Back in 2002, a series of events led to At Home with History and the idea that a house has a social history and comes alive through the people who lived inside its walls. Sensational Victoria and Sensational Vancouver continued the theme—adding stories about bootleggers and brothels, corrupt cops and legendary women. Cold Case Vancouver explores the city’s dark side, in a book that’s part history, part true crime story, and Blood, Sweat, and Fear tells the story of Inspector J.F.C.B. Vance, Vancouver’s first forensic investigator. Murder by Milkshake is the story of Esther Castellani’s death by arsenic poisoning in 1965 and the conviction of her husband Rene, a CKNW personality and the damage that it caused to the Castellani’s Jeannine, who was 11 at the time of her mother’s murder, and Vancouver Exposed: Searching for the City’s Hidden History is based on my blog Every Place has a Story. Cold Case BC came out of my Facebook page from the same name; and my latest book is Beneath Dark Waters: The Legacy of the Empress of Ireland Shipwreck
My other books include Frommer’s with Kids Vancouver (2001), co-author of The Life and Art of Frank Molnar, Jack Hardman and LeRoy Jensen (2009), and a contributing writer to Vancouver Confidential (2014) and Vancouver Vanishes: narratives of demolition and revival (2015) both #1 BC Bestsellers.
The Life and Art of Frank Molnar, Jack Hardman and LeRoy Jensen
Frommer’s with Kids Vancouver
Lazarus visits the site of the shipwreck and taps into historical records and first-hand accounts from survivors to paint a gripping picture of the scene. She also takes an opportunity to debunk myths that have endured for decades, and her true crime chops come into play when she recounts another story involving the ship’s captain, Henry Kendall.
Vancouver Sun
To label Beneath Dark Waters ‘well researched’ is almost a misnomer. It’s all packaged and delivered in her succinct writing style and approachable layout. The result? A solid read for lovers of maritime mishaps
Winnipeg Free Press
If you want an interesting historical read, you don’t have to look much further than an Eve Lazarus title.
The Province
Lazarus’s name is apt given her aim here: to resurrect the disaster’s heroes and survivors, and to correct historical inaccuracies through firsthand accounts.
Globe and Mail
Chuck Davis would have loved and devoured Vancouver Exposed. Even long-time Vancouver history buffs cannot fail to be impressed by Lazarus’ blend of the bizarre, the hidden, the destroyed and the overlooked.
BC Bookworld.
Thank God for Eve Lazarus, an Australian expatriate who has lived in the North Shore for over two decades, and her generous outpouring of historical knowledge and fun facts, which are admirably bountiful in Vancouver Exposed
—The Ormsby Review
“Known for her top-notch investigative skills, Lazarus turns her inquisitive mind to unlocking Vancouver’s past, a past that didn’t always make headlines or top newscasts. In the end, the photo-packed Vancouver Exposed is a kind of love letter that is full of curious twists and turns, and some whaaaat? moments in Vancouver’s interesting and weird history. Anyone who has read the Australian expat’s previous work knows there is always something new to talk about after Lazarus has had a go at a topic. Her work makes for a great dinner party, or in this day-and-age, drinks over a Zoom conversation.”
the Vancouver Sun
Eve Lazarus is quickly becoming one of B.C.’s most entertaining and trusted historians. All of that is on display in Eve’s excellent new book Vancouver Exposed. It’s layered and stuffed like a Skookumchief hamburger
– Grant Lawrence, Best BC Books of 2020, North Shore News.
Blood, Sweat, and Fear is a captivating read which uses Vance’s life and work as the narrative thread weaving together accounts or more than a dozen cases he worked on during his 42-year career. Lazarus walks the reader through his careful examination of crime scenes. As she describes the collection of shards of broken glass, discarded cigarettes, or ripped fragment of cloth for analysis back at the lab, at times Blood, Sweat, and Fear reads like a page-turning whodunit, as the reader tries to guess which piece of evidence in a given case will prove to be the proverbial smoking gun. The book is a brisk, entertaining read about a fascinating character.
Spacing Vancouver
A fascinating true crime story takes us back to Vancouver during the first half of the 20th century. Eve Lazarus fills us in on Vance’s vastly ahead-of-his-time exploits in ballistics, explosives and blood analysis, which earned plenty of headlines and the wrath of an underworld that set out to permanently silence this recurring star witness.”
BC Living magazine in Great Summer Reads by BC Authors
Top-notch true crime writer Eve Lazarus has expertly unravelled one of Vancouver’s most notorious and sensational crimes: the drawn-out and disturbingly premeditated 1965 murder of Esther Castellani. Her husband, media figure Rene Castellani, was eventually charged and convicted with murder. But was he guilty? Rene and Esther’s daughter Jeannine grew up wanting to believe that her father was innocent. Now Jeannine, along with anyone who reads Lazarus’s fascinating book, knows the real story behind the bizarre Milkshake Murder
—Grant Lawrence, Best books of 2018, Vancouver Courier
Eve Lazarus gets it. The Vancouver-based true crime author has already made many friends among readers who enjoy her well researched studies of mayhem on Vancouver’s mean streets and its seemingly innocent residential neighbourhoods. Those who enjoyed 2015’s Cold Case Vancouver will be pleased to know that Lazarus has done it again with Murder by Milkshake.
— Vancouver Sun
Sensational Vancouver is lavishly illustrated with photographs of people and places, and a map makes it easy to tie things together. This book is filled with great stories, and they are short, so it’s easy to dip in here and there as the mood strikes. As a package, they make for fascinating reading.
Dave Obee, editor-in-chief of the Times Colonist
High-end brothels, unsolved murders, police corruption, haunted houses, Sensational Vancouver paints a portrait of the city unlike anything you’ll find in a dusty old history book. Author Eve Lazarus dives into the darker parts of the city’s history, exploring the lives of the iconic people who influenced it, while paying homage to the historic buildings that helped shape it. Stories about Canada’s first two female police officers, the world’s first aircraft designer and a gutsy police detective—who pushed the rules to the limit to crack down on criminals—will keep you turning pages long past bedtime.
Where Magazine
