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Murder in the family : how the search for my mother's killer led to my father / Jeff Blackstock.

by Blackstock, Jeff.

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Viking Canada, 2020.

Blackstock, Jeff -- Family.

Murder -- Case studies.

9780735236615 (pbk.)

352 p. ; 22 cm.

"Diplomat father. Murdered mother. Emotionally neglected children. An elaborate cover-up. Family dinners will never be the same. "I think that my father murdered my mother." That is the nagging suspicion that has haunted Jeff Blackstock, a retired Canadian diplomat, for years. Blackstock's father, George, was also a diplomat, posted in Buenos Aires in the 1950s with his wife Carol and their three children. Blackstock's parents had been married when Carole Gray was only 15 and George Blackstock 17--forced to wed when she became pregnant. He was an upper class scion and she a high school dropout from modest beginnings. Nine years later, she died at 24 from a mysterious illness never fully explained to her bereft children. In fact, her cause of death was kept secret for decades--until an autopsy report revealed that Carole had died of arsenic poisoning. Six months after Carole's death, George Blackstock brought a woman named Ingrid to meet his children and married her three months later. Carole's parents had kept the autopsy report but had been unable to get justice for their murdered daughter. Class privilege, power, and an aversion to scandal all figured in the apparent cover-up, both official and unofficial. But secrets have a way of eventually disrupting all families. When their maternal grandmother dies, Blackstock's sister discovers the damning autopsy report among the effects. Together, Jeff and his sister confront their father, who is mostly silent and evasive, offering vague explanations that don't add up. His career had plateaued, and his marriage to Ingrid eventually failed. George died a broken man, mostly abandoned by his adult children, who have been left to deal with a shocking legacy. A compelling story of a high society murder, a heartbreaking tale of emotionally neglected children, and an inquiry into the power and privilege of the Anglo upper classes of the time, Murder in the Family confronts the repercussions of deeply buried secrets and betrayal in one's own family."--From publisher.

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