I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of The Castleton Massacre by Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Dundurn Press for providing an ARC to review.

I always find it interesting to read true crime cases that predate the era of modern crime investigation. The ability to pinpoint the warning signs as well as the cultural differences surrounding the crimes are fascinating. The Castleton Massacre is such a book. Now we understand the psychological trauma surrounding stalking and spousal abuse. This case had so many giant warning signs that were ignored or dismissed. Even after the events, many people blamed the victims for the criminal's actions.

I also appreciated the great detail that went into researching the family life of both victim and perpetrator. I felt like I knew the people by the time the crime occurred in the book. I give this book a solid 4/5 stars.

I pride myself on being very involved in the true crime world and I was very surprised to realize that I have never heard of this case. This book was very well written and chilling.

The Castleton Massacre is a true crime offering from Sharon Ann Cook and Margaret Carson, detailing the shockingly violent crime perpetrated by Robert Killins against members of his family. Co-author Margaret Carson was a primary witness to the events and as such provides valuable testimony and insight to the narrative.

The first half of the book provides a comprehensive family history of Robert and his wife Florence going back a couple of generations. Although it is helpful to have such contextual information to establish an understanding of the characters and family culture of the people involved in the primary event, some of the material was extraneous and could have been omitted.

The profile of the perpetrator of the crime and analysis of his possible motivations was well established. It seems evident from the account that Robert Killins was a complex, character who appears to have been highly unstable and in need of medical treatment for both his physical and mental frailties. The crime Robert committed is distressing and tragic, and sadly echos many such crimes where there are issues revolving around untreated mental health disorders, family violence and relationship breakdown.

The book is well written and an engaging read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for the eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

"The Castleton Massacre" is a fascinating true crime book that is both very personal to the authors (it is their family story) as well very significant in illuminating the shameful deficiencies in our support for domestic violence victims, as well as, in particular, violence against women. The book represents Canadian history as well, documenting both the move westward as well as Canada's history of mass violence.

In this book, written by one of the surviving children and with the cooperation of the other, we see the history of the Killins family--Robert and his future victim, Florence, as well as their child, and Florence's other children. We see how Robert's very obvious and still shocking descent into violence, and we see how little support there was for the victims while he lived.

In addition, the authors also consider life after the murders. One of the greatest moments is the children's increasing awareness of, and appreciation of, their uncle and aunt for taking them in.

With gratitude to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC copy of this book.

A true crime analysis that plays out like a family drama, The Castleton Massacre reveals the horrific events surrounding a former minister who went on a rampage killing his female family members. Pieced together by a family member through eye witness accounts, what comes to light is a bevy of dysfunctional family dynamics and the psyche of a man who had always been petted as the favorite child and brilliant, yet who failed to capitalize on his abilities. Robert Killin was a minister who had little interest in religion and proceeded to stalk and harass his estranged wife for twenty years, devolving into an angry wreck of a man suspected as dangerous by neighbors. What it all finally led to was the tragic murder of his estranged wife and his daughter, both of whom were pregnant, and the murder of his wife's daughter by the man she had moved on to.

The book is very readable and well researched. It is worth noting that the authors are family members, not true crime authors which may account for the gaps in some of the research. There is a flavor of family story telling to the book without as many outside sources as one would normally expect from a true crime book. While this could arguably give a biased view of the case, the authors make no pretense that they aren't related to those involved and what is revealed is an indictment of the views on mental health, domestic violence, and the status of marriage at the time. This is a view of true crime from the victims and is a book worth noting because of that.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Dundurn Press for that ARC copy.

How is this story not a documentary or podcast already?! During the section describing the massacre minuet by minuet it was almost an outright slasher horror movie, Robert Killins evoking monsters like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers while he hunted his family. Not to make light of the situation, the authors did an excellent job at describing the terror. My heart rate picked up and I had to put it down for a minuet after Patsy was attacked, The beginning portions of the book were so thorough that I felt as though I knew that family members, and felt incredibly sad at the senseless loss of life.

You can feel the personal connection throughout, though they authors don’t choose to put a lot of their personal expression until the final act explaining the impact and aftermath. The experiences that Margaret and Brian endured without proper grief and trauma counseling is a tragedy on it’s own. I’m glad they included the trials and successes that both experienced after the murders. Including all of the pictures really brought together that this is a story about a real family, not just faceless names..

The beginning really dragged for me with there being too much time spent in the grandparent generation of the Killins and homesteading lifestyle. There was just a lot of information about the setting that didn’t have anything to do with the family massacre. There were situations like this throughout the entire story, like I didn’t need to know every club and organization that Robert wasn’t involved in in college. Just saying that he was antisocial by his own design, would have been enough. Sometimes the exposition dumps would take me away from any momentum in the narrative.

