Hunting Halifax: In Search of History, Mystery and Murder

By Steven Edwin Laffoley

Nonfiction: Nova Scotia History, Mystery, Murder
192 pages
$19.95
6 x 9 paperback
ISBN 978-1-895900-93-4
(Available September 2007)

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"I was walking into an air-conditioned Halifax tavern on a hot summer afternoon... in search of a dark mystery... I was on the trail of a cold-case murder - a murder case 150 years cold. Clearly, I needed a beer."

So begins the strange and surprising adventure of Hunting Halifax, the true tale of writer Steven Edwin Laffoley as he investigates the mean streets and narrow alleys of historic Halifax, Nova Scotia, in search of clues to a murder, a mystery and a black hole in history.

In the early hours of September 8, 1853, in the shadow of Citadel Hill, the body of a sailor lies slumped against the staircase of a notorious tavern on Barrack Street. Something - or someone - has crushed his skull. The death is said to be an accident - a fall from a window - until two tavern prostitutes tell a very different story to Nova Scotia's famous son, Joseph Howe. They claim it was wilful murder.

As the investigation of murder and mystery unfolds, Steven discovers the ghosts of the past haunt the present in ways most unexpected. Prepared to do what it takes to find justice for the murdered sailor, he sleeps in old graveyards, drinks in rough taverns, converses in trendy coffee shops, pokes about staid Province House, ponders Victorian Age philosophy, and - somehow - just manages to avoid arrest. Humourous and engaging, Hunting Halifax is an entertaining tale of history, mystery and murder.

Born near Boston, Massachusetts, Steven Edwin Laffoley has worked as a bookstore manager, a curriculum writer, a university professor, a school principal, and a dues-paying member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters delivering beer in south Boston. A compulsive freelance writer, columnist, and broadcaster, Steven has written dozens of articles and essays for online magazines and newspapers, as well as for CBC Radio. His last book was Mr. Bush, Angus and Me: Notes of an American-Canadian in the Age of Unreason. He lives with his wife and daughter in Halifax, Nova Scotia.