Jon Redfern's Trumpets Sound No More

On April 30, the Crime Writers of Canada announced the shortlist for the Arthur Ellis Awards. Jon Redfern is one of the nominees in the Best Novel category for his fall 2007 historical mystery, Trumpets Sound No More (Rendez-Vous Crime). Set in London in 1840, shortly after the London Detective Police Force was formed, Trumpets Sound No More features Inspector Owen Endersby, who is on the case of a murder of a theatre entrepreneur. At the Rendez-Vous Crime website, you can listen to Redfern talk about his novel and the meticulous research he did to maintain historical accuracy. Concerned with being true to mid-nineteenth century detectives' manners of speech and cultural attitudes, he looked up interviews with detectives from the period and relied on nineteenth-century anthropological studies, such as Henry Meyhew’s London Labour and the London Poor. Redfern's account of his research is fascinating, and the site also features an audio clip of publisher Sylvia McConnell discussing historical crime fiction and Trumpets Sound No More, which is also well worth listening to.

Jon Redfern has been a free-lance journalist for both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, a story editor for the CBC and a children’s playwright. Since 1989 his short stories have appeared in numerous literary journals including Grain, Event and Descant. His interest in nineteenth century theatre developed during his graduate studies at the University of Toronto. His thesis on operas and melodramas of London’s theatres became the basis for Trumpets Sound No More. His first novel, The Boy Must Die, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Crime Novel in 2002. Redfern is a Professor of English at Centennial College in Toronto.