Still to this day, domestic violence escalating to murder is a huge endemic in our society and it isn’t easy for a victim of domestic abuse to leave their abuser. More people becoming aware of stories like these and the signs leading to them can only help.

Overall I’m glad I got to read this book and that the family but such care into telling their story.

Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review. Especially thank you to Sharon Anne Cook and Margaret Carson for sharing their story with us.

Eye opening, shocking, engaging!

I think this is a well written accurate account of a disgusting crime that never should have happened. I believe that the victims have been given a voice in the most respectful & loving of ways possible which is so incredibly important. I live in Ontario and hadn't heard of this heinous crime until I read this book.

This book covers a lot of very important topics such as gun ownership, mental health or mental capacity, stocking & terrorizing, physical & verbal abuse, obsession, domestic violence, family violence, hiding behind religion/people assuming a man of God must be a "good" person (wrong so very wrong in many cases) murder, murdering unborn children & men not really being held accountable for what goes on behind closed doors.

The authors of the novel have put so much time & energy into this book and spent hours upon hours researching & speaking to people gathering information & recollecting their own memories I appreciate the work they have done and appalled the outcome.

I rate this book 5/5 stars and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys true crime & also any Canadian who wants to know a bit more about the darker side of our history. It's unfortunate that crimes like this ever happen & I wish that they didn't, I send my sincere apologies to the Surviving members of this family & to their families that they had to endure a tragedy like this and lose loved ones due to someone else's jealousy greed and ignorance. (Jealousy, greed & ignorance are my opinion only as to why Killins committed his crime of 6 murders)

I would like to thank NetGalley & Dundurn Press as well as Sharon Anne Cook & Margaret Carson for the ARC of this book I choose to write this review voluntarily & all opinions expressed in it are my own.

Interesting account of a largely unknown (to the US, anyway) murder of a family told by a survivor. This is an incredibly heartbreaking story - I cannot imagine the terror this family endured for years.

Thanks to NetGalley and Dundurn Press for an advance copy of this shocking true account of a mass murder in Ontario in 1963. This was written after meticulous research by the killer's niece, Sharon, and a survivor, Margaret, who was present during the slaughter, witnessing the murder of her pregnant mother and managed to hide and escape. The two girls were brought up together along with Margaret's traumatized brother, Brian. The two women reconstructed the murders as well as possible after all this time from their own memories and by interviewing living family members and witnesses.

There seemed to be a history of dysfunctional families. There were many names and family relationships to sort out, and a listing of these would have avoided some confusion initially. Still, I managed to sort them out with some concentration and effort. I thought the first part of the book to be somewhat disjointed and repetitious, but it was very concise, well-written, and terrifying when the massacre was recounted. The book also addresses many important issues, such as violence against women, a plea that abuse within families needs to be better managed, and the roots of mass murder and femicide, depression, and gun ownership. Thre is still a lack of help for the victims of violence, especially women and children who have PTSD, and their rehabilitation. These issues are better known than in 1960, but more must be done.

Robert Killin was considered a brilliant, scholarly man but a bit odd. He graduated from Queens University and became a United Church Minister. He had no real religious calling, neglected church duties that didn't interest him, and failed to get along with the parishioners. He married a young girl, Florence, and they had a daughter, Pearl. Robert was authoritarian and was suspected of abusing Florence. She finally left Robert, who refused her a divorce. She moved in with a much older lawyer, A. D. Hall. They had the makings of a happy relationship, but Robert continued to stalk and terrorize the family unmercifully for almost 20 years. The couple with Robert's daughter, Pearl, and now Florence and Hall's three younger children moved often, but Robert consistently tracked them down. Robert built rough shacks that he lived in near where the family homes. He insisted on coming into their home to visit Pearl, whom he regarded as a possession. When the teenage Pearl started dating, he would follow them, beating the boy and injuring Pearl.

Over the years, Robert's behaviour and appearance deteriorated to the point that it was apparent to some people in the community that he was abusive, mentally ill and probably dangerous. He became filthy and ragged and was often observed carrying a gun. He would scream at anyone who dared try to argue with him. Robert often used profane language. However, many still regarded him as a righteous man, a former minister, and Florence probably deserved his wrath for her unmarried relationship. Florence and Pearl no longer had Hall to protect them after he died.

