At 8:20 a.m., June 13, George Bullay finishes his soft-boiled egg, toast and coffee, butts his cigarette in the ashtray, washes his hands, picks up the garbage and takes it to the waste disposal closet at the end of the hallway. At 8:25 when he opens the door he is aghast to see the nude, lifeless body of his neighbour, Zelda Greenless, a knife plunged into her back.
So begins the 1975 murder mystery Death in Don Mills by novelist Hugh Garner (1913- 1979) who in 1963 received a Canadian Governor General’s literature award. Garner briefly lived in quiet, sedate Don Mills and thought it boring and in his book enjoyed misrepresenting it as hedonistic – booze, illegal drugs, illicit sex. The book was published by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. The Toronto public library system has one copy only, at the Toronto Reference Library, Yonge and Bloor, which must be read there. Death in Don Mills | Toronto Public Library | BiblioCommons
Garner and his parents moved from England to Canada when he was six. His father abandoned the family and Hugh grew up in poverty. The Canadian Encyclopedia says: “Garner led a hard-living lifestyle that fed his writing. To the end he smoked and drank and was abrasive.”
The crime scene in the mystery is a fictional address, 1049 Don Mills Road, a little south of Lawrence Avenue East, across from what today is the Shops At Don Mills.
“1049 Don Mills Road is a high-rise apartment building much like those in the suburbs of any big city. It is surrounded by shopping plazas, gas stations, supermarkets, public libraries, schools, and a steady stream of commuter traffic that connects it to the downtown core. Life goes on as monotonously as anywhere else in the world.”
The story continues: “Just before 9 a.m. at police headquarters downtown the phone on Police Detective Inspector Walter McDumont’s desk rings.” It’s a cop from Don Mills’ police station. “Hi, Ernie, what are you reporting? A stolen bicycle?’ But minutes later, speeding through the city he wonders what a nice town like this is coming to.”