It's interesting to see how trials have changed since 1987 when this tragedy happened. The book is a short read, took me an afternnon, BUT, it's really not a nonfiction look at what happened. It's more a replay of the trial's transcript with little humanity shown for the victims or the guide. I did enjoy the story, but had anticipated a little more.

In 1987, a few advertising executives and their friends went whitewater rafting in British Columbia. Something happened: some of them died. One of the widows filed a lawsuit against the firm that the executives were associated with and around. She won. It is the stuff of a good story. There is even a Made for TV Movie inspired by the events. Unfortunately, this book does not explore the topic to any further depth. (I do not think it even mentions the movie.)

This book is frustrating. To describe the ways that it is frustrating, let me discuss the different ways it could have been cool: In the catastrophe edutainment space (my YouTube algo looks like a exhibit in a murder trial) this incident is not covered frequently, if at all, unlike many others, so there is a novelty factor in its presentation; the story presents interesting factual questions about what happened, and questions about what ought to have happened in terms of safety practices; there is a question about maleness and business culture, and to what extent it was a knowledgeable and voluntary act on the part of all the participants (this is what I understand the movie focuses on), and the legal questions in the trial, while not wholly novel, are interesting in both social and legal ways, with the widow asserting liability towards a corporation despite the corporation not having any direct involvement.

This creates a number of approaches. You can focus on the events of the disaster and try to find truth there. You can focus on the trial and the interesting legal questions as they overlap with a series of organizational cultures, including that of the court itself. You can even do both.

Instead, this is PACER abuse. It is the transcript of the trial. It is lightly editorialized, but the substance of the book is CTL-V of the transcript with better publication. There is no journalism, no research primary or secondary, and no analysis. There are no citations.

One of the ironies here is that the trial-y parts of the trial, like the sidebars between the judge and the lawyers, are presented in full transcript form and work as the most riveting and memorable parts of the story. Beyond more conventional trial analysis, the author considers what is going on between the lawyers and the judge as reflects their own skills and temperaments, which creates a sort of sub-sub-narrative to the trial's existing sub-narrative of the events of the disaster.

The bio of the author suggests that he is both an experienced lawyer and outdoorsman, and every bit of what comes through in the book seems to verify that. This is someone who is positioned to write the definitive book on this story (hopefully he has a friend who is gender studies or anthropology to tag in). I hate to judge a book based on what it could have been, but in this case there is so little of what it is that it feels warranted.

So I do not feel informed about the facts, since a trial is not about truth-finding, and I do not feel informed about the trial, since there are too many details and not enough context. I am still more frustrated in this as my singular take on the incident. There is nothing wrong with the book or the writing, and the subject is of social good to discuss, but I am left entirely in a state of want after reading it.

My thanks to the author, Cecil Kuhne, for writing the book, and to the publisher, Rowman & Littlefield, for making the ARC available to me.

I received a free copy of, The White Mile Trial, by Cecil Kuhne, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I have never heard of this incident before reading this book, Eleven big wigs of advertising went rafting in British Colombia. Five men died, six survived, but what happened? This was an interesting read.