Saskatchewan, summer 1918. Regina’s new medical examiner has barely taken office when already two cases land on his autopsy table: a young man beaten to death in his uncle’s forge, and human bones found on agricultural land.
Posted at 9:30 a.m.
There is a detail that gives all its interest to this thriller: the medical examiner is actually a young woman, Dr. Lesley Richardson. He is a character loosely inspired by Frances Gertrude McGill, a pathologist who solved several cases in the 1920s and 1930s, which earned him the nickname “Sherlock Holmes of Saskatchewan”.
Author Elisabeth Tremblay creates an interesting gallery of characters around the DD Richardson, like the indefectible investigator Morley Vines, the mixed-race herbalist Nokonis and, above all, Lucinda, the governess and very dear friend of Lesley. There are also a few traditional figures, such as obtuse police chief Abraham Mutch and haughty lawyer McGuire.
Part of the plot is inspired by one of the cases solved by Frances Gertrude McGill. However, the whole is a bit confused, and some springs are a little agreed.
The main attraction of the novel lies in the painting of a society where whites and mestizos rub shoulders, where prohibition creates a new class of criminals, where “wood” continues to attract freedom-loving young men. And above all, a society where women begin to play a more public, more official role, with all the tensions that this can entail.
The pathologist
Elizabeth Tremblay
Flammarion Quebec
304 pages