The Lawman: Adventures of a Frontier Diplomat.

The evocative front cover depicting a lone man mounted on a horse leads to a pat assumption: this book tells the story of an Alberta Mountie. But that’s not so. Author Lynne Stonier-Newman, fresh from researching the history of the British Columbia provincial police force, returns her readers to those frontier days to tell the life story of Frederick Hussey, superintendent of the police from 1891 to 1911. Hussey’s exploits on the back of a horse—he was a known horseman and successful racer—serve as an invigorating counterpoint to a life spent wrestling with the minutiae of running a police force: endless correspondence and telegrams, unsupportive superiors, government intrigue, and inadequate legislation.

Hussey was superintendent at a time when British Columbia was changing dramatically from a sleepy frontier to a bustling province. The police force was expected to impose law and order on mining towns, British upper class, immigrants, gold seekers, and First Nations, all of whom had their own values, schedules, and accepted laws. One story placed Hussey, unarmed, in a cell with a violent offender, calmly talking the man down. Another showed him at the epicentre of the Victoria smallpox epidemic, and another at the Point Ellice Bridge collapse. Although presented in a somewhat saccharine heroic light, the insight into Hussey’s personal life, particularly his tempestuous marriage, offsets the story and allows readers a wonderful view of British Columbia’s social, economic, and political life at the turn of the century.

The most striking—and surprisingly successful—facet of this biography is its style. Eschewing basic narrative, Stonier-Newman pours this history into a novel, complete with dialogue, character flaws, and setting. While the reader never forgets that this is a history book, it is nonetheless refreshing and allows the story to flow smoothly. Luckily, the author was able to access Frederick Hussey’s scrapbook and journal, in addition to archival correspondence, photographs, and letters that no doubt provided the myriad of characters and details the author brings to life.