The slaughter all occurred in a single night of terror. Robert killed his sister, Gladys, a retired teacher and artist. Then he murdered his estranged wife, Florence, and her youngest child, Patsy, age 6. He proceeded to kill his daughter, Pearl next. Florence and Pearl were both pregnant at the time. Florence's children, Margaret and Brian, managed to escape to neighbours, and the police were called. Florence's new man, Tom Major, Pearl's husband Fred Campbell, and Peter Miller, a 20-year-old teacher, all tried to stop the carnage. All three ended up in hospital with serious injuries. Both Margaret(age 12) and her brother Brian (age 10) were taken to the hospital on the same night. They suffered from shock and had minor wounds. Robert died in the same hospital following his violent rampage.

It was a long process in recovery for Margaret and Brian. They lived with Robert's kindly brother and his wife. The book addresses critical social, health and legal issues that have not been yet fully understood or solved.

In 1963, a former minister, long separated from his wife, went on a rampage and murdered four people, two of whom were pregnant. Now one of the survivors of the massacre and her cousin have put together the story of what happened.

I have never heard of this case before, but picked up this book because of the identities of the authors – one is the niece of the murderer, and one the daughter of one of the victims, but they were raised together and I was curious about how this situation came to be, and how they felt about it. The Castleton Massacre does not disappoint.

The writing is lucid, the case well-researched, and the authors do not fall into the trap of presuming that their readers are familiar with their family lore. The book discusses themes of family, relationships, mental illness, and obsession in interesting ways, and traces back the origins of the families and how their actions were shaped by their backgrounds.

However, I did think the evidence was occasionally thin on the ground – for example, the authors discuss how Robert Killins was abusive toward Florence, his wife, when they were still together, but do not provide any specific instances of this, though I understand this may be because that evidence just isn’t accessible so many years on. Similarly, Killins’s deterioration after Florence and Pearl leave him is mostly off the page.

Overall, a fascinating and personal read about mass murder, told with a nuanced view.

As a true crime fanatic, I’m shocked and a little upset that I hadn’t heard of this horrific, brutal murder before reading this book. I believe the story was told very well, it was interesting to get points of views on both sides of the case - and seeing how abused women were treated in the 1960s is absolutely heartbreaking. The surviving children had been through so much already with Robert, and then to have him massacre their mother and sisters in such brutal ways - I’m proud of the people that they became and I don’t even personally know them, but overcoming something like that is so fucking incredible. Amazing account of a story I had never heard before. Bravo.

When I get a new true crime book I cannot wait to read it and that was the case with the Castleton massacre. I started it yesterday and finished it today. Most of my opinions of this book are positive but let me get the negative out-of-the-way first. I love a good book with great research and this book has that, but I found The chapter on the stepdad AD and what he did in World War I and wide the battles he were in were fought was a little unnecessary. Yes he was a big part of the picture prior to The murders but I found that to be pointless and not apropos of the story. Having said that I thought the rest was a great researched story. Robert Killian was the star of his family but all in the bigger world at college he was found not to play nice with others and when he became a minister he had four different post causing problems adage and then at 31 he met Florence. She was 17 and he was a grown man despite all of that she loved him and tried to make it work and then they had little pearlly. When she finally left him for good she met a lawyer named AD. Who she had four more children with. Despite Robert really wanting nothing to do with little pearl he now made her the focal point of his whole life even building a shack in the back of A.D. and Florences home. They even moved to his law offices because that was a one place he couldn’t build a shack to stock them. I heard the greatest title for people like Robert in this book and it was called a grievance collector and after he had collected all he was going to he committed a tragedy that would ring for decades in the mind of Margaret and Brian and the two survivors of that horrible day. There was so much to this book and I wish I had the talent and ability to give a detailed summary but unfortunately I do not so this is what you get. I hope you like it. I was given this book by Medgalley and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Please forgive any grammar of punctuation errors as I am blind and dictate my review but all opinions are definitely my own.

The Castleton Murders is a book for true crime fans who are looking to read outside of the usual stories. It is a heartbreaking account of a femicide at the hands of an abusive stalker.
I am so impressed by the amount of research that went into writing this book. Family histories are often just passed down through bits and bobs of conversation. To research to this level of detail to publish an account is dedication to making sure that stories like these are not lost to time.
It did feel a little long and sometimes like the information was just too dense, losing the story to statistics and dates.
Thank you so much for the arc!

This will be a hard review to write. On the one hand, the book is on real experience. However, I felt that the authors did not do a good job of telling that story.
When I had read the description it said FEMICIDE and I was thinking that the killer, Robert only went after the females in the family.
HOWEVER, Robert attacked everyone that night, Brian, Fred, Peter, and the females.
Then the story focused so much on 'the time', at the time Florence could not have gone to the police. Florence could not have moved from Robert.
I felt that this is true, however, it was NEVER shown how Robert found them time after time.
Further, we take the word of the authors that Robert was declining mentally.
The authors provided us ONE example of Robert beating on Pearl.
Everything else was him being intrusive.

