Donna Whalen’s black handbag contained $9.78 on the night of her death. The purse sat next to her corpse on the living room floor of her St. John’s apartment, where she lay in a pool of blood, stabbed 31 times. Whalen’s murder is the centrepiece of Michael Winter’s new work of “documentary fiction,” a moody and affecting novel about weighty subjects: social class, addiction, and police coercion.

Though names have been changed, The Death of Donna Whalen is based on an actual 1993 murder case. Equal parts forensic investigation, character study, and political commentary, the book places the seasoned novelist in a role almost more editorial than writerly: Winter created the work by condensing and rearranging court testimony, television reports, and the transcripts of wiretap recordings from the criminal investigation. Winter transposed quoted speech into the third person but otherwise left it intact, preserving each individual voice and showcasing the rich linguistic distinctiveness of Newfoundland English.

Donna Whalen’s daily routine included shoplifting items for resale and acquiring prescription pills from a network of physicians and clinics. Her boyfriend, Sheldon Troke, occasionally lost his temper – he once smashed the windshield of Donna’s car with his fist – but in most cases only when high on cocaine. When straight, he happily babysat Donna’s two young children while she partied late at bars with friends. The night Donna died, each of her neighbours heard an altercation. But the accounts are contradictory, and it becomes clear that some witnesses were pressured by police. Despite conflicting testimony and a lack of hard evidence, prosecutors target and convict Troke for Whalen’s murder.

Almost 50 people take the stand – from young Sharon Whalen, who discovered her mother dead, to Leander Dollymont, a gay con artist who claimed Troke confessed the crime to him after a jailhouse tryst. Winter intentionally frustrates the reader, assembling the testimony in such a way as to create a chorus of chaos, paranoia, and disorientation; the result is that it’s impossible to know whom to believe.

The truth about Whalen’s demise is revealed in the book’s final pages, providing readers with enough detail to easily locate the real-life historical record. But The Death of Donna Whalen stands on its own as a literary effort that conjures a potent sensation of disquiet out of the grim details of an actual tragedy.