A brutal murder in a small fishing community raises urgent questions of right and wrong, and even the nature of good and evil, in this masterfully told true story.
In June 2013, three upstanding citizens of a small town in Nova Scotia cold bloodedly murdered their neighbour, Phillip Boudreau, at sea. While out checking their lobster traps, two Landry cousins and skipper Dwayne Samson saw Boudreau in his boat, the Midnight Slider, about to vandalize their lobster traps. Like so many times before, Boudreau was about to cost them thousands of dollars out of their seasonal livelihood. One man took out a rifle and fired four shots at Boudreau and his boat. Boudreau's body was never found.
Boudreau was an inventive small-time criminal who had terrorized and entertained Petit de Grat for two decades. He had been in prison for nearly half his adult life. He was funny and frightening, loathed, loved, and feared. Meanwhile the police and the Fisheries officers were frustrated, cowed, and hobbled by shrinking budgets. Boudreau seemed invincible, a miscreant who would plague the village forever. As many people said, if those fellows hadn't killed him, someone else would have.
Blood in the Water is a gripping story in a brilliantly drawn setting, about power and law, security and self-respect, and the nature of community. And at its heart is a disturbing question: are there times when taking the law into your own hands is not only understandable but the responsible thing to do?
A fascinating account of a Canadian crime
Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes is late Canadian journalist, author, playwright and teacher Silver Donald Cameron's account of a horrifying crime that occurred in June 2013 near Isle Madame, Nova Scotia, Canada, the resulting legal proceedings and community disquiet that followed.
As anyone who has ever had personal involvement or knowledge of a sensational crime will know, the true story is often substantially more complex than that portrayed in the media, or even before a jury in court. Silver Donald Cameron paints a nuanced picture of the small fishing community of Petit-de-Grat, and the years of personal and community provocation and frustration that led inexorably to the death of islander Phillip Boudreau on 1 June 2013.
Boudreau was a lifelong petty criminal and nuisance, who was notorious for poaching lobster from the traps placed by hardworking career fishermen. He'd often flaunt his loot, waving it at the disgruntled trap owners as he sped off in his faster speedboat. He also had a history of flagrantly stealing vehicles and other property from islanders, usually to sell on for cash. Boudreau spent much of his adult life in and out of prison, but local law enforcement, either by reason of apathy or due to the constraints of the legal system, were unable to control his frequent crime sprees. Any islander who expressed his or her displeasure or reported Boudreau's crimes was likely to find themselves on the receiving end either of property damage or threats of violence to themselves and their families.
On the day of his death, Boudreau had set out early to steal lobster from the traps of long-established Petit-de-Grat fisherman James Landry, who was in business with his daughter and son-in-law. Catching Boudreau in the act, and at his wits end after suffering years of damaged property and lost business, Landry shot at Boudreau with a gun he had on board Twin Maggies. Landry and his crew then pursued Boudreau, crushing his smaller vessel, Midnight Slider. Exactly what happened thereafter remains a matter of conjecture, but Boudreau was never seen again, nor his body ever recovered.
A week after the incident, Landry and his son-in-law Dwayne Samson, skipper of the Twin Maggies, were charged with Boudreau's murder, after deckhand Craig Landry (everyone on Isle Madame seems to be interrelated) gave police a statement to the effect that they'd forcibly drowned Boudreau using a gaff hook.
Cameron's account of the ensuing trial of James Landry is interwoven with his descriptions of the complex history of Isle Madame and its inhabitants. The book brings to mind Truman Capote's classic true crime novel, In Cold Blood, for its richness of detail in examining the ripples created by a notorious crime. While Cameron's prose isn't lyrical in the sense that Capote's is, his longstanding personal experience of the area brings invaluable texture to the narrative.
Cameron explores the moral ambiguity surrounding the death of Phillip Boudreau - many details of which the jury hearing Landry's case weren't entitled to be privy to. He also highlights the Isle Madame community's mingled feelings of shared guilt and relief at Boudreau's death - while the dispensing of vigilante justice can't be condoned, it's clear that many, Cameron included, felt a great deal of sympathy for James Landry and Dwayne Samson, and the predicament in which they found themselves.
I found Blood in the Water: A True Story of Revenge in the Maritimes a fascinating and thought-provoking read, and would recommend it to readers who enjoy a more thoughtful form of true crime writing, or have an interest in the vagaries and limitations of the legal system.
Sarah, 16/05/2021
