Murdered Midas: A Millionaire, His Gold Mine, and a Strange Death on an Island Paradise

A
Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year

In
this “engrossing must-read” by “Canada’s most accomplished popular historian” (Ellery
Queen Mystery Magazine), the glittering life and brutal murder of Sir Harry
Oakes is newly investigated. Murdered Midas is “superior true-crime
writing” (The Globe and Mail).

On
an island paradise in 1943, Sir Harry Oakes, gold-mining tycoon, philanthropist
and one of the richest men in the British Empire, is murdered. The news of his
death surges across the English-speaking world, from London, the Imperial
centre, to the remote Canadian mining town of Kirkland Lake in the Northern
Ontario bush. The murder becomes celebrated as the crime of the century.

The
layers of mystery deepen as the involvement of Count Alfred de Marigny, Oakes’s
son-in-law, comes into question. Also suspicious are the odd machinations of
the governor of the Bahamas, the former King Edward VIII. But despite a
sensational trial, no murderer is convicted. Rumours about Oakes’s missing
fortune are unrelenting, and fascination with the story has persisted for
decades.

Award-winning biographer and popular historian Charlotte Gray explores the life
of the man behind the scandal—from his early, hardscrabble
days during the massive mineral rush in Northern Ontario, to the fabulous
fortune he reaped from his own gold mine, to his grandiose gestures of
philanthropy. And Gray brings fresh eyes to the bungled investigation and
shocking trial on the remote colonial island, proposing an overlooked suspect
in this long cold case. Murdered Midas is the story of the man behind
the newspaper headlines, a man both admired and reviled who,
despite great wealth and public standing, never experienced justice.

"Gray brings fresh eyes, deep research and her trademark page-turning, plot- and character-driven style to this fascinating history of a scandal that rocked the postwar world." - Globe and Mail (Toronto)

"An entertaining and satisfying read." - Quill & Quire

"A great story, well told by Charlotte [Gray]. She has an easy conversational style which makes reading her work a great pleasure. This is an engrossing and very readable book." - Millstone News

"Gray is Canada’s most accomplished popular historian. . . .Her deeply researched, brilliantly told account, with its motley cast of characters and exotic locale, is an engrossing must-read." - Ellery Queen

FINALIST FOR THE ARTHUR ELLIS AWARD FOR NONFICTION

"You’ll likely feel guilty for enjoying this true-crime account about an unsolved murder, but when a story is told with fulsome information and explained well, it’s hard not to smile. When it’s written by historian and biographer Charlotte Gray, you’ll smile more." - Winnipeg Free Press