Murdered Midas, Charlotte Gray
Murdered Midas, Charlotte Gray
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

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

Author: Charlotte Gray

Narrator: Stephen Graybill

Unabridged: 9 hr 23 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/24/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A gold mine. A millionaire. An island paradise. An unsolved murder. A missing fortune. The story of the infamous Sir Harry Oakes as only Charlotte Gray can tell it 

On an island paradise in 1943, Sir Harry Oakes, gold mining tycoon, philanthropist and ""richest man in the Empire,"" was murdered. The news of his death surged 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 became celebrated as ""the crime of the century.""
             The layers of mystery deepened as the involvement of Oakes' son-in-law, Count Alfred de Marigny, came quickly to be questioned, as did the odd machinations of the Governor of the Bahamas, the former King Edward VIII. Despite a sensational trial, no murderer was ever convicted. Rumours were unrelenting about Oakes' missing fortune, and fascination with the Oakes story has persisted for decades.
               Award-winning biographer and popular historian Charlotte Gray explores, for the first time, the life of the man behind the scandal, a man who was both reviled and admired - from his early, hardscrabble days of mining exploration, to his explosion of wealth, to his grandiose gestures of philanthropy. And Gray brings fresh eyes to the bungled investigation and shocking trial in the remote colonial island streets, proposing an overlooked suspect in this long cold case. Murdered Midas is the story of the man behind the newspaper headlines, who, despite his wealth and position, was never able to have justice.

About Charlotte Gray

CHARLOTTE GRAY is one of Canada’s best-known writers and the author of ten acclaimed books of literary non-fiction. Her most recent bestseller is The Promise of Canada—150 Years: People and Ideas That Have Shaped Our Country. Her bestseller The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master, and the Trial That Shocked a Country won the Toronto Book Award, the Heritage Toronto Book Award, the Canadian Authors Association Lela Common Award for Canadian History and the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book. It was shortlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize, the Ottawa Book Award for Non-Fiction and the Evergreen Award, and longlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction. An adaptation of her bestseller Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike was broadcast as a television miniseries. An adjunct research professor in the department of history at Carleton University, Charlotte Gray is the recipient of the Pierre Berton Award for distinguished achievement in popularizing Canadian history. She is a Member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Caitlin on September 22, 2019

I feel like I need to preface this with the fact that I would never have read this book, were it not for a work assignment (I read a pre-release uncorrected proof, to be clear). But I'm really glad I was "forced" to, as I found it a very interesting overview of a few points in history I'd never thou......more

Goodreads review by Chantel on July 01, 2023

In 1943 Sir Harry Oakes was murdered. The mystery circling the gold mining titan’s death became known as the crime of the century. As part of this story takes place in Ontario, Canada, I felt the pull to read it. The story was well-researched & well-laid out. Gray very obviously put a great deal of e......more

Goodreads review by Kathleen on March 29, 2020

For me this was an interesting read, I previously did not know the history of mining in Ontario, despite visiting some of the communities mentioned many times. As well I am now inspired to learn more about the history of the Bahamas. Combine that with a biography and an unsolved murder. Lots to hold......more

Goodreads review by Darryl on November 12, 2019

I was quite familiar with the story of Sir Harry Oakes before reading this book, so there weren’t too many details I found to be new. If, however, I hadn’t an inkling as to who he was, I would have found this to be a fascinating insight into a forgotten story. Oakes was a legendary character in the......more

Goodreads review by Ruth on June 09, 2020

Until chapters 15-17, I would have given the book 4 stars. Those last 3 chapters seemed like an attempt not to waste any of the research she had either done or paid to be done. They spoiled the informative and mostly objective first fourteen chapters for me. The mining industry expositions were the......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List