A NEW CANADIAN DETECTIVE HERO?

Interview with John J. Barr, author of the new novel Geronimo’s Cadillac
(Kindle Books)

After a controversial career with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, James Morrow Walsh (“Jimmy” to his friends; “that f------g Walsh” to his superiors) was forced to retire. He is living in obscurity when he receives an appeal for help from a 91 year old Blackfoot Indian woman whose only surviving descendent, Rufus Stillwater, has gone missing from…the RCMP. Walsh’s hunt for Stillwater draws him into a labyrinth of Government lies and unseen adversaries and, finally, into the middle of a deadly duel between a terrorist and Homeland Security.

Part whodunit, part thriller and part wilderness survival saga, Geronimo’s Cadillac introduces a Canadian sleuth to rival America’s Dave Robichaud (In The Electric Mist With Confederate Dead), Britain’s Inspector Morse and Sweden’s Kurt Wallander (The Dogs of Riga).

Is J.M.  Walsh, the protagonist of your new novel Geronimo’s Cadillac,  destined to be controversial?

Let’s just say Walsh isn’t most people’s idea of a Mounted Policeman! The RCMP have a well earned reputation as one of the world’s most respectable law enforcement agencies. Of course their clean-cut image been widely caricatured (think Dudley Do-Right). Walsh is a bit of a bad boy, at least in Canadian terms (he is always polite even when kicking a door down). During his police career Walsh broke a lot of rules until they forced him into early retirement. When the story opens he’s living in the middle of nowhere and trying to make a living raising bison. Not very successfully either.

Is the fictional Walsh descended from a real-life Mounted Police icon?

Absolutely. His great-great grandfather, the first James Morrow Walsh, was a founding officer of the old North-West Mounted Police. He won a place in history as the Mountie who (along with two constables) met Sitting Bull when the Sioux fled into Canada after slaughtering the U.S. Seventh Cavalry at the Little Big Horn. “My” Walsh has spent most of his life either trying to live up to his great-great grandfather’s reputation, or live it down.

Any idea how modern-day Mounties feel about “your” Walsh?

It will be very interesting to see. Most of the Mounties I’ve known were interesting, intelligent and complex human beings. Definitely not Dudley Do-Right.

Why do Indians occupy such an important part in your book? And in particular, why the Blackfeet?

Are you saying your character, Rufus Stillwater, the young Blackfoot that Walsh is pursuing, is modelled on Goodstriker?

I’d rather say inspired by.

Straighten us out. Is it  “Blackfeet”, “Blackfoot” or what?

It’s mainly semantics. Americans call the tribal area in Montana the “Blackfeet Indian Reservation.” Canadians call the tribal area in Alberta “the Blackfoot Indian Reserve”. These days it’s more often called the Siksika Nation. The Blackfeet Nation is composed of the Siksika, Kainai and Blood bands in Alberta, and the Blackfeet in Montana. Whites called them Blackfeet, apparently from the words siksinam (‘black’) and ka, the root of oqkatsh or ‘foot’ – possibly a reference to moccasins discoloured by the ash of prairie fires.
The Blackfeet migrated west from the centre of the continent and they’re part of a linguistic group that covers a good part of North America. They have often been described, by whites at least, as “restless, aggressive and predatory” and “constantly at war with all their neighbors, the Cree, Assiniboine, Sioux, Crows, Flatheads and Kutenai. While never regularly at war with the United States, their general attitude toward Americans in the early days was one of hostility.” (http://www.accessgenealogy.com/native/tribes/blackfeet/blackfeetindiantribe.htm )
Any way you look at it, they were people you didn’t mess with.

Where did the title of the book come from?

There’s a country song composed by Michael Martin Murphey and Charles Quarto. I first heard Hoyt Axton sing it years ago and it sent chills down my spine. You can hear various singers perform it on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSveqeRha_A

I am grateful to the copyright holder for permission to quote the lyrics.

What inspired the songwriters?

