Synopses & Reviews
Victoria, 1869. The ramshackle capital of British Columbia, the last colony in North America, where a few thousand settlers aspire to the values of the Victorian age while coexisting beside the native Indians that vastly outnumber them. That peace is challenged when a mutilated body is discovered: Dr. McCrory, an American alienist whose methods include phrenology, Mesmerism, and sexual-mystical magnetation.
Chad Hobbes, recently arrived from England, is the policeman who must solve the crime. At first it's assumed the murderer was a Tsimshian medicine man, Wiladzap, who has already been arrested. It would be easy for Hobbes to let Wiladzap swing for the murder, but his own interest in an Indian woman causes him to look at the case in more detail. And once he does, he discovers that everyone who knew McCrory seems to have something to hide.
Published by a small Irish press, The Devil's Making was the surprise winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel. Its detailed depiction of a frontier where the cultures of Native Americans, Americans, Europeans, and Asians clashed offers a fresh view of a little-known historical era.
Review
“An absolutely worthy winner. … Haldane makes the reader feel as if theyve has been dropped into the daily lives of those living in 1869-era Victoria, and refuses to shy away from the truth in favor of a more politically correct approach to historical fiction.” —Sarah Weinman,
The National Post"Truly an extraordinary narrative of 19th century detective work. … Haldane's ability to bring to life 19th Century British Columbia and portray with such fine precision the attitudes, prejudices and beliefs of the period is a remarkable achievement. The Devil's Making is a page-turner written in exceptional prose with elaborate and exciting descriptions of the inhabitants and locales of pre-confederation Vancouver Island." —Ottawa Review of Books
About the Author
SEAN HALDANE was born in England, grew up in Northern Ireland, and moved to Canada where he lived until 1994. He now lives in London, England. He has worked as a psychologist and neuropsychologist, mainly in memory clinics, in Canada and in the UK, most recently as Head of Neuropsychology in the NHS in East London. He is author of psychology books, literary studies, and poetry.