A Canadian outdoorsman senses that he’s been reincarnated from an earlier age in this novel by Martin.

Martin (Taming Spirit, 2024) makes valiant attempts here to pull off a complex blend of historical fiction and psychological thriller. The novel begins in Alberta where Hartman Meyer, the oldest boy in a family of five, obsesses with exploring the lagoon that runs between his family’s farm and the neighbor’s property. When he travels the water, he looks for chert, a hard, opaque rock that the area’s first peoples used to make spearheads. He makes his own spears, but they can’t rival a genuine serrated spearhead that he finds—one that seems oddly familiar to him. In 1974, when Hartman turns 12, the wealthy Barrymore family moves in across from the Meyer farm. Like Hartman’s family, the Barrymore’s have three children, one of whom, Elizabeth, tickles Hartman’s fancy. But her older brother, Tyrone, is a bully. One day, while in a canoe in the lagoon, Tyrone slingshots lead balls at Hartman’s face and then paddles at full speed at him. Hartman holds his spear at the ready, and when the two boys connect, he drives it deep into Tyrone’s “soft belly” then pulls it out, and drops it into the lagoon. Hartman tells investigators it was the pole he used to push his raft that splintered and killed Tyrone by accident, but he knows it was murder, and he’s haunted by nightmares.  Eventually, Elizabeth convinces him to go to a hypnotherapist to learn more about his nightmares, and then the book takes a dramatic shift back into the past. (Hartman’s therapist tells him he’s lived past lives.) Martin’s prose is elegant throughout and features well-developed characters and believable conversations. The author’s sense of humor also cuts through, such as when Hartman and his brother christen their watercraft “the Piss Cutter” and “relished the vulgarity that rolled off our tongues.” The descriptions of western Canada’s landscape will make readers want to pack their bags and head north. The therapy sections of the book also benefit from Martin’s many years as a psychotherapist.

A sophisticated but unsettling childhood mystery that appeals to both the head and heart.

In Martin’s western novel, the black sheep of a feuding family finds his own way among outlaws.

In the early 1890s, teen Alex Logan lives in the small, hard town of Loganville in the Northwest Territories of Canada—a town inhabited primarily by his clannish, ill-natured relatives. Alex is the family’s whipping boy, for reasons he doesn’t understand until he learns, as a teenager, that his mother is a member of a hated rival family, the Currys, who are responsible for the death of several Logans. As the feud heats up again, Alex’s father sends him to work at the Bar U cattle ranch to steer clear of the hostilities. There, under his newly adopted name of Alex Curry, the teen cares for the ranch’s horses and becomes particularly close to a feisty stallion named Spirit. He also gets to know a notorious American horsebreaker (and sometime bandit) named Harvey Hellman—the so-called Laramie Kid. Harvey gives Alex a nickname: Kid Curry. Alex makes a life for himself on the ranch, but when a mistake forces him into a kill-or-be-killed situation with one of his co-workers, he’s forced to flee for his life. The Laramie Kid presents him with an alternative career path: “ ‘You do know how we make a living when we aren’t working the local ranches?’ Laramie said. ‘Robbing banks?’ I asked. He grinned. ‘Well, I guess you tell it the way you see it, Kid Curry, and sometimes it’s trains too.’ ” Martin does a convincing job evoking the violence and cruelty of the cowboy era while still including the more romantic aspects, including noble outlaws, beautiful milkmaids, and life-affirming friendships between man and horse. The novel was inspired by the years the Sundance Kid spent at the historical Bar U Ranch in the early 1890s, and fans of the folklore surrounding Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid will enjoy this gripping and well-paced offshoot, a reminder that Alberta was a part of the Old West as much as Montana or Wyoming.

An immersive Western coming-of-age story.

A historical novel set in 1870s Canada that examines the heights—and limits—of privilege.

James McGinn, the son of a prominent government official in Canada, studies medicine at Trinity College in Toronto. James, however, isn’t much interested in studying, as he’s preoccupied with the leisure and social aspects of college life; he even cheats on an exam using a stolen answer key, along with his friend Stephen Woodward. Of course, when he’s caught, he denies any wrongdoing and, with Stephen, attempts to burn the evidence—and the home of the professor who caught him, inadvertently killing the professor in the process. James’ well-connected father tries to shield him from justice by forcing him and Stephen to flee and join the Northwest Mounted Police in its dangerous mission west across the Canadian frontier. Martin’s clear writing stands out in two notable ways. His own background as a game guide and field officer for Alberta Forestry, Lands and Wildlife will often give readers the feeling that they’re traveling through the countryside with the characters, feeling the “clouds of mosquitoes” or seeing ducks nesting in the reeds and mud of ponds. The evolution of James throughout the book is also consistent, as he starts off as entitled and oblivious to his own privilege and the damage it causes others and slowly realizes that his actions have hurt others and cost him people he cares about. In particular, his acknowledgement that he negatively influenced Stephen’s ability to pursue his dreams is a powerful moment of self-reflection of which he wasn’t capable earlier. Also, he meets Paniya, a First Nations woman who becomes the stabilizing force in his life. Their relationship leads to a powerful moment of clarity that represents a dramatic change from the selfishness of his youth.

A descriptive tale that effectively chronicles a journey toward selflessness.