JUST RELEASED! And here we have the rarest of books, Mon Ami: a brand new thrilling adventure of Canada’s famous North-West Mounted Police! BARCLAY OF THE MOUNTED.
The Northwestern
When Jack London created the Northwestern Genre with the release of THE CALL OF THE WILD in 1903, he knew he had given the world something new. But even Jack didn’t know he had created a Genre — both factual and fabled — that would dominate bookshelves, magazine racks and movie theatres for the next fifty years.
Hollywood movie posters and New York pulp magazine covers promised us “Awe-inspiring drama of the great Northwest where men die for the women they love!” “No uniform more feared in action, no men more loved in peace…than Canada’s Heroic Mounties!” “Gene and Champion help stamp out Rebellion in Canada’s violence ridden backwoods!” “Action and Thrills along the Trail of the Mounties.” “A band of Northland outlaws learn the price of greed.” “Northern Bush – tough country to track river pirates in!” “The Law Ends – Where the North Begins!”
In the Nineteen Twenties and Thirties, when Northwesterns thrived, a number of authors made a rich living on the Genre that Jack built: Ralph Connor, James Oliver Curwood, James B Hendryx, William Byron Mowery, A De Herries Smith and Samuel Alexander White. Most of ’em wrote about the Canadian Mounties — all of them about the vast Northern wilderness.
The last hurrah for the Northwestern was in the Fifties, in the characters of Sergeant Preston and his wonder dog Yukon King — in comic books, radio and TV. “On you huskies!”
And then the Northwesterns were gone.
Well, not completely. Some writers have appeared with new characters. And their rousing deeds in the wild mythic Northcountry.
Like the brand new (as of this writing) BARCLAY OF THE MOUNTED: From the Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Barclay VC DSO MC (Retired). Written by Stephen Gaspar.
About Stephen Gaspar.
Stephen Gaspar and his wife Susan live in Windsor, Ontario, across the Detroit River from Motown. He has two grown sons and two grandsons.
A retired teacher, Stephen now writes Historical Mysteries.
His published Mysteries include THE CASE OF THE EMPTY TOMB: Tribune Claudius Maximus, THE MEDIEVAL ADVENTURES OF THOMAS AQUINAS, GIVE ME THE DAGGERS: A Macbeth Murder Mystery, and THE TEMPLAR AND THE TRUE CROSS.
He has written some Holmes and Watson Detective stories including THE CANADIAN ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (the seventh story, “Murder on the CPR,” introduces the celebrated Henry Barclay, subject of this book review) and COLD-HEARTED MURDER: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery, also including an appearance by Barclay.
BARCLAY OF THE MOUNTED
Henry Barclay is a brave, honourable and handsome man meant for great deeds — just ask him. Full of himself, for sure, but a man of valour for all that. In his career he will stand up to dangerous whisky peddlers, out-and-out outlaws, proud First Nations leaders (he will meet Chief Poundmaker, who calls him “Bear-Claw,” twice) and stand his ground in the Mounted Police boxing ring for the Force’s Championship).
As a member of the newly-formed North-West Mounted Police, Henry Barclay arrived in the chaotic Canadian West in 1874.
In one of his first confrontations, he stops four whiskey traders. One of them shoots Barclay in the chest. Barclay, acting as if nothing happened, arrests the shooter and heads for Fort Walsh for trial. Both the arrested man and the Mountie’s guide, Messier, “eyed me strangely but said nothing.”
And so Henry Barclay begins his distinguished career. He will serve alongside Mounties such as Sam Steele. James Walsh. James Macleod. And meet any number of rascals and murderers.
It’s an episodic novel, taking place over 25 years. It’s an intelligent yarn, knowledgeable of our national history and told with gentle humour.
The scene where Barclay wakes up one quiet morning, stretches, yawns, and steps out of a tent is a kind of memorable movie moment: the lone Mountie will soon be meeting Sitting Bull and thousands of Sioux. It’s just after the Battle of Little Big Horn.
And then there’s the Mystery of the Missing Prime Minister. How could Sir John A MacDonald disappear off a speeding steam train? Especially when Barclay and Lady MacDonald were outside, riding on the cowcatcher. (But the author plays fair and gives good clues. Which this reader missed.)
Fittingly, BARCLAY OF THE MOUNTED ends in the Klondike Gold Rush. It was here that the worldwide news coverage made our North-West Mounted, with their summer gear of red serge jackets and military-style broad-brimmed Stetsons or winter furs and dog sleds, famous. Becoming the Mythic Mounties.
There are strange things done in the midnight sun. Barclay and his faithful sled dog Byron go into the Yukon wilderness to bring in Sawtooth Mike Crook, a “mad prospector,” known to most as a gentle giant. Who proves to be anything but a gentle man. And Arctic trails have their secret tales…
It’s a personal thing of course, but I’ve always liked the immediacy of First Person. It works especially for humourous fiction and mysteries. And works for this first volume of Memoirs of Major-General Sir Henry Barclay VC DSO MC. Retired.
If you love Mountie Fiction, as I do, as well as Historical Detective Mysteries, check out this one!
To see all of Stephen’s Historical Mysteries, go to Amazon’s Stephen Gaspar Page.
