**Best Books of 2016 - Writers' Trust of Canada** **National Post: Bestseller - Non-Fiction** How did Tom Thomson die in the summer of 1917? Was he shot by a poacher, or by a German-American draft dodger? Did a blow from a canoe paddle knock him unconscious and into the water? Was he fatally injured in a drunken fight? Did he end his life out of fear of being forced to marry his pregnant girlfriend? Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the death of the renowned Canadian landscape painter, The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson offers an authoritative review of the historical record, as well as some theories you might not have thought of in a hundred years. Cultural historian Gregory Klages surveys first-hand testimony, archival records, and a century of speculation about Thomson’s tragic demise, attempting to sort fact from legend in the story of this Canadian icon's demise. --- Dr. Douglas Lucas, formerly of the Ontario Centre for Forensic Sciences: "The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction...is, in my opinion, the best of all the books [about Tom Thomson's death] because the author attempts to...trace the many stories back to their actual source. When this is done, and there are very few sources, it becomes clear that there is much more fiction than fact." Dr. Douglas Lucas, A Life of Crime: My Career in Forensic Science (2018) "The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson stands as both a conscientious case study and a larger investigation into what history can and cannot do." Alison Gillmor, Canada's History (2016) "Klages’ evisceration of one prominent Canadian journalist for his irresponsible output on Thomson was almost painful to read: the ruthlessness with which Klages reveals the speculation, sloppy research and unsupported family legend through which the author has polluted the public understanding of Thomson’s story was a tour de force of rigorous history over sensationalizing careerism." Mark Reynolds, Christopher Moore's History News (2016)