Karla : A Pact with the Devil [Mass Market Paperback]

Stephen Williams (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Seal Books; First Printing edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0770429629
• ISBN-13: 978-0770429621
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,632,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A True Monster, April 3, 2005

By 

Deanna Manson (Kingston, Ontario) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karla (Paperback)

Stephen Williams has followed up his infamous Invisible Darkness with a book about Karla Homolka called Karla: A Pact With the Devil. This one focusses on her crimes, how the police handled her plea bargain (badly) and how she has spent her time in prison. She has not been granted parole (obviously) and will have served her full 12-year term by the time she gets out of prison on July 6, 2005. Mr. Williams was given access to her psychological assessments from the time she made her initial confession until 2001 when Corrections had to pull a couple of fast ones to keep her in prison. Rightly so - the woman is a monster. But she was never officially diagnosed as such - an effort to justify her plea bargain and maintain her credibility as a witness against Paul Bernardo. The truth of the matter is that she was as culpable for their crimes, if not more so, than Bernardo himself. What makes this book interesting is that Mr. Williams tricked Karla into a series of correspondence with him by posing as an adoring fan of sorts. Thus, we get a unique insight into Karla's narcissism and her belief that she will leave prison and blend into society, never to be bothered or seen again. I don't think so. Finally, the question is posed: will she reoffend? My opinion: yes. We will hear more of Karla Homolka (or whatever name she chooses on the outside) in the future. Unfortunately, this book is tarnished by Mr. Williams' frustration with the system and his own culpability having infringed many of the court-imposed publication bans. He uses several chapters to vent his own issues - and becomes repetitive in his presentation of the bungled investigation and the subsequent promotion of the lead Green Ribbon Task Force investigators.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stephen Williams has done it again!, March 24, 2003

By 

L .J. (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karla (Paperback)

I am from the Niagara area and have read all the relevant books on this despicable crime. Time does not erase the horror of what happened or the anger most people across Canada feel about the "deal with the devil" that was made with Ms. Homolka.

Mr. Williams once again saves his most vitriolic passages for the head of the Green Ribbon Task force who brokered this deal and shows Canadians how truly corrupt our justice system and Correctional Services are. People's anger should be directed this way, not at the author for calling it like it is.

Instead of villifying Williams for writing the book, we should commend him for laying out the facts of what led up to this deal. He has made people more aware of how sheer police bungling led to this horrendous situation and how it affected him personally by being prosecuted and exonerated for allegedly seeing the infamous banned videos. It seems that the "legal eagles" had a vendetta against him after "Invisible Darkness."

As for the pictures - yes, I did find some of them very hard to look at - visuals always are the first thing to hit a person. But, the words of the story were just as hard to read due to the subject matter.

My only real criticism of the book is that Mr. Williams tended to get a little verbose and go off on technical tangents in chapters relating to Ms. Homolka's psychiatric reports. That was a bit of a challenge, but on the whole, it was a well written follow up to "Invisible Darkness." Hopefully, there will not be a sequel and that this story can finally be put to rest.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Justice subverted, July 5, 2004

By 

Jane Austen "Barb" "schriftstellerin" (Montreal, Quebec, CANADA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Karla : A Pact with the Devil (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is interesting and valuable more for its subject matter than the way it was written. Stephen Williams is not a very good writer, but good editing could have made the book much better. It tends to be repetitious and sometimes difficult to follow - that being said, however, it has very important and thought-provoking material about the Canadian justice system and, in a larger sense, how we view women who commit crimes.
The psychiatrists, police officers and prosecutors in the case seem to have labeled Karla Homolka a compliant victim before they even met her - and refused to change their opinion no matter how much evidence contradicted it (and there was, and is, a great deal of such evidence). The theory seems to be: women are victims, not victimers; only men are capable of heinous sex crimes; therefore, if Karla participated in these crimes with Paul Bernardo - she just had to have been terrorized and brainwashed into participating! He must have abused her into compliance! Karla, being clever, deceitful and manipulative, had no trouble going along with this, telling them what they wanted to hear and reinforcing their theory.