"V" is for Vodka Doesn’t Freeze by Leah Giarratano

"V" is for Vodka Doesn’t Freeze by Leah Giarratano – For the letter “V” in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme hosted by Kerrie Smith on her blog, Mysteries in Paradise, I have read a book from Kerrie's homeland, Australia.

Sgt. Jill Jackson of the Sydney Police is assigned to investigate the murder of a man found in some brush on a cliff overlooking a pool frequented by children. It is instantly apparent to the Police that he was a paedophile.

There is no regret in the police that he has been killed. Some officers would prefer not to aggressively investigate a murder of a man they despise.

On her return home Jackson, thinking of the investigation, suffers a panic attack as she remembers being kidnapped and brutalized as a child by her captors. When she comes home she obsessively checks her house to be sure there are no intruders present.

Clinical psychologist, Mercy Merris, is unraveling. She has spent too much time counseling the victims of paedophiles. The private clinic where she works has unsuccessfully attempted to get her to restrict her practice

Jackson knows and admires Merris who had treated her. She worries about what is happening to the psychologist.

In her police unit Scott Hutchison, a big bluff outgoing man is Jackson’s partner very supportive of her. Her nemesis is Elvis Calabrese a big, overweight offensive man. Each is almost a caricature. I do not make light of the challenges of women in police services but there is no subtlety to these men.

In a review of outstanding cases Jackson notes a pair of murders of men in the Sydney area. It does not take long to determine someone is killing paedophiles.

Much of the book focuses around paedophiles and their connections with each other. Reading about them is difficult, often repellent. In reading the book I wondered whether they could be anything but evil in fiction. Could a writer show any aspect of their lives in a positive way?

I admire Giarrantano for writing about a mystery involving paedophiles. I doubt there is a harder subject.

With the investigation turning into the hunt for a serial killer Jackson is conflicted about diligently pursuing the killer. Should the police go after a vigilante eliminating men who hurt children?

At the heart of the book for me was the question whether a paedophile can be a victim if he is murdered? Does the predator become victim when murdered?

I thought of Michael Connelly’s character, Harry Bosch. For 20 years he has lived by the motto that everyone matters or no one matters.

 

Michael Connelly, on his website, has an interview from 2002 between himself and his character, Bosch. In that interview Bosch explains his philosophy:

 

    HB: Look, I’ve always said that everybody counts or nobody

    counts. I choose the former over the latter. Everybody counts.

    That goes just as much for the boy on the hill as it does for every

    person that was in the World Trade Center or in the Pentagon or

    on those planes. I’ve never had a problem keeping my eyes on

    the prize. Not this case or any of the others before it.

 

Bosch will not value one person’s life over that of another person. He is widely admired for his commitment to all victims. By this creed the murder of a paedophile is the same as the murder of any other person.

If we decide victims can only be good people we play God on whose lives and deaths have worth.

To her credit Jackson seeks out the killer. She is a true officer enforcing the law rather than making judgments on whose deaths deserve her efforts to solve their murders.

Publishers are squeamish about the issue of murdered paedophiles as victims of crime. On the back cover they would far rather talk about Jackson seeking out living paedophiles participating in a ring than her responsibilities as a homicide detective to find a murderer of paedophiles.

If you like Hollywood you will enjoy the ending to the book.

I was glad I read the book. It did leave me disturbed and thoughtful. I expect it will be some time before I read another book focused on paedophiles. (Aug. 25/13)

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My connection to this book comes from spending time in Sydney three years ago while my son was on a university exchange to that fine city.

Three Major Cases in the 20th Century Illustrate the German Legal System

Whether in real life or fiction I am always interested in how legal cases are conducted. Starting with a class in legal history in law school through the 38 years I have been practicing law I am familiar with the Anglo – Canadian – American systems of justice. I know much less about the legal systems of continental Europe. Over the past 5 years I have had a chance to read books on a trio of German cases that span the 20^th Century. They have provided with me with the chance to see how Germany’s justice system has dealt with cases drawing great public attention.

TheButcher’s Tale by Helmut Walser Smith dealt with a murder in 1900 when a 19 year old student, Ernst Winter, was killed and dismembered in Konitz, West Prussia. Rumours soon swirled through the town that he was the victim of a Jewish ritual murder.

The blood libel remained strong in the minds of the townspeople despite centuries of efforts by churches and government to convince the populations that it was a myth and had no substance.

The Prussian Government sent in investigators who pursued leads involving Jewish and non-Jewish residents of the community. While not well done the investigators were not swayed by the majority of the population who were sure of Jewish culpability. (The author told me less than 50% of murder cases were solved at that time.)

