A Charlie Salter Omnibus

Michael Payne is head of the Research and Publications Program at the
Historic Sites and Archives Service, Alberta Community Development, and
the co-author of A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan.

This is a reissue of the first three Charlie Salter mysteries: The Night
the Gods Smiled (1983), Smoke Detector (1984), and Death in the Old
Country (1985). It is a little over 20 years since Inspector Charlie
Salter of the Metropolitan Toronto Police made his literary debut, and
these three novels still seem remarkably fresh. This is a tribute to
Wright’s skill as an author, but also to his shrewd decision to cast
Salter in the role of a police-force everyman.

Charlie Salter does not exhibit the sexual, alcoholic, or psychological
excesses of many other recent police fiction stars. Instead, he appears
before us as a full and plausible character, but one marked by a stalled
career, problems with his difficult but curiously appealing father, sons
with adolescent worries, and a very tolerant wife. Where other fictional
cops might drink themselves legless or start ill-omened affairs with
unsuitable partners, Salter frets about how to repair screen doors and
the propriety of sending his sons to private school on his wife’s
family money. Career, family, and home repair issues stand the passage
of time very well.

These are police procedurals, but of an unusual type. The murders all
take place offstage and are not described in any detail. Forensic clues
are almost non-existent. Salter rarely interrogates suspects and never
engages in shootouts or high-speed pursuits of lawbreakers. Moreover,
the mysteries are genuinely puzzling. The very idea that a university
professor might become the object of a murderous rage while attending
what used to be called—with no sense of irony—the Learned Societies
Conferences, is a wonderful plot device that animates The Night the Gods
Smiled. Smoke Detector and Death in the Old Country proceed from equally
quirky premises. It is as if Ed McBain suddenly turned into Agatha
Christie, and the unexpectedness of this reversal of type adds great
appeal to the novels.

The Charlie Salter books must rank among the best series of mysteries
ever published in Canada. This omnibus is a great way to introduce Eric
Wright and Charlie Salter to a new generation of readers.