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Murder in the Chilcotin by Roy Innes (NeWest $19.95)
Roy innes' third inspector Coswell mystery, Murder in the Chilcotin, investigates the murder of a young Mountie, the son of a local rancher in the West Cariboo. Its genesis was multi-faceted.
"For years now,"; says Innes, a Gabriola Islander, "I've been part of a senior citizen foursome of moose hunters camping out in the Chilcotin back country and since I wanted a sharp contrast to the urban setting of West End Murders, this magnificent, wild part of our province was ideal.
"It was after reading Rich Hobson's Grass Beyond the Mountains and seeing the actual homesteads described in the book, that the plot developed in my mind. I was already fascinated with RCMP and First Nations' history. So it all came together.";
Entering a racially charged world of cattle, logging and marijuana crops, Inspector Coswell and newly promoted Sergeant Blakemore soon learn about the so-called Chilcotin War of 1864 that resulted in the hanging of Five Tsilhqot'in aboriginals.
in the early 1860s, alfred Waddington launched a bold plan to build a faster route to the Cariboo goldfields, via Bute Inlet, south of Knight Inlet. In 1861, Waddington sent his surveyor Robert Homfray to Bute Inlet to examine the feasibility of a "gold road"; or toll road from the mouth of the Klinaklini River, into the Homathko River Valley, and then onto Barkerville.
Aboriginals were forewarned they would die of smallpox if they interfered. In response, eight members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) First Nation attacked one of Waddington's work camps in the Homathko Canyon in 1864 and killed 14 members of the survey expedition. The overall death toll rose to nineteen white men and four aboriginals by year's end.
Five Tsilhqot'in aboriginals (Klatassin, Tellot, Tapitt, Piem and Chessus) were sentenced to death by Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie in a Quesnel court and hanged at Quesnellesmouth. A sixth man was later hanged in New Westminster.
"Since the Chilcotin uprising is relatively recent in a historical sense, it is well documented in provincial and federal archives,"; says Innes. "A simple way of reviewing these is through an excellent educational site: canadianmysteries.ca. The background for my plot virtually flowed from those pages.";
The Chilcotin War, as it became known, remained a divisive racial issue in British Columbia for more than a century. Eventually the NDP government of British Columbia formally apologized for the territorial infringements of Waddington's men, as well as the procedural shortcomings of the trial and hangings.
Waddington was still lobbying for his Bute Inlet route to the Cariboo when he died at age 71-fittingly, of smallpox-- in Ottawa in 1872.
As a break from his novels, innes also writes short stories and one, Sheila Pritchard, was shortlisted for the John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award 2009.
978-1897126691
[BCBW 2010]
"For years now,"; says Innes, a Gabriola Islander, "I've been part of a senior citizen foursome of moose hunters camping out in the Chilcotin back country and since I wanted a sharp contrast to the urban setting of West End Murders, this magnificent, wild part of our province was ideal.
"It was after reading Rich Hobson's Grass Beyond the Mountains and seeing the actual homesteads described in the book, that the plot developed in my mind. I was already fascinated with RCMP and First Nations' history. So it all came together.";
Entering a racially charged world of cattle, logging and marijuana crops, Inspector Coswell and newly promoted Sergeant Blakemore soon learn about the so-called Chilcotin War of 1864 that resulted in the hanging of Five Tsilhqot'in aboriginals.
in the early 1860s, alfred Waddington launched a bold plan to build a faster route to the Cariboo goldfields, via Bute Inlet, south of Knight Inlet. In 1861, Waddington sent his surveyor Robert Homfray to Bute Inlet to examine the feasibility of a "gold road"; or toll road from the mouth of the Klinaklini River, into the Homathko River Valley, and then onto Barkerville.
Aboriginals were forewarned they would die of smallpox if they interfered. In response, eight members of the Tsilhqot'in (Chilcotin) First Nation attacked one of Waddington's work camps in the Homathko Canyon in 1864 and killed 14 members of the survey expedition. The overall death toll rose to nineteen white men and four aboriginals by year's end.
Five Tsilhqot'in aboriginals (Klatassin, Tellot, Tapitt, Piem and Chessus) were sentenced to death by Judge Matthew Baillie Begbie in a Quesnel court and hanged at Quesnellesmouth. A sixth man was later hanged in New Westminster.
"Since the Chilcotin uprising is relatively recent in a historical sense, it is well documented in provincial and federal archives,"; says Innes. "A simple way of reviewing these is through an excellent educational site: canadianmysteries.ca. The background for my plot virtually flowed from those pages.";
The Chilcotin War, as it became known, remained a divisive racial issue in British Columbia for more than a century. Eventually the NDP government of British Columbia formally apologized for the territorial infringements of Waddington's men, as well as the procedural shortcomings of the trial and hangings.
Waddington was still lobbying for his Bute Inlet route to the Cariboo when he died at age 71-fittingly, of smallpox-- in Ottawa in 1872.
As a break from his novels, innes also writes short stories and one, Sheila Pritchard, was shortlisted for the John Kenneth Galbraith Literary Award 2009.
978-1897126691
[BCBW 2010]
Submitted on November 10, 2010 in By David.
