The Billionaire Murders: The Mysterious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman

$18.94
by Kevin Donovan

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NATIONAL BESTSELLER *NOW A FOUR-PART CRAVE ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES* 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 fifty-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 readable tale of a strange and perplexing crime. *NOW A FOUR-PART CRAVE ORIGINAL DOCUSERIES* Shortlisted for the 2020 Arthur Ellis Prize for Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing Nominated for the 2021 Heritage Toronto Book Awards National Bestseller “[Donovan] provides glimpses of the family tensions that boiled over after the murders. He smartly splices the narrative of the murders and their aftermath—where concrete facts remain sparse—with chapters on Barry and Honey’s lives and the rise of Mr. Sherman’s company, Apotex. These details paint a textured but sympathetic portrait of the workaholic, litigious Barry—a billionaire whose preferred breakfast included Frosted Flakes—and his friendly but strong-willed wife.” — The Globe and Mail “Fascinating insights.” —Maclean’s “. . . the book every Canadian murderino has been waiting for . . .” — Vancouver Is Awesome KEVIN DONOVAN is the Chief Investigative Reporter for the Toronto Star , where he has worked for more than three decades. He has won three National Newspaper Awards, two Michener Awards, and three Canadian Association of Journalists Awards. ONE Wrong Turn On the morning of Friday, December 15, 2017, family, friends, and colleagues of Barry and Honey Sherman woke, shook off sleep, and set about their normal routines. But for some, a nagging thought persisted. Something was amiss. An email not returned, an empty desk in the executive office, a vacant seat at a charity boardroom table. At 50 Old Colony Road, in Toronto’s suburban North York, snow was softly dust­ing the ground, melting quickly on the heated driveway and obscuring any footprints that may have been made on the front lawn or unheated steps over the previous two days. It had been cold, ten degrees below freezing, and as the sun rose behind clouds, it promised to be another grey, wintry day in Canada’s biggest city. Many of the people who owned homes on the street had already flown south to escape the cold weather, so it was not unusual at this time of year for a house in the neigh­bourhood to be quiet. At the rear of the house was an outdoor pool, long closed for the season, a tennis court surrounded by a fence, and two patios. In a basement underneath the tennis court, stretching north on the property, was a lap pool rarely used by the homeowners. In front of the house, one vehicle was parked on the circular driveway, a light gold Lexus SUV that was ten years old. Judging by the snow lining its fenders and windows, it had been there at least overnight. Beside it, on the left, was a long bed of snowball hydrangeas, their withered brown flower heads perked up by little hats of fresh snow. A ramp to the right of the Lexus led down to a closed garage door that opened into a six-car underground garage nestled in the basement of the house with utility and recreation rooms on the ends closest to the road, and the lap pool at the far north end. At 8:30 a.m., two people arrived on a clockwork schedule: a cleaning lady on her regular Friday visit, and a woman who came twice a week to water the plants in the home. The cleaning lady parked in the centre of the circular drive. The woman who came to water the plants trudged along the street, passing the l

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