It is not easy to conduct a neutral investigation amidst public certainty of guilt no matter how little evidence exists.

The Prussian Government went further in protecting the Jewish community. Twice army units were sent to the town to maintain order.

By 1932 the German justice system was being threatened by the rise of the Nazi party. While not yet in power they were ignoring the law and violently attacking Communists throughout Germany.

Crossing Hitler by Benjamin Carter Hett features a fearless German lawyer, Hans Litten, who, as permissible under German law, joins as the legal counsel for the victims in the prosecution of SA Nazi storm troopers charged with assaulting Communists at a party at the Eden Dance Palace.

Litten manages to get Hitler summoned as a witness to try to explain the dichotomy between the Nazi Party publicly stating it would only pursue power by legal means and the actions of the SA in attacking people on the streets of Germany. Hitler is provoked into a profound rage and is fortunate not to have been convicted of perjury. Of all the “what ifs” of 20^th Century denying Hitler power I wonder if he would have been denied power had he been found guilty of perjury.

While Litten draws attention to the Nazis and fights them skillfully in court the legal system is perverted when the Nazis come to power. Hitler has recognized that an independent legal system cannot be trusted to allow him to carry out his plans. Litten is arrested and imprisoned in a concentration camp where he loses hope after 5 years and commits suicide.

In 1992 the assassination of four Iranian Kurdish activists in Berlin forces the German legal system to face the challenge of politically directed murders being committed in Germany by the Iranian government.

My last post, a review of the Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian, discusses the background to the killings and the 4 year long trial of those killers who were arrested before they could exit Germany.

It is clear German prosecutors and judges will fairly try the accused but will political considerations be allowed to usurp the judicial system. Will the desire for greater trade with Germany lead her politicians to make a deal with Iran that does not implicate the Iranian government and will either let the killers go free or receive nominal punishment? To the credit of Germany there is no deal.

As the trial wound down I was struck by the plea, late in the trial, by some of the accused that they should not be punished as murderers as they were just following orders. While Hakakian did not reflect on the attempted justification I thought it must have stirred all the Germans. They would not have forgotten how, in the Nuremburg War Crimes trials after WW II, the effort by German defendants to deflect responsibility by claiming they were just following orders was specifically rejected.

In the beginning and end of the 20^th Century the German legal system reached just results in high profile cases. Political and racial considerations were not allowed to influence the decisions. Unfortunately, for Germany and the world in between those cases the Nazis were able to corrupt its judicial system so there were no checks on their murderous impulses.

Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian

Assassins of the Turqouise Palace by Roya Hakakian – Late in the evening of September 17, 1992 three men entered the Mykonos Restaurant in Berlin while a driver waited for them in a black BMW. They went to a private dining area in the back of the restaurant where Kurdish exiles from Iran were meeting to discuss political actions. After cursing the diners as “You sons of whores!” the leader of the intruders opened fire. Four men died.

Each chapter is headed by a quote from Iranian satirist, Hadi Khorsandi and the quote for For Chapter relates to killer’s remark:

Terrorists nowadays! It’s not enough that they kill you; they must also insult you as they do it.

The other quotes equally have a bite to them.

The Kurds of Berlin and the rest of Europe were immediately convinced that the murders were committed by agents of the Iranian Intelligence Services who were killing Iranian dissidents around the world who had been marked for death by the late Ayatollah Khomeini.

German police are less certain. The German government would prefer that the killers were part of the armed section of the violent Kurdish PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party).

While the killers swiftly exit Germany the other two members (Youseff Amin and Abbas Rhayel) of the killing quartet need time to ready themselves to leave the country as they require new passports. Intelligence tips from Britain and the BfV (the federal office for the protection of the constitution) lead the police to the pair and they are arrested before they can depart the country.

The organizer and financier (instructions and funding came from Iran) whose cover was a Berlin grocer (Kazem Darabi) was also arrested.

Once in custody Youssef , the watchman for the killers, provides valuable information on the assassination.

Bruno Jost, the federal prosecutor, assigned to the case is a dedicated, meticulous, incorruptible lawyer determined to build a case not only against the arrested trio but the Government of Iran. He assembles 187 volumes of evidence.

While the actual evidence of guilt is overwhelming many Kurdish exiles doubt there will be a trial. There have been too many examples in Europe during the 1980’s of governments either perfunctorily investigating the deaths of Iranian dissidents or making deals that allow them to go back to Iran. With Germany becoming Iran’s largest European trading partner there is great pressure within the German government to quietly make the prosecution go away.

