A Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year Winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime Book, Bahamas, 1943. Sir Harry Oakes, gold mining tycoon, philanthropist, and "richest man in the Empire," is murdered. News of this "crime of the century" surges across the English-speaking world, from London, England, to the remote Canadian north. The layers of mystery deepen as Oakes's son-in-law. Count Alfred de Marigny, is arrested, and the behaviour of the governor of the Bahamas, the former King Edward VIII, is questioned. Despite a sensational trial, no murderer is convicted. Award-winning biographer and popular historian Charlotte Gray explores the glittering life of Harry Oakes, bringing fresh eyes to his career in a raw mining town and to the bungled investigation of this long-cold case. Why could Oakes never get justice? Why did his story become distorted after his death? Book jacket.