As the sound of gunfire spreads across the prairies surrounding the Métis community of Batoche, 62-year old Rueben Wake, a teamster working for the North West Field Force, is shot in the head.
The year is 1885 and Métis following Louis Riel have risen up in rebellion against the Dominion of Canada, seeking to have their rights recognized and to protect their livelihoods. In response, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald sends the North West Field Force (NWFF) west to Batoche to suppress the rebellion and bring Riel to justice.
But Wake is not felled by a Métis bullet during the battle. Instead, he is killed at point-blank range with his own Colt revolver inside the NWFF’s zareba, a crude fort erected from crates, wagons and earthworks.
Terrance La Biche, a Métis deserter, is arrested inside the zareba and with Wake’s Colt in his pocket is promptly charged with murder. But for Sgt. Durrant Wallace of the North West Mounted Police, all is not what it seems. As he begins an informal investigation, Wallace, the typical tenacious mountie who lets nothing stand in the way of truth and justice, decides that La Biche is not his man and that Riel is at the centre of three conspiracies that appear to have ties to the upper echelons of Canadian society.
Welcome to The Third Riel Conspiracy, the latest murder mystery from Canmore writer Stephen Legault and his newest story to feature Wallace, who, unlike his stereotypical Mountie peers, has a dark side: physical and emotional scars left following a run-in with murderous whiskey traders, who ambushed and wounded him in 1881, leaving him for dead.
We first met Wallace here in the Bow Valley when he investigated a murder in Holt City – now Lake Louise – in 1884 while CPR construction crews waited out winter.
Wallace, now stationed a year later in Calgary, is sent to Batoche, on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River, to help keep the peace. Once there, the ease with which Terrance La Biche was arrested as the suspect in Wake’s murder tugs at Wallace’s suspicious and curious nature.
With The Third Riel Conspiracy, released by TouchWood Editions March 12, Legault is proving himself to be a writer with an ability to create increasingly complex story lines while at the same time taking readers deep into the history, politics and culture of the time, without sacrificing story.
Even though Riel is the peg from which Legault’s story hangs, the Métis leader only makes two brief appearances during the book. He otherwise remains in the background, a key figure, but kept at a distance.
This was a deft move on Legault’s part. Riel was and still is a larger-than-life individual, the type of man who commands attention and respect, even after death, and a man like that can hijack a writer and a story.
But by keeping Riel at arm’s length, Legault allows readers to stay with Wallace, as he seeks to find Wake’s murderer and resolve the three conspiracies amid revenge, betrayal and political intrigue.
It is this focus on Wallace, combined with a complex, multi-faceted story, Legault’s extensive research and his ability to tell a good story that makes The Third Riel Conspiracy a pleasure to read.
For those who love murder mysteries and historical fiction, Legault will share a portion of The Third Riel Conspiracy at the Canmore Rose & Crown Thursday (March 21) at 7 p.m. during the 2013 rendition of En Vino Novellus: In wine, there are stories.
This annual literary event, also sponsored by Café Books and Canmore Wine Merchants, pairs local books and authors with wine. Along with Legault, En Vino Novellus will also feature Jerry Auld, Short Peaks; Fred Stenson, The Great Karoo; J. Monroe Thorington, The Glittering Mountains of Canada; Katie Mitzel, The Skoki Cookbook and Jerry Kobalenko; Arctic Eden.
Legault will also be at Café Books April 12 for a reading and presentation on the challenges of turning history into fiction.
The Third Riel Conspiracy, published by TouchWood Editions, is available for $14.95.
