The Billionaire Murders

The Mysterious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman

By: Kevin Donovan

Narrated by: Kevin Donovan

Length: 10 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

2020 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction

NATIONAL BEST SELLER

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 50-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 listenable tale of a strange and perplexing crime.

©2019 Kevin Donovan (P)2019 Viking

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.

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 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.

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.

Where was the editor?

Ooof! Unfortunately, I think that the author was just too close to this story. There were so many times that I thought, “wait-didn’t he just explain all of that an hour ago?” There was so much that was redundant. I don’t blame the author, but certainly an editor should have helped. Additionally, a professional voice actor could have added needed expression to the words. I think what was most disappointing though, was that the author didn’t offer any perspective. After that much research, there must be an opinion. The flat journalistic writing makes sense for a newspaper, but it would have been great to have feeling inserted.

A Well-Told Story

On the morning of Friday, December 15, 2017, Barry Sherman, multi-billionaire founder of Canadian pharmaceutical company Apotex and well-known philanthropist, and his wife Honey Sherman were discovered in the basement of his 12,000-square-foot home in Toronto.

Initially called a murder-suicide by the Toronto Police, there were so many missteps, mistakes, and other circumstances that compounded the layers of mystery surrounding the murder of the Shermans.

Kevin Donovan does an excellent job of researching and telling the story of Barry and Honey Sherman's lives, the circumstances surrounding their deaths, and the developments since that time.

I thoroughly enjoyed this under-reported story.

The Honey Boo Boo Murders

Well researched, written and narrated. While the murders remain a mystery, the author does raise some suspicion upon Honey and Barry’s close inner circle.

I don’t agree with other reviewers who posit that much of the text is devoted to telling a history of Barry’s Sherman’s pharmaceutical company, Apotex Inc. Providing a brief background isn’t reason enough to dismiss the book entirely.

Skips around alot.

Story telling is not so intriguing. Some facts given but not really in a concurrent manner that keeps you interested.

Really enjoyed

Highly recommended if you’re looking for a real thriller where you get to know all parties involved. Provides just enough background info