Blood in the Water is a true crime story with a twist.

Right from the start, everyone knows who killed Phillip Boudreau, and everyone in the French Acadian fishing village of Petit de Grat, Nova Scotia knows why — but the judges and the juries never hear or understand the full story.

In this compulsively-readable and surprisingly funny book, up is down and black is white. The perpetrators turn out to be victims as well, and the victim is also a perpetrator.

One of the killers, Dwayne Samson, a fishing-boat captain, presents the court with a petition signed by 700 neighbours urging the judge to free him on bail. His father-in-law, James Landry, who is also charged with the murder, falsifies his own story to attract more blame to himself.

The victim, Phillip Boudreau, whose body is never found, is a Robin Hood figure who steals from the wealthy, gives to the needy, loves dogs, and eludes the police with a mocking laugh. But he also has a 28-page criminal record that includes some serious crimes. Nevertheless, the village church is packed for his funeral.

This tale of a shocking crime leads the reader into a world of mirrors and paradoxes. The story became famous as the “murder for lobster” case — but this is not a story about lobster. Ultimately, Blood in the Water is about the grand themes of power and law, security and self-respect. The book raises profound questions about the limitations of the justice system itself, about the nature of community, and about our own characters and values.

Are you really sure you would not kill — if you were pushed beyond your limits?