The laying of the charges is a triumph for the integrity of the German Department of Justice.

While the roles and actions of the lawyers were of the greatest interest to me a large section of the book is focused on the lives of leading dissidents and Shohreh Dehkordi, the widow of Noori Dehkordi, one of those slain.

Amidst doubt the killers would be tried and then doubt there would be an actual verdict the activists persevered in publicizing the case and participating in the trial.

The actual trial consumed 4 years with the court sitting two days each week. I had not known that a major German criminal trial would involve 5 judges. The questioning is essentially done by the judges. It is a torturous process though, when there are judges of ability, there is a thorough examination of the evidence.

There were lawyers for the victims who, under German law, take part in the case. Hans Ehrig provided years of representation pro bono for the victims.

The book provided a great view of how a German trial patiently searches for the truth.

I would have preferred the author to concentrate on one of the groups rather than trying to the stories of the victims, the prosecutors and the lead judge. Telling all the stories diluted the focus of the book.

As I read the book it was like a good mystery. There were bad guys being controlled by a dangerous foreign power. There were victims essentially powerless in the swirling machinations of international politics. There was a dedicated prosecutor and an honest head judge. The intrigues and twists near the end of the trial rival those of skilled writers of crime fiction.

I found myself eager to know if there would be a verdict. Would the trial be prematurely ended by negotiations between the Iranian and German governments?

Having just finished The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver which dealt with the U.S. Government arbitrarily killing those it identifies as its enemies in foreign lands it was very interesting to see how the issue had been dealt with in a trial a generation ago in Europe when it was the Iranian government which was arranging and carrying out the killing of its citizens outside Iran.

I had forgotten about the murderous actions of the Iranian government though they were but 20 years in the past. Iran was rightly condemned. What will history say about America 20 years from now?

Hakakian has written a good book. In my next post I shall discuss this case and two other German cases spanning a century. (Aug. 21/13)

Tracking Past and Present



James Laurenson as Bony in the T.V. Series with a modern means
of tracking, the airplane, and his traditional personal observation

The art of tracking is both similar and vastly different between Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield in 1945 and Trackers by Deon Meyer in 2011.

The tracking is comparable when it involves the examination of human tracks in rural areas. Whether the 1940’s or the 2010’s the tracking involves a person observing and assessing the imprints.

Bony explains the basic difference between rural and urban tracking:

I leave the body to a uniformed constable, and the cause of death to the doctor and the coroner, and to the experts at headquarters I leave fingerprints if any, the weapon, if any, and objects more closely associated with the crime. In a city the scene of a crime is confined to a room, an office, a flat, and, if on a street, to a space within a few feet of the body.

Here in the bush the scene of a crime is extended far beyond the immediate locale. Someone has had to go to the scene of the crime in order to commit it, and, afterwards, to leave the scene of the crime. As the criminal does not grow wings, he needs must walk, and he does not walk about without leaving tracks of his passage for me to see. To the city detective his fingerprints: to Bony his footprints. So you will now understand how it is that I am much more interested in the ground outside a house or hut or camp than I am with the interior.

Bony uses the training of decades and the skills of his aboriginal ancestors in examining tracks.

In Trackers there is tracking in the bush by men using the same skills Bony used almost seven decades ago. I am acquainted with tracking prints left upon ground.

My father was a trapper which meant he was a tracker. In an ever more urban world there are not many today who can distinguish which animals made the tracks they see upon the ground. I am far from being a skilled tracker but I learned some basics of tracking from my Dad such as where to look for animal tracks. You need to search where you would expect animals to be based on terrain, food sources, shelter offered and the quickest safest and most efficient way to travel through an area.

The title to Trackers in Afrikaner translates to spoor in English. It is an apt word for traditional tracking which looks to the traces left behind.

What has changed significantly, even in rural tracking is the use of technology to aid trackers.

In Trackers I noted 26 different types of tracking. They were tracking of vehicles in rural areas by anticipating roads, tracking done by teams of cars following cars, tracking of vehicles by transmitters placed upon them, tracking on foot in the city by visual contact,  tracking of people by observation from nearby buildings, tracking of telephones with electronic intercepts, tracking through talking with friends and enemies, tracking through sleeping with a source and listening to pillow talk, tracking through informants within organizations, tracking through computers searching the world wide web, tracking through the satellites continually orbiting the earth, tracking through reading newspapers and magazines for information on those being tracked, tracking through searching government records, tracking through breaking into buildings, tracking through searching desks and computers, tracking through the mind with skilful questions and brutal demands for knowledge, tracking through the sharing, often reluctantly, of information between powerful organizations, tracking through careful examination of financial records, tracking through the sources of funds in bank accounts, tracking through hidden microphones, tracking through the closed circuit cameras that inhabit every city, tracking through the examination of personal public records, tracking through the study of bodies and tracking through examination of wallets, clothing and other personal items.

