A partial list of those identified includes the following names. Please take a moment to read them all.
IN MEMORIAM4
List of minors (under age 21) buried in St.-Jean-de-Dieu Asylum Cemetery, 1933–1958
Date/First Name/Surname/Age
04/26/33 —Anonymous child — (a few hours)
02/17/35 — Anonymous child —
03/29/35 — Marie May Saint-Laurent — 17 years
05/07/35 — Marie-Jeanne Bisson — 14 years
11/23/35 — Pugliesse — 1 day
02/04/36 — Joseph Paul Adélard — 2 days
11/07/36 —Marie Cronier — (while being born)
11/18/36 — Anonymous child — 2 days
01/21/37 — Joseph Monette — 1 day
05/09/37 — Maria Kaziniera Tayer — 1 day
05/26/37 — Marie Germaine Thérèse Isabelle —1 year and 8 months
08/22/37 — Martin Dufour — 8 years
12/05/38 — René Sauriol — 17 years
12/18/38 — André Piché — 7 years
01/06/39 — Gaétan Lapointe — 9 years
02/25/39 — Child of unknown parents — 0 years
04/15/39 — Marie Roséline Léonard — 3 years
07/27/39 — Florence Smith — 19 years
12/26/39 — Joseph Richard Caddington — 1 year and 9 months
08/14/40 — Jean Paul Godmaire — 3 years
12/14/40 — Anonymous male child — 0 years
08/17/41 — Jean-Louis Francoeur — 13 years
10/17/41 — Stillborn child —
12/20/41 — Lucien Couture — 3 years
01/20/42—Dieudonné Parent—15 years
03/07/42 — Stillborn child —
05/30/42 — Thérèse Caron — 15 years
05/31/44 — Anonymous child —
06/01/46 — Pricille Vallières — 20 years
08/11/46 — Thérèse Rancourt — 17 years
05/27/47 — Huguette Latour — 7 years
10/24/47 — Child of Eva Brière and Daniel Forgues — 5 days
11/12/47 — Simone Racette — 18 years
03/28/49 — Jacques Millette — 16 years
04/18/49 — Georgette Fontaine — 6 years
06/03/49 — Yvon Mader — 9 years
07/17/50 — Yvon Aubé — 10 years
02/07/51 — Jean Noël LaLonde — 7 years
07/05/51 — Stillborn male child Bilodeau —
07/09/51 — Antoine LaMarche — 9 years
06/04/52 — Wilfrid Bélair — 13 years
07/07/52 — Female infant Allard — 0 years
03/11/53 — Lise Fitzgerald — 11 years
12/17/53 — Serge Potvin — 9 years
07/15/54 — Léon Jean Fugère —
11/26/54 — Marie Barbeau — 8 hours
04/30/57 — Stillborn male child —
04/24/58 — Royal Fournier —19 years
10/04/58 — Anonymous male child — 4 days
They deserve to not be forgotten.
1 Collusion: The Dark History of the Duplessis Orphans
2 www.freedommag.org/english/press/page07.htm
3 www.montrealgazette.com/health/Quebec+government+asked+disclose+Duplessis+orphan/6619543/story.html
4 Extract from Saint-Jean-de-Dieu Hospital burial registry, Québec Superior Court, 1966–19.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
For giving me a wonderful creative home to live in when I’m in Montréal, my thanks to the Leblanc family, owners of the original Théo d’Or.
Much gratitude and love to Lukas Ortiz of the Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency: your name, mi amor, is synonymous with perseverance! And many thanks to my fabulous editors at St. Martin’s/Minotaur, Kate Ottaviano and Daniela Rapp, as well as copyeditor Rebecca Maines, who improved this novel by light-years.
As always, thanks to my first readers, Carem Bennett, Marion Hughes, and Dianne Kopser. Carem has been my first reader for more years than I care to remember, and is a steadfast source of support and love. You’re all the best, and give me far more than I deserve.
Finally, thanks to Rod Vienneau, spokesperson and advocate for the remaining Duplessis Orphans and author of Collusion: The Dark History of the Duplessis Orphans.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JEANNETTE DE BEAUVOIR is an award-winning author, novelist, and poet whose work has been translated into twelve languages and has appeared in fifteen countries. She explores personal and moral questions through historical fiction, mysteries, and mainstream fiction. Home is an old sea captain’s house on the tip of Cape Cod, although she spends some part of every year in Montreal and in Great Britain. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
ASYLUM. Copyright © 2015 by Jeannette de Beauvoir. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photographs: girl © Mohamad Itani / Arcangel Images; building © mnapoli / Shutterstock.com
eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
de Beauvoir, Jeannette.
Asylum : a mystery / Jeannette de Beauvoir.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-04539-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-4403-2 (e-book)
1. Women detectives—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.E1125A98 2015
813'.6—dc23 2014040208
e-ISBN 9781466844032
First Edition: March 2015
Asylum Page 26