Timely insight raises mystery above dreary tone

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David Adams Richards explores universal themes in his new novel. (BRUCE PETERS)

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Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul

By David Adams Richards

Doubleday Canada, 291 pages, $33

In a small community, the search for the truth is no easier than in the whole world at large. History belongs to those with the power to write it, even if that history is merely the accepted explanation for an unsolved crime.

Like most of Canadian writer David Adams Richards' novels, his new mystery unfolds in the Miramichi Valley in New Brunswick. Through his working-class characters confined to a particular time and place, Richards explores universal themes such as truth, courage, and belonging.

Richards' 2000 novel, Mercy Among the Children, won the Giller Prize and polarized readers, who either loved its straightforward style and profound insights, or hated its dreary, depressing tone and its meeker-than-life main character.

Incidents in the Life of Markus Paul is written with the same sincere hand, although it is slightly more upbeat: perhaps somewhere between Mercy Among the Children and a funeral dirge. Squint hard enough, and you may find moments of humour and grace.

The plot is centred around the suspicious death of a Micmac boy on his first day of work outside the reserve. Hector Penniac is in the hold of a cargo ship when a load of logs comes unhooked and he is caught underneath.

The man who hooked the load was Roger Savage, a stubborn, uneducated white man, a loner, and an opponent of the union. He had arrived late to work, after all the positions in the hold had been filled, the last one taken by awkward, bookish Hector.

As one of the union men remarks, "this just don't smell right at all." In the eyes of the reserve, the adjacent town, and the local media, the case is solved before the day is done. Roger was angry that Hector had taken his place in the hold, and sabotaged the load that fell on the boy.

Whatever people knew about Roger before is revised to fit the new persona of an unrepentant murderer. An ambitious local reporter is eager to take the story, knowing already that "people like Roger were exactly the kind who would destroy people like Hector."

The narrative jumps between 1985, the year of the accident, and 2006, where Markus Paul, a police officer from the same reserve, is haunted by his memories from that year, and determined to solve the cold case.

In 1985, Markus is 15 and largely a bystander as Hector's death becomes a rallying point for past grievances, and demands for action engulf band politics and threaten to escalate into further violence.

Markus's grandfather Amos is the quiet and thoughtful chief, and one of the few people who openly doubt Roger's guilt. However, he became chief thinking "he would be having powwows and ceremonial meets, and exhibition hockey games," and quickly finds himself in over his head.

Soon Amos is chief in name only, as stronger and less patient men vie for the true power on the reserve. Markus faces being labelled a coward by association, or joining the crowd against his better judgment.

In between each chapter, the investigation by the adult Markus progresses, as he brings together details that were forgotten when the democratically accepted version of events became the truth.

As no Richards novel would be complete without a moral or two, we learn the pernicious impact of little betrayals of friends or principles, for fear of being left on the outside. As the old chief muses to himself, "the unending small things that finally killed love in the soul."

It may not be a cheerful novel, but Markus Paul is a solid offering with timely insight from one of Canada's most acclaimed storytellers.

Paul Klassen is a Winnipeg engineer in training.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 14, 2011 J8