Shadow of Doubt

The Trial of Dennis Oland

By: Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon

Narrated by: Elisabeth Rodgers

Length: 13 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

On July 6, 2011, Richard Oland, scion of the Moosehead brewing family, was murdered in his office. The brutal killing stunned the city of Saint John, and news of the crime reverberated across the country. In a shocking turn, and after a two-and-half-year police investigation, Oland's only son, Dennis, was arrested for second-degree murder.

CBC reporter Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon covered the Oland case from the beginning. In Shadow of Doubt, she examines the controversial investigation from the day Richard Oland's battered body was discovered to the conclusion of Dennis Oland's trial, including the hotly debated verdict and its aftermath. Meticulously examining the evidence, MacKinnon vividly reconstructs the cases for both the prosecution and the defense. She delves into the Oland history, exploring the strained relationships, infidelities, and financial problems that, according to the Crown, provided motives for murder. Shadow of Doubt is a revealing look at a sensational crime, the tribulations of a prominent family, and the inner workings of the justice system that led to Dennis Oland's contentious conviction.

Cover design by Julie Scriver and Kerry Lawlor from the trade paperback edition of Shadow of Doubt: The Trial of Dennis Oland. Cover photograph courtesy Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Reproduced by permission of Goose Lane Editions.

©2016 Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Well written and compelling

This story kept my attention and was told well. If you like forensics you'll like this one. Also, if you read a lot of true crime you might be interested in comparing the response of the US judiciary and the Canadian judiciary.

too long, too slow

This is true crime without much by way of twists and turns. There was one victim and only ever one suspect in the eyes of the police. Their investigation was sloppy with a number of avenues of inquiry which were never followed up, possibly important evidence destroyed before it could be recorded and analysed, and some witnesses not interviewed until much later. The wealthy victim and his family provide some interest but, apart from money, their lives were pretty run-of-the-mill. This is a book which could do with some serious editing down, there was way too much detail; for example income and outgoings reported to the cent, blood spatter evidence, DNA evidence (or not), all of which tended to get the story bogged down. It was as though the author had taken a huge pile of notes and was determined to cram everything into the book. Elisabeth Rodgers did a fine job of narration, and if she hadn't mispronounced 'genealogy' as 'geneOlogy' every time I would have given her five stars.

An adequate account of a famous murder in Canada

If you are keen on trials or the Canadian justice system, you might enjoy this book. I found it too long because the author gave ample room to peripheral issues which, admittedly, the defense tried to portray as important in order to embarrass the police. In fact, however, the police conducted an exceptionally thorough investigation--much better than what we see in the U.S-- even though it was not perfect. There was too much repetition, which again was the fault of the lawyers who saw this as the case of the century and hoped to make their reputations from it, and so could not shut up. I would have enjoyed this if it had been edited down to one-third its length.