "brothers" hated him because he was now a cop and his new police "brothers" hate him because he is a former biker.  He is paired up with Blair, a Mi'kmaw Mountie, who everyone is prejudiced against.

A TV preacher is found murdered near where Cam and Blair are assigned.  As they dig deeper, they discover there may be ties back to the Stallions which puts Cam in a precarious position.  The Stallions, including Gunner, don't want to help him and the police don't trust him.

This is the first book I've read by Phonse Jessome and I liked it.  His name is familiar to me ... he is Nova Scotia journalist so that's probably why.  The story was interesting and was intense and heavy duty.  In addition to the story, there is a lot of information and I learned a lot about the relationship between the joint force of the police and Mounties in Halifax and motorcycle clubs.

The author doesn't hide the fact that the story takes place in Halifax and there are lots of references to locales (I've been so many of them).  I was born in Nova Scotia and lived my first ten years in the Halifax area.  In fact, my sister lives in Spryfield, where the "Litter Box Boys" reign and some of the action actually takes place about a five minute drive from her house.

I found the writing a bit dense at times, though ... there were a lot of long paragraphs that could have been broken up to make reading easier.  One page, for example, was made up of just three paragraphs.  As a head's up, there is swearing (lots of F-bombs) and violence.

I liked the characters.  The friendship between Cam and Blair was obvious as was Cam's torment between his two worlds.  Despite the differences between the three brothers (one is a cop, one is a bike and another is a priest) and their messed-up childhoods,  they did care about each other.

I look forward to reading other books by this other.  I understand there is supposed to be a sequel to this book coming out in the fall and I'll keep an eye out for it.