Author Linden MacIntyre‘s fascination with British Major General Sir Hugh Tudor has been matched by readers’ interest in his book on the First World War veteran with a tarnished legacy.
“An Accidental Villain: A Soldier’s Tale of War, Deceit and Exile” shot to the top of the original non-fiction list this week and was No. 2 on the Canadian list, beat out only by the work of a certain Mark Carney.
In the Star, MacIntyre wrote that Tudor was considered a hero after serving on the Western Front in the Great War, but “his heroism soured to infamy” after the two years he spent in Ireland commanding the Royal Irish Constabulary, which was charged with defeating the Irish Republican Army and other Irish rebels opposed to British rule.
The conflict resulted in a ceasefire and Anglo-Irish treaty (which in turn led to an Irish civil war), but Tudor’s tactics had made him a target for assassination. He moved to Newfoundland, MacIntyre wrote, where his ”formula for survival … was to keep his head down and his mouth shut.”
“I’ve spent years untangling the mystery of this man’s life, fascinated by the damage he did to others and to himself by his determination to do his duty in a dirty British war,” said MacIntyre, a Giller Prize winner and longtime investigative journalist.
1. She Didn’t See It Coming, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada (3)*
2. We Are All Guilty Here, Karin Slaughter, William Morrow (1)
3. My Friends, Fredrik Backman, Simon & Schuster (16)
4. For Richer for Poorer, Danielle Steel, Delacorte (1)
5. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking (15)
6. Don’t Let Him In, Lisa Jewell, Atria (8)
7. Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Doubleday Canada (11)
8. The Woman in Suite 11, Ruth Ware, Simon & Schuster (6)
9. Broken Country, Clare Leslie Hall, Simon & Schuster (20)
10. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Viking (14)
1. An Accidental Villain, Linden MacIntyre, Random House Canada (1)
2. The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, Penguin (59)
3. One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart (24)
4. Children Like Us, Brittany Penner, Doubleday Canada (3)
5. The Serviceberry, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Scribner (38)
6. Semi Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, Alyson Stoner, St. Martin’s (1)
7. The Old Farmer’s Almanac (2026 Canadian edition), Old Farmer’s Almanac (1)
8. Everything Is Tuberculosis, John Green, Penguin Young Readers Group (10)
9. Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Milkweed (158)
10. Empire of AI, Karen Hao, Penguin Press (3)
1. She Didn’t See It Coming, Shari Lapena, Doubleday Canada
2. One Golden Summer, Carley Fortune, Viking
3. On Wings of Blood (deluxe edition), Briar Boleyn, Mira
4. Every Summer After, Carley Fortune, Viking
5. Finding Flora, Elinor Florence, Simon & Schuster
6. This Summer Will Be Different, Carley Fortune, Viking
7. The Guest Children, Patrick Tarr, HarperCollins Canada
8. Moon of the Crusted Snow, Waubgeshig Rice, ECW
9. Meet Me at the Lake, Carley Fortune, Viking
10. I Hope You Remember, Josie Balka, Simon & Schuster
1. Value(s), Mark Carney, Signal
2. An Accidental Villain, Linden MacIntyre, Random House Canada
3. One Day, Everyone Will Always Have Been Against This, Omar El Akkad, McClelland & Stewart
4. Children Like Us, Brittany Penner, Doubleday Canada
5. Outsider, Brett Popplewell, HarperCollins Canada
6. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act, Bob Joseph, Indigenous Relations
7. The Lobster Trap, Greg Mercer, McClelland & Stewart
8. 52 Ways to Reconcile, David A. Robertson, McClelland & Stewart
9. Lessons From Cats for Surviving Fascism, Stewart Reynolds, Grand Central
10. Anatomy of a Cover-Up, Paul Palango, Random House Canada
1. T Is for Terry, Denise Dias, Noémie Gionet Landry, Scholastic
2. Sunrise on the Reaping, Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
3. Glorious Rivals, Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
4. Magic of the Wizard Dragon (Dragon Masters #29), Tracey West, Graham Howells, Scholastic
5. The Adventures of Super Diaper Baby, Dav Pilkey, Graphix
6. Love You Forever, Robert Munsch, Sheila McGraw, Firefly
7. The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han, Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
8. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle, Penguin Young Readers Group
9. I Survived the Japanese Tsunami, 2011 (I Survived #12), Lauren Tarshis, Chris Chalik, Graphix
10. Karen’s Ghost (Baby-Sitters Little Sister #11), D.K. Yingst, Ann M. Martin, Graphix
1. In Too Deep, Lee Child, Andrew Child, Dell
2. The Cleaner, Mary Watson, Random House Canada
3. Kiss Her Goodbye, Lisa Gardner, Grand Central
4. Holly, Stephen King, Pocket
5. The Housemaid’s Secret, Freida McFadden, Quercus
6. Do Not Disturb, Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen
7. The Tenant, Freida McFadden, Poisoned Pen
8. Missing Persons, James Patterson, Adam Hamdy, Little, Brown
9. Tom Clancy Shadow State, M.P. Woodward, Berkley
10. Wicked Dreams, Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush, Zebra
The bestseller lists are compiled by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited from information provided by BookNet Canada’s national sales tracking service, BNC SalesData.