The bestselling author and historian Eve Lazarus discusses her new book Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic and a Charismatic Killer (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018), with Joseph Planta.

Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic and a Charismatic Killer by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2018). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Murder by Milkshake

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Eve Lazarus joins me again. Her latest book is already a bestseller and has shone a light on one of the more sensational murder cases in Vancouver during the 1960s. It’s a case that I was fascinated with when I first read about it at the age of eleven, when Chuck Davis’s Top Dog, the history of radio station CKNW was published. Esther Castellani was dying a slow, agonising death, and the cause was undetermined when she died in 1965. Soon the dots are connected and her husband Rene Castellani, a personality at ‘NW is suspected of the murder. He had been having an affair with a buxom receptionist at the station, and soon he’s arrested for murder and a highly publicised trial ensues. Eleven-year old Jeannine Castellani only has her father left, and believes her father did not kill her mother. In fact, in a second trial for the murder, she testifies as such. Rene is still sentenced to hang, and that’s not where the story ends. Eve has done a wonderful job researching Esther’s life, the abuse she suffered as a child, as well as Rene’s life, and what happens when he’s sentenced to imprisonment, as the death penalty is soon abolished in Canada. Jeannine’s own life is explored, and in light of her mother’s murder casting a pall on it, how she’s fared, and come to believe that her father did kill her mother. Eve does marvelous job at setting the scene, providing the colour of the era in this part of the world. The Vancouver of fifty-five years ago changes quickly, and Eve places a lot of what happens in context with today. The full title of the book is Murder by Milkshake: An Astonishing True Story of Adultery, Arsenic and a Charismatic Killer. It is Eve Lazarus’s sixth book. Her previous titles are: Blood, Sweat, and Fear, Cold Case Vancouver, Sensational Vancouver, Sensational Victoria, and At Home with History, which she was first on this program with back in 2007. She is a member of what’s affectionately called the Belshaw Gang, a terrific group of historians and writers who’ve done tremendous work chronicling Vancouver’s history, who published Vancouver Confidential some years ago. Eve Lazarus is a journalist, crime historian, and a bestselling author. Her website is at www.evelazarus.com. This new book is published by Arsenal Pulp Press. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Eve Lazarus; Ms. Lazarus, good morning.

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