A true Canadian story of terror, from Steeltown to India

Poison opens with a beautiful Indian-Canadian woman collapsing in front of her family and dying an agonizing death. Police are not called to the scene, and a renowned forensic pathologist is stumped over the cause of Parvesh Dhillon’s demise. But soon another gruesome death strikes the Indian community in Hamilton—this time a young man, the cause again a mystery. The beneficiary of the life insurance policy is a close friend named Sukhwinder Dhillon, a native of the Punjab in India and the same man who received payout for the death of his wife, Parvesh. A veteran insurance claims specialist calls Hamilton Police, who assign a charismatic homicide detective to the case, setting in motion an incredible international manhunt to catch a serial killer.

JON WELLS reports on crime and a variety of other subjects for The Hamilton Spectator, and he has written seven books. He has won two National Newspaper Awards and sixteen Ontario Newspaper Awards, including Journalist of the Year for his true-crime series on James Kopp. Post-Mortem was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award for best crime non-fiction. Born in Montreal, Wells has a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University in Ottawa. His true-crime research has taken him into forensic laboratories and shooting ranges, and to India, Ireland, France, San Francisco, New York City and western Canada. He has interviewed a half dozen convicted killers in prison. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.

Jon Wells' profile page