The High Road

From the hunt for killers to a reckoning with his own profession, one of Canada’s leading homicide detectives takes readers inside the cases that defined his career—and the conflicts that tested his convictions.

At ten years old, Hank Idsinga knew what he wanted to do with his life. Determined to become a homicide detective, he spent his youth preparing for a job that would demand more of him than he could ever have imagined.

From his earliest days in an ill-fitting suit to his rise through the Toronto Police Service, Idsinga earned a reputation for sharp instincts, painstaking investigation, and compassion. He understood that the work meant more than catching a killer. It also meant sitting across from a mother and telling her that her son would never come home.

Alongside a team of seasoned detectives, Idsinga helped investigate some of Toronto’s most notorious crimes, from the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba to the serial murders committed by Bruce McArthur. With a keen eye and exceptional recall, he pieced together motives, followed elusive leads, and spotted the crucial details that could break a case open.

But some of the hardest truths Idsinga encountered lay within the institution he had dedicated his life to serving. With striking candour, he takes readers behind the scenes of Canada’s largest municipal police force, revealing tensions rarely aired in public and experiences that tested his faith in the profession he loved.

Gripping, deeply personal, and unflinching, The High Road explores what it takes to solve a murder, the toll of confronting violence, and the challenge of holding your own profession to account.