Invisible Darkness · the Strange Case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka

“Invisible Darkness” is a thoroughly researched, balanced look at the horrifying case of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. Expertly drawn, with compassion for the victims, the book draws on voluminous research and court documents unavailable until now. Williams details the incredible coincidences and mistakes that allowed Paul and Karl to elude detection for so many years. For instance, had Paul Bernardo’s DNA been tested immediately when he was questioned as the Scarborough Rapist, instead of sitting on a crowded shelf in the forensic lab for two years, he would have gone on trial for that series of attacks rather than the murders of the three young women he and his lovely bride went on to rape and kill.

Despite the efforts of the Metropolitan Toronto and Niagara Region Police forces, not to mention the vast amounts of money spent on the special Green Ribbon Task Force, Paul Bernardo almost got away. He could even have been freed after arrest and questions, given that he was not allowed to call a lawyer during his lengthy initial interrogation. “Invisible Darkness” tells the whole story behind Canada’s “Ken and Barbie killers” and raises many important questions about freedom of the press, the right of the public to have full access to the courts and Karla’s much discussed deal with the Attorney General and police.

Just as fascinating as the legal aspects of the story is Williams’ penetrating look at the characters and backgrounds of these two beautiful, seemingly successful young people. What on earth could have driven a young preppy accountant and his beautiful fiancé to such depths of cruelty and depravity, including the murder of Karla’s own sister? Was it in fact Karla who actually killed one or more of the victims? Rather than a victim of battered woman’s syndrome as portrayed by the Attorney General in justifying the deals, Karla is shown here to be at least as sadistic and twisted as her male counterpart.

The stunning result of more than three years of research and interviews with police officers, eye-witnesses, friends, enemies, psychiatrists and lawyers involved with the cases, “Invisible Darkness” is sure to become a classic study of a criminal spree that has riveted people all over the world since the perpetrators were discovered tried.

The fact that Karla was released from jail, free and clear, in 2005, married her lawyer’s brother and now has three small children makes an already tragic and unique tale of murder and mayhem even more haunting. Karla now divides her time between the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and Montreal, Quebec and lives virtually anonymously gives “Invisible Darkness” and the back story about how and why Karla got the deal she did ever resonant. Read attentively. There is far more here than meets the eye.

WHAT THE REVIEWERS SAID ABOUT INVISIBLE DARKNESS:

“The True Crime genre is, in the hands of artists like Truman Capote and Stephen Williams, a kind of poetry, a kind of austere grand guignol, exuding gaudy horror.”

George Elliott Clarke, HALIFAX HERALD CHRONICLE

“By far the most intelligent and subversive of the Bernardo triptych.”

Lynn Crosbie, GLOBE AND MAIL

"Williams has performed a remarkable, if unconventional, feat in the annals of true crime"

Judge Lynn King, TORONTO STAR

“I found Invisible Darkness a superior example of a dying breed – the straight, un-hyped, literate work of true-crime.”

Jack Olsen, Edgar-Award winning author of SON and DOC

"You may think you've heard enough but you haven't heard the half of it. It's a must read ....Based on court documents....