Susan Juby – Respect for the butler

Susan Juby interview segment
Produced by Trevor Marc Hughes

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Catching crime fiction writer Susan Juby in between marking sessions at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo where she instructs in fiction and creative non-fiction, she told The British Columbia Review how her books, the most recent being Contemplation of a Crime, give the reader a sense of justice being done, via the time-honoured character of the butler. “A lot of us get very devoted to our detectives,” Juby says. “So there’s a little bit of a parasocial relationship with your detective. You sort of glom onto them and think, aaahhh, I’m in the hands of this particular person and I can see the world through their eyes.” In this case the detective in question is “buddhist butler and reluctant investigator Helen Thorpe.”

The British Columbia Review Interview Series is grateful for the support of Creative BC and the Province of British Columbia to produce a second round of interview segments as part of ‘Beyond the Lower Mainland: The BC Author Video Road Trip.’

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Trevor Marc Hughes was a freelance arts reporter at CBC Radio from 1997 to 2007. In and around that time he worked as a researcher and associate producer on documentary and current affairs programs that aired on Knowledge Network, The Discovery Channel, and Discovery Health, and were produced by Transatlantic Films, the UK’s oldest independent film production company. His own documentary projects include The Young Hustler, a film he produced and directed, about his grandfather’s days operating a Fraser River tugboat during The Great Depression. He has recently uploaded his interviews with Craig Taylor, Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa, Nancy J. Turner, Wiley Wei-Chiun Ho, Catherine Clement, and Graeme Menzies.

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The British Columbia Review

Interim Editors, 2023-26: Trevor Marc Hughes (non-fiction), Brett Josef Grubisic (fiction)
Publisher: Richard Mackie

Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board now consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies. The British Columbia Review was founded in 2016 by Richard Mackie and Alan Twigg.

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