He is one of Canada's best-known novelists, whose first book, Needles, which drew on his experiences as a criminal lawyer, won the McClelland & Stewart $50,000 Seal Award.

[1] In 1997 he won the Dashiell Hammett Prize[2] for literary excellence in crime writing in North America for Trial of Passion.

[5] Deverell's nineteen published novels also include High Crimes, Mecca, The Dance of Shiva, Platinum Blues, Mindfield, Kill All the Lawyers, Street Legal, Slander, The Laughing Falcon, and Mind Games.

[6] Snow Job, a political satire, was named in The Globe and Mail as one of the top crime books worldwide in 2009.

He hold a D. Juris from that university, where he has been an invited lecturer in the Shumiatcher series on Law and Literature and was honoured at its College of Arts and Sciences' centenary in 2009 as one of its 100 alumni of influence.