The Ghosts That Haunt Me: Memories of a Homicide Detective by Steve Ryan
Finished – September 13, 2022
The description of this book drew me in immediately. I really enjoy reading memoirs and when I saw this was one from a former homicide detective, I knew I had to check it out. It met my expectations and I’d absolutely read more of this genre.
Steve Ryan shares his experiences as a Toronto homicide detective with extensive detail and empathy. He selects six specific cases to describe and his compassion for the victims is evident throughout. He never highlighted the perpetrators, but focused on the victim, the victim’s family, and how the case was solved. Since I’m from the US, I hadn’t heard of any of these high-profile Canadian homicides. Steve writes with the benefit of hindsight since he’s retired from the police force and all these cases were solved. That sets this book apart from some other true crime that centers around unresolved crimes and cases.
It was interesting to read the parts of Ryan’s memoir where he described the toll the job took on him as well and his doubts about continuing at certain times in his career. He didn’t mince words or sugarcoat how taxing his job was, and how it affected his personal life and family. There were a few passages where I felt he was trying too hard to write about “teachable moments” and he veered into overly sappy and sentimental territory. Otherwise, I found the book easy to read and compelling.
There were a few very poignant quotes in the book that I highlighted to remember. One that really stuck out to me was:
“There’s a crudeness to all of us that we put away to live in society in harmony together.”
-Ryan, Steve. The Ghosts That Haunt Me (Kindle Locations 270-271). Kindle Edition.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime, police procedures, homicide investigations, and memoir. If you’re a fan of Law & Order: SVU, I would put this on your must-read list.
Thank you NetGalley and Dundurn Press for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
- My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
- Genre: memoir; true crime; non-fiction
- Highlights: personal experience, police procedures; Canadian
- Warnings: crime; child abuse; domestic abuse; sexual assault; death; homicide; policing
- Author: Steve Ryan
- Publisher: Dundurn Press
- Pub Date (US): October 11, 2022
- Author Website: https://www.dundurn.com/authors_/t156375/p148941-steve-ryan
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