A Saskatoon author and former University of Saskatchewan professor looked north to Prince Albert for inspiration for his new historical fiction novel.
Saskatoon author Dwayne Brenna recently released his third novel “The Laundryman” which involves the RCMP solving a murder of a laundryman in Prince Albert in the 1880s.
Brenna said he chose Prince Albert because it has always been an interesting town.
“I think it was especially interesting in 1883,” Brenna said. “It was vying to be the capital of what was then the territories. It had a river running through it, which is something Regina didn’t have. It had lots of lumber to the north of the river, lots of farmland to the south of the river. (There was) every reason to believe that it was going to be a capital of the province.”
Brenna it was happenstance that led him to set his novel in Prince Albert. A friend was researching music halls in what would become Saskatchewan (then the Northwest Territories) and came across an interesting tidbit.
“(It was a) true story about a Mountie who accidentally shot a traveling actor in the foot when they were in the pub in Prince Albert,” Brenna said. “I thought Prince Albert would be a pretty interesting place to set a murder mystery, particularly a murder mystery involving two mounted policemen.”
That gave him the setting for the novel, as well as its opening. The book begins with two mounted policemen, Belvedere and Montgomery, who are travelling from Battleford to Prince Albert through a winter snowstorm to help solve the murder of a laundryman.
The book falls into many categories, Brenna explained. He said that at McNally Robinson in Saskatoon it is being sold as a Western, historical fiction and murder mystery.
The Laundryman by Dwayne Brenna is a new Historical Fiction novel that has its location as Prince Albert.
“(It’s) all three of those things put together,” Brenna said.
“What I was really interested in was writing something about the Western frontier, and I guess that makes it a Western and historical fiction, maybe more than a murder mystery, but certainly the murder mystery is central to the book.”
He said that he has been a fan of the Western genre for a long time and is a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s television work and the Longmire television series.
“Typically, if you write a Western, it’s generally set in the American West, often the American Southwest and it struck me that this was lovely new virgin soil, really, to be able to write a Western set in northern Saskatchewan in the middle of a snowy winter, something that probably hasn’t gotten a lot of airplay from publishers, especially publishers down in the states.”
He said he himself places it as Historical Fiction.
“I’ve written three books now of historical fiction. My first book was called New Albion, and it’s set in London, England in 1851. My second was a piece called Long Way Home, and it was set in 1934, and it involves a traveling baseball team riding through the Midwest, and playing baseball against local town teams, and then now, of course, this book.”
He said that the emphasis on the genre is always the fiction side. He said the history gives it a sense of place, but the book cannot become a history lesson.
“In fact, I’ve played a little bit with dates and so forth to make the fiction come alive,” he said. “The emphasis is truly on the fiction and not on the history.”
Brenna was a drama professor at the University of Saskatchewan by trade until he retired. He directed at least one show a year, and taught acting and theatre history. He also taught creative writing in the English department at the university as well.
Brenna said that the book is available in all fine bookstores as well as at the website of the publisher Shadowpaw Press.
“As far as I know, any bookstore in the world can get it in if they don’t have it already on hand,” Brenna said.
Brenna explained that Prince Albert at the time the novel takes place makes for an interesting setting because people do not generally think of it as a frontier town, which is what it was.
“I think there were so many great things happening there,” he said.
As part of his research, Brenna found a thesis written by Gary Abrams in the 1960s. The book by Abrams is the famous Prince Albert: The First Century, 1866-1966, which is used as a great resource for historical research on the city.
“It was just so full of detail that I put into the book, here and there, wherever it needed to happen,” Brenna said. “It’s an underrated place, but I think Canada generally in the Western genre is underrated and not given much airtime in that genre.”
His own research led him to discover that Abrams may not have even visited Prince Albert until after the thesis was already being written.
“Of course, he did afterwards, and the head of the history department at the time was a rather famous professor named Hilda Neatby who I think had made a contract with various communities around the province. For a little financial support, she would make sure that local histories were written, and I think this history by Abrams was part of that contract that Hilda needed to be created,” Brenna said.
Brenna hopes people enjoy the book, which has already become popular.
“I just thought it’s a darn good read. I hope people like it,” he said. “I’ve been getting lots of good feedback. It’s currently on the best seller list for the second month in a row at McNally Robinson here in Saskatoon. I hope it can keep up that best seller thing going.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
