Typically, people consider the pulps a quintessentially American art form. But Canada developed its own pulp magazine industry and Canadian publishers turned out scores of magazines during the Second World War. Canadian pulp producers mimicked (and regularly stole) American material, but they also published stories about Canadian criminals and their captors. While some cases featured big-city crooks most Canadian stories featured criminals who committed their dastardly deeds in the wide-open spaces of the prairie and tundra and the sinister shadows of the western mountains. North of the forty-ninth parallel, the gumshoes were more likely to wear snowshoes.
This lively book takes a loving look at the Canadian true crime pulps of the World War II era — their bold, brassy covers, spicy advertisements, and stories of murder, robbery, sex, and violence. With vivid archival images of both magazine covers and ads, True Crime, True North examines the themes that characterized the genre in Canada: the unquestioned adherence to retributive justice, the unwavering faith in lawmen, and the enduring affection for Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The authors also trace pulp writers' preoccupation with jealousy and betrayal, the deadly consequences of greed, and the growing menace of "sex fiends."