Modern trackers would be lost without all their electronic devices.

Yet current technology has its limits. In Murder One by Robert Dugoni the investigators deal with footprints leading up to the window of a home through which a killing shot was made. The investigators try to determine size from computer analysis of the size of the tracks and distance between steps. I expect Bony could have told them by his experience. I believe he would have gleaned more information about the killers if study of the tracks had been left to him.

The powers of observation and reflection are less prized by modern crime fiction trackers. In our instant world we want answers and analysis instantly. Good trackers need patience to find the tiny signs that let the tracker follow their quarry. Bony often takes the time to sit down, make and smoke a cigarette, and deliberate about what he has seen. Few modern trackers pause to think.

“U” is for Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield

 
"U” is for Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield (1945) – For the letter “U” in the Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme being hosted by Kerrie Smith at her fine blog, Mysteries in Paradise, I am posting a review of a Napoleon “Bony” Bonaparte mystery by the Australian author, Arthur Upfield.

It is another Bony mystery set in the vicinity of a prominent Australian geographic feature. Death of a Swagman takes place in and around the Walls of China in the southwest corner of New South Wales. On the opening page Upfield describes the area: 

The colour of the country is reddish-brown, and upon this reddish-brown land the soft fingers of the wind built a wall of snow-white sand some twelve miles long, three quarters of a mile wide, and several hundred feet high.

In The Will of the Tribe the Wolf Creek Meteorite Crater in Northwest Australia had been featured in the book. 

Bony arrives at the small town of Merino some six weeks after the

death of swagman, George Kendall, at a hut adjacent to the Walls of China. Where modern crime fiction perpetually emphasizes the importance of the first 24 to 48 hours after murder in conducting the investigation Bony is unperturbed about arriving weeks later. 

For this investigation he chooses to slip into town as a stockman, with the name of Robert Burns, looking for work. Only after being arrested as a vagrant does he reveal his official status to Sgt. Richard Marshall of the local police detachment. Bony consents to a sentence of 10 days in the local jail during which time he will paint the police compound fence, whitewash the cells and have the chance to talk to the residents as a casual stranger rather than a police inspector.

There are interesting local characters led by Mr. Jason, a former Shakespearean actor, who owns the garage. Merino is so small he is also the Justice of the Peace dispensing justice, the town undertaker carrying the deceased to the cemetery in a spectacular hearse and presiding over the coroner’s inquest. 

Among the touches that mark the book as set almost 70 years ago is the role of tobacco. Almost everyone smokes. Bony does a lot of thinking while rolling his own humpbacked cigarettes. The community times how long it will take Mr. Jason to exhale great draughts of pipe smoke. 

The ever shifting sands of the Walls of China are at the heart of the detection of the book. Bony’s skills as a tracker are evident throughout the story. It is a physical art lost to all but a few current detectives. My next post will compare the trackers of the past and the present. 

What modern detective could discern that faint straight lines in sand showed a clever killer was covering his tracks by using a flail for the wind creates curved lines in the sand. Only man produces straight lines. 

There is also a fascinating explanation of the use of noughts and crosses or X’s and O’s to provide information. 

Bony is always professional in his investigations. He sets out the problem with emotional involvement by the police:

Many young detectives, and older ones too, are too liable to the emotion of indignation because of a brutal killing. They accept such a crime as a personal matter and so permit their judgment to be clouded by animosity towards the killer.  

Would that the fictional police of today avoid the righteous indignation that fuels so many of them? 

The book differs from earlier Bony mysteries I have read in having a strong child character. Little Rose Marie is a spirited and clever girl. 

The strength of the book is in the investigation. Unlike The Bone is Pointed or The Will of the Tribe or The Bushman Who Came Back it does not venture into the relations between white and aboriginal Australians. As always there are some passages that will make a contemporary reader cringe but I accept them as a reflection of that era. 

While the solution ventured into the bizarre I enjoyed the book. I find Bony a remarkable character.

