Book Review: The Red Power Murders by Thomas King

Over the years Thomas King has made it his business to jump across borders that separate countries, cultures, professions and literary genres. Born in the U.S. to Greek and Cherokee parents, King has lived and worked in Canada since 1980. He currently teaches English at the University of Guelph, Ontario, but is well known for his CBC radio show, the Dead Dog Cafe, a growing collection of critically acclaimed fiction and engaging works of criticism such as The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. In 2002 he jumped across literary boundaries once more, publishing Dreadfulwater Shows Up, under the pseudonym, Hartley Goodweather. As some predicted, his main character, Thumps Dreadfulwater, was destined to become a series character. Thumps will appear in King's second Dreadful water mystery, Red Power Murders, in March 2006.

The new novel depicts the complex convergence of past and present enemies and friends in the small town of Chinook, South Dakota. When Noah Ridge, a renowned Indian activist makes an unlikely stop in town as part of a book tour, Thumps is hired to photograph the event and is also deputized by the local Sheriff to watch over Ridge. After living and working for many years "under the radar", Thumps is brought face to face with numerous ghosts from his past. From the beginning, we see that he is not comfortable with his situation: he wants desperately to escape, but his rusting Volvo will only start when it wants to; he wants to get warm, but while suffering the snow and wind of a Midwest winter he can’t seem to find a coat that will do the job. His physical and psychological discomfort increases when he is swept into a swirl of old memories, new murders and disappearances. In addition to these crimes, he must also solve -- or at least examine -- the enigma of his own life. King's plot is convoluted and must be held together with a cast of characters that is almost Dostoyevskian in number. However, the story moves along nicely most of the time and the text is studded with an assortment of memorable characters: Duke Hockney is the local Sheriff, old and tough, with a dry sense of humour and very little patience for fools. Moses Blood is a Native elder whose instructive story-telling abilities bring clarity and humour to Thump's troubled mind. The Red Power Murders also brims with familiar and esoteric literary and culture references. Some of these are cleverly expressed by unlikely characters such as Cooley Small Elk, an unemployed security guard who seems to have been modeled after Jasper Friendly Bear (from King's Dead Dog Cafe radio days). In fact, the novel features a number of subtexts and snatches of conversation that could almost have been uttered by some of King's university colleagues. These gentle pokes at academia combined with a more general critique of Red Power Movement (or any movement) politics and personalities give the novel additional depth. While King’s writing holds up better in novels such as Truth and Bright Water and Green Grass Running Water, by writing in a different genre with a new pen name, the author continues to spin stories that are more than the sum of their parts.

The Red Power Murders, 317 pages
Harper-Collins Publishers Limited
Release Date: March 2006