You’d have to ask them but my sense is that it comes from a famous photograph (above). In June, 1905, the U.S. let the old Chief out of prison at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, where he was being held, basically, as a prisoner of war and posed him in some photographs. The one taken June 11, 1905, has him sitting behind the wheel of what was really a 1904 Locomobile. (Credit: American History magazine 08-04).

Why was Geronimo a hero to Indians (and even some whites)?

He was a natural-born guerrilla warrior who held out against the U.S. cavalry for more than twenty years. The Apaches weren’t finally suppressed until the U.S. Government captured his followers (women and children included) and sent them to a malarial prison in Florida. Even in those days some whites had a bad conscience about him, however, and he was finally released and spent the last few years of his life working for Buffalo Bill Cody’s wild west show.

You’re publishing the novel shortly after the tenth anniversary of 9-11. Is that because it’s about terrorism?

The timing’s just coincidence, but there’s something I’d like to say about terrorism as it relates to Indians.  A lot of people are very ignorant about our history. While they were no angels, American Indians (“Native Americans” as they call them in the U.S.) were victims of Government terrorism as much or more often than they were terrorists themselves. Having said that, the central theme of the story isn’t terrorism. It’s how hard it

Apache prisoners of war en route to prison in Florida

can be for one man to discover the truth about government agencies and live to tell about it.

Is the character named Wind Dancer a hero or a villain?

Like most of us, he’s a mixture. So is Walsh.

Is Walsh modelled on anybody? Like you, for instance?

I’d like to have some of Walsh’s good features and none of his bad ones.

Are you a critic of the “War on Terror”?

Terrorists exist and we need security agencies to deal with them. Having said that, security agencies are bureaucracies that sometimes make mistakes, abuse their powers and cover up the truth. Walsh isn’t opposed to security agencies, just to some of the bad things they sometimes do.

Can we expect a sequel?

How could I not write a sequel? The Russians have Arkady Renko, the Navaho have Jim Chee, the English have a whole raft of police inspectors (Morse, Frost, etc.) not to mention Hercule Poirot, southerners have Dave Robichaud. Even the Swedes have Kurt Wallender.

Are Canadians less deserving of a sleuth who is totally Canadian?And who better than an ex-Mountie?

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Reader Reviews:

“Witty. Gritty. Intelligent. Possibly not politically correct. Barr weaves a tale that is part history, part adventure and part exploration…Curling up with Geronimo's Cadillac is as enjoyable as catching up with one of your most charismatic and adventurous old childhood friends on a rugged and wild Western quest for redemption and resolution filled with intrigue, desperation, suicidal pursuit and personal exploration.” (Jennifer T, Vancouver)

“For  those of us who grew up ‘out West’, Geronimo’s Cadillac serves up a veritable magic carpet ride back to the sights, smells and feeling of the Rocky Mountains and environs… What made it especially hard to put the book down was Barr’s masterful blending of history — both geographic and political—with such rich characters who offered humour, defiance and complexity  within this rough-and-tumble thriller…Highly recommended.” (Sarah T., Washington, DC)

“A real page-turner!  Suspense builds as James Morrow Walsh, cop turned bison rancher with the heart of gold, searches for the missing and enigmatic Rufus Stillwater. Adversaries abound and the quest is action-packed, full of twists, turns, and surprises.  One cannot help but love the stoic, serene and commanding persona of Leona White Wolf, the elderly Blackfoot Indian woman who hires Walsh.” (A.C., Edmonton)

“It kept me reading early into the morning. Barr has woven a tapestry of questions, and eventual answers, that keep the reader engaged while offering insights into the geography of the west, some dry Canadian self-deprecating humour from Walsh, a sometimes bittersweet blossoming romance and finally a satisfying yet still open conclusion.” (L.B., Vancouver)

“If you like your fiction politically correct, Geronimo’s Cadillac probably isn’t for you…but if you’re looking for action it could be right up your alley.....action-packed, and moves along quickly. I won’t give away the ending, but it’s worthy of a Hollywood movie. An attack helicopter, hand-to-hand combat with a bear, and a perilous mountain trek in the dead of winter. All in a day’s work for this retired Mountie.” (Jeremy Twigg, Vancouver)

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