The Banting Enigma: The Assassination of Sir Frederick Banting

Steven Greenhalgh is the research librarian in the Department of Public
Health Sciences at the University of Alberta.

The mysterious true death of Canadian scientist Sir Frederick Banting in
a plane crash in 1941 Newfoundland serves as the inspiration behind this
wartime novel, William Callahan’s first work of fiction.

Set predominantly in Newfoundland, the beginning chapters highlight
World War I preparations undertaken to defend the island colony against
the threat of war. We meet Karl Otto Stroesser, just one of many German
spies operating in Newfoundland who is taken into custody and eventually
returned to his native Germany in a prisoner exchange. The story then
moves ahead to World War II where German agent Stroesser has returned to
Newfoundland and, with the aid of Nazi sympathizers, proceeds to murder
and sabotage. One of his victims is Major Banting, whose views on
biological warfare have attracted the attention of Adolf Hitler’s
Abwehr and thus made Banting a target for the Nazi agents.

Callahan is a capable author, and the premise behind his novel is an
interesting take on real historical events; nevertheless, the book has
several shortcomings. The title suggests that Banting’s death will be
the intended focus of the novel, but his planned assassination by German
agents is just one of many missions undertaken by the saboteurs. The
story would have been better had its main themes—Banting’s death,
the threat of undercover Nazi agents, and the significance of
Newfoundland in the overall war effort—been better integrated.
Chapters heavy with descriptive prose detailing wartime preparations
need to be lightened so that the book reads more like a work of fiction
than a historical text. Finally, Callahan’s desire to remain true to
actual events is commendable, but greater imagination and
resourcefulness with events as they happened, in addition to more
dialogue, would have benefited the story. In spite of the flaws,
however, The Banting Enigma is an innovative take on Canadian history.