Prize Watch: CAA History award to Debra Komar

At the Canadian Authors Association Awards lunch in Toronto on Saturday, the CAA Canadian History prize (for best book of 2015) went to Debra Komar for The Bastard of Fort Stikine. Kumar is a forensic scientist whose work has included testified at the former Yugoslavia mass murder trials at The Hague.

Komar took an interest in the problem of who shot John McLaughlin Jr at Fort Stikine in 1842. Her book seeks to solve the mystery on forensic investigation principles."CSI meets HBC" said one review.

So a worthy winner of the prize and the cheque attached. But tough on the honorable mention recipient, a guy who wrote Three Weeks in Quebec City and only got a free lunch.