 

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My earlier posts on Arthur Upfield and his books are:

Upfield, Arthur - (2011) - Cake in the Hat Box; (2011) - The Widows of Broome (2011) - "U" is for Arthur Upfield; (2011) - The Bushman Who Came Back; (2012) - The Will of the Tribe; (2012) - The Battling Prophet; (2012) - "U" is for Arthur W. Upfield; (2013) - The Bone is Pointed; (2013) - Q & A with Stan Jones on Nathan Active and Napoleon "Bony" Bonaparte - Part I and Part II

 

My First 500 Posts!

With my last post about the National Historic Site of Batoche and its connection to The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault being my 500^th post I have been reflecting on the 500 posts and being a blogger.

I had wanted to create a place on the worldwide web where readers of mysteries could have information on mysteries set in the province of Saskatchewan and the authors of those mysteries.

I am glad to have posted reviews of 28 mysteries set in Saskatchewan and will shortly be filling in a gap with a review of A Political Addiction as part of my post for “W” in the Crime Fiction Alphabet meme.

Saskatchewan authors, Anthony Bidulka and Gail Bowen, have generously responded to questions which have made for interesting Q and A posts.

I created a page for the Rest of Canada which, together with my participation in the Canadian Book Challenge for the last 2 years, has broadened my reading of Canadian mysteries. I have now committed myself to reading at least 13 books by Canadian authors each year.

I doubt I would have had the pleasure of reading L.R. Wright had I not started blogging and been looking for Canadian mysteries.

As a lawyer whose practice includes a substantial amount of criminal and civil litigation I enjoy reading legal mysteries. I have not come across another blogger who puts together a list of legal mysteries. I think there are more good legal mysteries being published now than ever.

The introduction of the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction has added to my focus on legal mysteries. I will shortly be reading Havana Requiem by Paul Goldstein which was the 2013 Prize Winner.

I set up a page in which I discuss mystery bookstores I have visited. I have been alittle disappointed that the page is not often visited. I fear the lack of page views is an illustration of the decline in bookstores.

While my focus is on mysteries I continue to read non-fiction and put up reviews of those books. I find I need some non-fiction amidst the crime fiction to maintain my reading interest in mysteries.

I have chosen but one book reading challenge, the Canadian Book Challenge, each year as I feel I would be too restricted in my reading if I was taking part in multiple challenges.

I have enjoyed the memes hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise. She is an amazing blogger. Taking part in the Crime Fiction Alphabet memes has been great fun. For last year and this year I adopted themes. Last year each letter was a post of an author I had read. This year I am putting up a post about a book or an author or a crime topic with which I have a personal connection. I admit the letter “X” which is looming is proving a challenge. I do not seem to have many connections with “X”.

The most unexpected joy has been meeting virtually fellow bloggers from around the world. I never expected to make new friends through blogging. I am always impressed by the depth of knowledge and kindness of the bloggers and readers I have met through the web.

An unexpected bonus has been making comments on other blogs and getting comments on my blog. The indefatigable Margot Kinberg of Confessions of a Mystery Novelist has been a welcome and constant commenter. I am amazed how many places she travels to in the world of blogging while maintaining her superb daily posts.

I have found I neither have the energy nor inclination to put up daily posts. I admire those bloggers who have that dedication. If I can average 3 posts a week I am content.

The post which has garnered the most page views is “N” is for Stuart Neville. The image of “N” I borrowed from Kerrie’s blog somehow ended up on Google images for “N”. Blogger tells me there have been 17,354 page views of the post and counting. One of the ironies of the world of blogging is that my most popular post has nothing to do with the content of the post.

I started blogging as I wanted to talk about books. The first 500 posts have been fun. I look forward to more blogging adventures.

Batoche and The Third Riel Conspiracy

I think it is fitting that my 500th post on this blog is about Saskatchewan. Batoche is my favourite historic place in Saskatchewan.

The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault, which I reviewed in my last post, is focused on the major battle of the Riel Rebellion at Batoche in 1885. Batoche was at the heart of the Metis community in the Northwest Territories of that time. (In 1905 the province of Saskatchewan was created out of territory that included Batoche.)

The Metis settlement around Batoche had grown up in the 1860’s and 1870’s. The settlers created long narrow farms moving away from the Saskatchewan River in the style of early Quebec farms. The Metis of that era were great hunters and annually went south for buffalo until the buffalo were almost exterminated.

The Metis people were the descendants of intermarriage between French fur traders and the Indian inhabitants of the prairies.

A variety of grievances, including the fear their farms would not be recognized by the Government of Canada because they did not conform with the grid being surveyed, caused the Metis, led by Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont to rise in revolt.

