bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), pp. 46–47
BY JEFF BLACKSTOCK
PENGUIN CANADA, 2019,
360 pp, $24.95
ISBN 9780735236622,
“I THINK THAT MY FATHER murdered my mother.” The first line of Jeff Blackstock’s true crime memoir, Murder in the Family: How the Search for My Mother’s Killer Led to My Father, reads like something out of a thriller novel. In a mere 360 pages, Blackstock lays out the case against his father and forces readers to consider what really happened to Carol Blackstock in 1959.
Blackstock’s book is a combination of a personal memoir and a true crime exposé with his family at the forefront. A retired Foreign Service Officer, Blackstock spent his career in the family trade — that of the Canadian Foreign Service. His father, a career diplomat with postings to Argentina, Switzerland and beyond, started his career as a young man in the 1950s. The senior Blackstock, George, started his first posting in Argentina with his young family in tow. George Blackstock, his wife Carol and children Jeff, Doug and Julia moved to the South American country in early 1958. By October 1959, Carol Blackstock was dead of a mysterious illness.
The book draws largely on primary sources — letters sent between his mother and her parents, documents from her illness and death and his grandfather’s research into what really happened to Carol Blackstock. The letters in particular add an incredibly personal and human touch to the book, qualities not often found in true crime books.
In Murder in the Family, Jeff Blackstock begins by recounting his family’s journey from his father’s beginnings as a “natural athlete” attending Upper Canada College, to his parents’ rushed marriage in 1950 when 17-year-old George married 15-year-old Carol to avoid their child being born out of wedlock. From this rocky start came Jeff, as well as the subsequent birth of two more Blackstock children, Doug in 1953 and Julia in 1956.
By 1957, George had written ——— and passed the Canadian Foreign Nota Service Exam and soon received his first posting to Buenos Aires, the y Argentina. The family’s transition to their new home wasn’t a smooth one, but everyone eventually managed to find their feet in their new environment. That is, until May 1, 1959 when the now 24-year-old Carol came down with a mysterious illness. Was her “hectic” existence — that of a Foreign Service wife — hosting parties, making house calls and supporting George’s career wearing her down, or was there more to with her sudden symptoms? By May 6, Carol had been hospitalized with a cough, wheezing, orthopnea (shortness of breath) and vomiting. After three days of treatment at La Pequeña Compañia de Maria (the Little Company of Mary), Carol was well enough to be released home. Once home, she remained asymptomatic for six weeks. Or at least, that’s what official reports said. Carol’s own account, found in letters home to her parents, outlines more symptoms that began at the end of May, including swelling, numbness and wheezing.
By mid-June, Carol’s vomiting had returned, leading to another hospitalization. Once again, she stayed at La Pequefia Compafiia de Maria — which Blackstock mentions is particularly strange, considering the close proximity of the British Hospital, which the family was familiar with. After a mid-July discharge, Carol once again became ill and was eventually transferred to the Montreal Neurological Institute, where she died a few days later.
Now the plot thickens — not only were the young Blackstock children not told of their mother’s death for almost two months, but no cause of death was ever shared with them. A young, healthy 24-year-old dead with no apparent cause?
Like any good story, this is simply the tip of the iceberg — Blackstock not only focuses on the circumstances leading up to his mother’s death, but the period after. After their father’s quick remarriage, physical and emotional abuse in the Blackstock household, and family rifts that grew wider by the year, Jeff Blackstock finds himself a successful lawyer and Foreign Service Officer with the death of his mother still hanging over his head.
As Blackstock grew older, he began to uncover more about the circumstances surrounding his mother’s death with the help of his maternal grandfather, who devoted much of his time to finding out what happened to his daughter. Eventually, Blackstock learned the true cause of his mother’s death: arsenic poisoning. Blackstock’s investigation of his mother’s death and his quest for the truth make for an incredibly interesting story — who was responsible for his mother’s poisoning? Who knew what really happened in Buenos Aires? How far would his father go to cover the truth?
Blackstock’s careful research and gift for storytelling make for an intimate and detailed look at Carol Blackstock’s death. He tells a story that is engaging and accessible to anyone, even those without an understanding of Canada’s Foreign Service. The book is a quick read, although not an easy one.
In the age of the armchair investigator, the true crime podcast and a huge resurgence in interest in famous true crime stories of the 20th century, Blackstock creates a narrative which is hard to find anywhere else. Unlike podcast hosts who rely on Google, Reddit threads and scanned newspaper articles, Blackstock’s research is original and far more in-depth than anything Reddit’s amateur detectives can uncover. Even for those who aren’t true crime fans, Blackstock’s personal connection to the story makes the book feel like a heartbreaking memoir at times, rather than a true crime story. It is a very worthwhile read.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 32, No. 1 (2022), pp. 46–47. Read the rest of this issue →
