The Billionaire Murders

The Mysterious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman

De: Kevin Donovan

Narrado por: Kevin Donovan

NATIONAL BESTSELLER

*NOW A FOUR-PART CRAVE ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES*

A top journalist crosses the yellow tape to investigate a shocking high-society crime.

Billionaires, philanthropists, socialites . . . victims. Barry and Honey Sherman appeared to lead charmed lives. But the world was shocked in late 2017 when their bodies were found in a bizarre tableau in their elegant Toronto home. First described as murder-suicide — belts looped around their necks, they were found seated beside their basement swimming pool — police later ruled it a staged, targeted double murder. Nothing about the case made sense to friends of the founder of one of the world’s largest generic pharmaceutical firms and his wife, a powerhouse in Canada’s charity world. Together, their wealth has been estimated at well over $4.7 billion.

There was another side to the story. A strategic genius who built a large generic drug company — Apotex Inc. — Barry Sherman was a self-described workaholic, renowned risk-taker, and disruptor during his fifty-year career. Regarded as a generous friend by many, Sherman was also feared by others. He was criticized for stifling academic freedom and using the courts to win at all costs. Upset with building issues at his mansion, he sued and recouped millions from tradespeople. At the time of his death, Sherman had just won a decades-old legal case involving four cousins who wanted 20 percent of his fortune.

Toronto Star investigative journalist Kevin Donovan chronicles the unsettling story from the beginning, interviewing family members, friends, and colleagues, and sheds new light on the Shermans’ lives and the disturbing double murder. Deeply researched and authoritative, The Billionaire Murders is a compulsively readable tale of a strange and perplexing crime.

Reseñas de la Crítica

*NOW A FOUR-PART CRAVE ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES*

Shortlisted for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Prize for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing
Nominated for the 2021 Heritage Toronto Book Awards

National Bestseller

“[Donovan] provides glimpses of the family tensions that boiled over after the murders. He smartly splices the narrative of the murders and their aftermath—where concrete facts remain sparse—with chapters on Barry and Honey’s lives and the rise of Mr. Sherman’s company, Apotex. These details paint a textured but sympathetic portrait of the workaholic, litigious Barry—a billionaire whose preferred breakfast included Frosted Flakes—and his friendly but strong-willed wife.” —The Globe and Mail

“Fascinating insights.” —Maclean’s

“. . . the book every Canadian murderino has been waiting for . . .” —Vancouver Is Awesome

Illuminating and well researched.

Performance: One of the mysteries of this book is the one where authors think they can read their own books for the audible community. As writers and therefore artists, they ought to understand that narrating books is a distinct and specific skill and if they have no such skill or talent, they should immediately put that thought out of their minds. Alas, this author failed to do that and the resulting narration is poor. The cadence and enunciation of words and sentences is quite annoying. Even Torontonians (of which I am one) will not appreciate the repeated, grating "Tronno" (for Toronto) throughout the book as well as other mispronunciations. I found the reading to be very poor indeed, but not so awful that I needed to stop listening.
Story: The story was obviously very well researched and Mr. Donovan has assembled it in a relatively logical way. The writing is fairly utilitarian with many descriptions of events. Where the writing improves is in his thoughtful characterizations of how the Shermans lived, interacted with family and friends and business associates and, through interviews and observations, what seemed to be in their minds. A frustrating story because (in my view) of police incompetence but a long needed exposure of the facts as available. Mr. Donovan brings some light to a very dark tragedy.

Good story, needs work

The story is compelling, but I agree with other reviews on two points: the story needs editing - it does get repetitious, and could have been knitted together better. The authors voice is ok, but the book would have been better with a professional audio reader.

Review

The storyline was very good. Writing was pretty good. He gave good explanations of things like Canadian laws or unfamiliar concepts. However, he mispronounced so many words it drove me up a tree! Like “laboratory” putting the accent on the second sylable. Even “adult” was mispronounced. Fascinating account of the murders of Barry and Honey Sherman, both of whom I was unfamiliar.

Good but not great

Its a good book and you learn a great deal about the victims. In fact the book is more about the victims than the murders. Still the book is good and interesting.

I Was So Excited About This Book

I'm an author and I really wanted to like this book. Plus, this book is my very first Audible experience. I thought this book was going to be about the murders, but it is more of a biography. The title of this book is a bit misleading, I feel bad saying this, but I wanted it to be more about the murder investigation.