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 “Williams book, [Karla].... is possessed of a moral authority...Karla continues in Williams’ inimitable vein. It is not light reading, and it exacts attention and discomfort from its readers. As such, it is an imperative contribution to a school of writing that has mangled Capote by way of Yeats, asserting that the best ‘lack all conviction’; ‘the worst...passionate intensity.’....
“It asks...that we may, as progressive citizens, be willing to extricate our loathing of Homolka from a pure understanding of jurisprudence....Williams’ disdain for the way in which Homolka has been characterized by pressured psychiatrists whose vision of her serves only the public, not impartial analysis - is, however uncomfortably, righteous. Williams’ argument suggests, persuasively, that the real deal with the devil is done...regardless of our rational desire to ‘exterminate the brute.’ If A Pact with the Devil reads as a uniquely perverse restatement of Dante’s mad love for Beatrice, so be it. I do not believe that Williams – in a sentiment he attributes to Green Ribbon Task Force Inspector Vince Bevan – feels that he has ‘to have her.’... Williams is continuing to ask for our ear, to listen to and look at what this woman did, and how such information has changed us, irrevocably.” [Read the entire review]
- Lynn Crosbie in the Toronto Star, February 16, 2003
“Williams understood that a unique and terrible psychopathology could be at work here and, in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song, he was determined to make its acquaintance. Karla is about what Williams learned and it also lets us in on what a difficult task he had..... Karla is no slap-dash quickie aimed at culling sales from those with prurient interest in the degradation and murder of young women. It is investigative journalism at its finest, exposing how the police, Crown and certain psychiatrists have a lot of explaining to do......For Williams’, Danson’s renewed suggestion of criminal law breaking must have made him feel a little like he is living under a Canadian fatwah. He has already been investigated once by police and the Crown, which brought serious criminal charges against him after the publication of his first book. After a long fight, the charges were dropped but the prosecution nearly cost Williams and his wife, Marsha, their Ontario farm. ....Williams conclusions are based in part on correspondence with his subject ( he is the only journalist to have corresponded with her.) Homolka’s letters expose her as a gifted and, therefore, formidable woman, remorseless, self-centered and, I am convinced, quite deadly....I am at loss to understand how censoring a book that speaks the truth does anything to enhance the memory of Tammy and Leslie and Kristen. I have always believed that if there was a moment when the girls knew they were going to die, they might have thought or perhaps even spoke the words, ‘You’ll never get away with this.’ Rejecting Williams’s sober, thoughtful and well-researched analysis of how Homolka got a future is in my opinion disrespectful to the memory of her victims. Would the girls themselves be satisfied with the judicial outcome? I think not.” [Read the entire review]
- Trish Wood in the Book Review section of The Globe and Mail, March 9, 2003
“Williams uses letters from Homolka herself, unreleased psychiatric assessments and police statements along with other courses to craft a controversial account of what happened behind the scenes to land a sweetheart deal for a woman with a lengthy list of murders and rapes to her credit. He lets the copious research he has carefully compiled speak for itself and does an especially good job of presenting an honest portrayal of Homolka. [Read the entire review]
- Jeffery Simpson in the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, March 9, 2003
“He makes a strong case for Bevan having bungled the investigation and then, to protect his own career, concocting a battered-woman/sexual-sadist-victim persona for Homolka in order to make her plea bargain palatable to the public.” [Read the entire review]
- Douglas J. Johnston in the Winnipeg Free Press, February 23, 2003
“Karla is a nightmarish account of police, prosecutorial, judicial and prison bungling that should disturb everyone....this is solid investigative journalism uncovering ineptitude on a massive scale....The contradictions uncovered by Williams are astounding.”[Read the entire review]
- Jim McNulty in the Vancouver Province, March 16, 2003
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