Reviewed by Keith Foster

Armed with a Master’s degree in history from the University of Regina, KEITH FOSTER worked in the Prairie History Room of the Regina Public Library and was on the board of the Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society when it launched Folklore in 1979. He had two articles published in the first issue, and a few more since then.

When not researching or writing about Saskatchewan’s history, Keith writes book reviews, poetry, and plays. So far, Regina Little Theatre has produced four of his one-act comedies – Domestic Bliss, The Gazebo, The Super Shoe Sale, and The Ghost of Wascana Lake.

Swedes’ Ferry

by Allan Safarik

Published by Coteau Books, 2013

$19.95

ISBN 978-1-5050-561-0

Swedes’ Ferry is a double-barrelled adventure tale, and author Allan Safarik lets loose with both barrels blazing. His novel has a cast of colourful characters, some based on actual historical people, such as North-West Mounted Police Commissioner Lawrence Herchmer.

The search for a tall man who robbed a bank in Bismarck, North Dakota, killed the manager, and galloped away on a stolen powerhouse of a horse, leads two Pinkerton detectives to Regina in 1894. There they try to enlist the aid of the imperious Herchmer, who proves unco-operative. Their break in the case comes from two attractive “spies” operating in a brothel above a Chinese restaurant. These ladies have a reputation for “producing results.”1 After all, one of them declares, “There’s no place information flows like in bed.”2

Safarik describes Regina in 1894 as “an over-governed town that in no way could be described as picturesque. In the spring it was a mud wallow, in the summer a dusty, fly-specked gulch. There followed a blip of fall and then a long, frigid winter that almost defied description.”3

Safarik infuses his story with subtle bits of humour, as when Commissioner Herchmer confiscates liquor belonging to Pinkerton detective, Jiggs Dubois, but assures him that “It will be disposed of in a suitable fashion.”4 Herchmer also plans to deposit any written application for information that Dubois may request in the appropriate place – the dead letter office. The tall man is aided by Bud Quigley, an astute horse trader, who brokers the deal of a lifetime with James J. Hill, president of the Great Northern Railway and owner of the First National Bank that was robbed.

In reference to the title, a ferry, operated by two Swedish brothers, plays a pivotal role in the tall man’s attempt to retrieve his hidden stash of $44,000.

Safarik details an awesome array of weapons – a twin-barrelled derringer, designed to fit easily in the palm of one’s hand, a pair of Merwin Hurlbert revolvers, and the Volcanic Repeater handgun – often carried freely across the Canada-United States boundary.

A recurring theme that pops up throughout the novel is the prominence of houses of ill repute that seemed to pervade the prairies. Dubois, for instance, left two of his minions “in a cathouse in Bismarck, where they had gone in search of leads.”5 For entertainment in Bottineau, North Dakota, “they had taken to visiting the local [brothel] on a daily basis.”6

The novel has some rough language, which one would expect from such rough men frequenting shady businesses, who have a personal score to settle with both Quigley and Leslie Simpson, also known as Tall Bob.

With a background as a poet, Safarik has a flair for creating stark images, such as “the sun was a bloodshot grapefruit on the wistful horizon,”7 or the Souris River “meanders across the prairie like a slowly uncoiling snake,”8 or pant legs that “were frozen stiff as stovepipes.”9

This historical novel with its non-stop action has more twists and turns than a switchback trail. And an ending that will knock your boots off.

THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE OR FROM WWW.SKBOOKS.COM

References:

1. Allan Safarik, Swedes’ Ferry, (Regina, Coteau Books, 2013), p. 104.

2. Ibid., p. 130.

3. Ibid., p. 116.

4. Ibid., p. 126.

5. Ibid., p. 73.

6. Ibid., p. 106.

7. Ibid., p. 7.

8. Ibid., p. 61.

9. Ibid., p. 218.