The Rebellion did not last long mainly because the Metis political leader, Riel, would not allow their military leader, Dumont, to fight when and how Dumont wanted to take on Canada.

The founder of Melfort, Reginald Beatty, had just homesteaded in 1884 in the area that would become Melfort. During the Rebellion he was a scout for the Canadian forces and a negotiator persuading Indian communities not to join in the Rebellion.

The Third Riel Conspiracy is excellent at describing Batoche and the surrounding area. It is a beautiful spot on a bend in the South Saskatchewan River.

The site is almost unchanged in the past 128 years. There is no development around the site. To travel there is to go back in time.

The church and rectory have remained intact with some bullet holes in the rectory to mark its role in the battle.

The photograph above shows the view from the cemetery on the riverbank looking towards the church and rectory.

I first visited the site 45 years ago. My father had a keen interest in 

An aerial view showing the Saskatchewan River in the background

Western Canadian history and knew men who had participated in the Rebellion.

Over the years I have made many visits to Batoche with my family and visitors to our area. Each visitor has said going to Batoche made history come alive for them.

In 1985 my Dad and I attended the centennial celebration of the battle. At the official event the Red Cross donated the flag flown by that organization during the battle. It was the first time the Red Cross had raised their iconic flag on a battleground.

I am glad that Legault set his second book in the Durrant Wallace series at Batoche. Every NWMP of that time had some participation in the Rebellion.

For any reader crossing central Saskatchewan in the summer a trip to the National Historic Site of Batoche will be a worthwhile stop.

While a place of battle and death it is now a serene site. I feel a sense of peace whenever I visit Batoche.

"T" is for The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault

The Third Riel Conspiracy by Stephen Legault - It is 1885 in Western Canada when the Riel Rebellion, equally referred to as the Northwest Rebellion is under way in the heart of what is now Saskatchewan and then was part of the Northwest Territories.

The Third Riel Conspiracy is my entry for "T" in the Alphabet in Crime Fiction meme hosted by Kerrie Smith at her blog, Mysteries in Paradise.

NWMP (Northwest Mounted Police which is the original name of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) Sargeant, Durrant Wallace, is on duty in Calgary.

He has just returned to duty after losing part of a leg and having a hand severely injured.

 Despite his physical restrictions Durrant is eager to participate in the Rebellion and feels stuck in Calgary, a boomtown of tents and new buildings, growing rapidly on the prairie. When the forces advancing on Batoche, the small community on the South Saskatchewan River at the centre of the Rebellion, are ambushed his superior sends Durrant a wire to come to help the Canadian forces.

The headstrong Durrant ignores a further wire saying he need not leave Calgary.

By the time he arrives at Batoche the final battle is over and the Metis forces have been routed. In the midst of that battle a Regina teamster, Reuben Wake, has been murdered in the zareba where the Canadian forces are camped. 

A captured Metis fighter, Terrence La Biche, has been arrested for the murder. He had in his coat pocket the Colt revolver used to shoot Wake.
 While Sub-inspector Dickenson is content to close the investigation Durrant finds the accusation implausible and starts an investigation. 

Thought it is a time when forensic science is very limited and there is not a lab in the territory Durrant applies the science of the day to the investigation.

Mainly he explores the lives of those involved and, in so doing, sets out the history of Western Canada that led up to the Rebellion. In my next post I will go into some of the history and my personal connections with Batoche. For those readers unacquainted with Canada it will provide a basic understanding of our past.

What is striking is how the investigation takes Durrant over a significant part of what is now Saskatchewan, eastern Alberta and northern Montana.

Participating with him is a young woman, Charlene Louise Mason, separated from an abusive husband. Their relationship feels more modern than late 19th Century.

The conspiracies are more plausible than the usual fictional conspiracies.

It is an interesting book. I liked the plot which deals with a time and place with which I am very familiar. The mystery is capably set up. At the same time the dialogue did not capture me. There was too much of the characters' personality and appearance in their actions and role in the plot. Wake is such a dark character it is hard to imagine how he could have survived in the real world. I wanted the book to be better because of its subject and location. In the end, I found it an average book. It is worth reading. I intend to read another Wallace mystery to see if the other book in the series is beyond average.

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My connection with the book comes from its location in Batoche which is about 120 km from Melfort and is my favourite historic spot in Saskatchewan.

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The Third Riel Conspiracy is the 2nd book of 13 I have read in the 7th Canadian Book Challenge hosted by John Mutford at the Book Mine Set blog.