I felt like this was NOT a coherent story. I will give benefit of the doubt because of THE TIME, but I was really hoping to find out more about the main people AFTER the murder...like what happened to Peter, to Fred?

That wasnt'' fully addressed either.

In the end, this was an ok true crime book that was very personal to the authors.

Having your ex live in a shack in your backyard is never a good idea and in this case it turned deadly. This is a sad tale of a mass murderer and the family and others that he mercilessly slaughtered. It is also a cautionary tale of not seeing the warning signs and getting help for someone who is obviously mentally ill in the worst way. Although the story is difficult to read, (in the sense that it details the murders of several people, including a child) it was a very engaging, well written, factual tale of true crime. If this is your thing, you will enjoy the thoughtful rendering of a horrible situation by someone who endured it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance read copy. It was well worth the read.

This book is the true account of families torn apart by the actions of a mass murderer in 1963 Canada. Robert Killing is the murderer of 6 members of his family in May of 1963. These murders occurred after decades of Robert stalking and terrorizing his estranged wife, his biological daughter, and other females in his family. Robert's deadly trajectory had been clear to his surviving family members, but they had been unable to convince outsiders of the seriousness of Killins' sociopathic capabilities. The authors are descendants of both sides of the families affected, and they shine a light in how femicides and familicides happen

On May 2, 1963, Robert Killins, a former United Church minister, slaughtered every woman in his family but one. She (and her brother) lived to tell the story of what motivated a talented man who had been widely admired, a scholar and graduate from Queen’s University, to stalk and terrorize the women in his family for almost twenty years and then murder them.
Through extensive oral histories, Cook and Carson painstakingly trace the causes of a femicide in which four women and two unborn babies were murdered over the course of one bloody evening. While they situate this murderous rampage in the literature on domestic abuse and mass murders, they also explore how the two traumatized child survivors found their way back to health and happiness. Told through vivid first-person accounts, this family memoir explains how a murderer was created. Such a well researched and informative read and one I’ll remember for a long time to come.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishing house for providing me with a free copy of this book!

I reeeally did not like the way this book was written. It reads like a textbook. It's dry and bleak. Of course the subject matter at hand doesn't scream fun but I would have appreciated some more colourful descriptions.
The end chapters that touch on sociology were the most interesting to me but some statistics thrown here and there would have been more pleasant to read than pages after pages of numbers which made the reading experience as dull as the genealogy pages from the old testament.

I am not sure that this story deserved 280 pages. It was interesting to give the survivors of this massacre their voice back and important to highlight the sexist aspect of those murders but there was no surprise in this case. Robert Killins was a horrible person and it's easy to understand, seeing from his past actions and beliefs how his behaviour could escalate to such extremes as the murder of his own family.

Despite the poor execution and to end this review on a positive note, it is apparent that extensive research has been made by the writer.s. It is also a beautiful testament of love to all the victims, both those who lived and those who sadly lost their lives to the hand of a hateful and violent relative.

1,5 stars*

What are the odds of a family murderer being named Killins? This is a well written look at the story of a rural Canadian mass murderer. A chilling true crime read. He tormented and murdered his long-estranged wife Florence and his daughter Pearl, who were both pregnant at the time. Pearl was his only child, now grown and expecting her first baby. Florence had been trying to get a divorce for twenty plus years, but Killins refused to give her one. She went on to have more children with her next life partner, A.D. Hall, they were Brian, 10, Margaret, 12 and Patsy, 6. Killins’ hatred filled rampage included murdering his only sister, Gladys. He also managed to kill his wife’s youngest child by A.D. Hall, Patsy. The other two children by Hall managed to survive.

There were several others who were injured while trying to intervene, among them were Florence’s current beau, Tom Major; and Killins’ son-in-law Fred Campbell. The most badly injured man was Peter Miller, a twenty year old teacher. This happened in the early 1960s when men were not held accountable for many cases of domestic violence. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This book offers more than a case study of a terrible crime. It explores the culture and times which allow such behaviour as led up to the crimes to occur without punishment. Deeply moving, the book is a personal account without being at all sentimental in approach. Rather, the sense the reader gets is one of deep respect and a desire to understand and give legacy to the victims and survivors. The book concludes by going beyond the crime to consider such contributing factors as the legislative framework and accessibility to firearms as well as related issues such as the treatment of trauma in children.