Holt City, Alberta, 1883. The railroad is under construction to unite Canada from sea to sea. A foreman on site has been murdered, and the North West Mounted Police send Sergeant Durrant Wallace to investigate. Wallace is desk-bound after having lost a leg and the full use of his right hand to frostbite, so with the help of an assistant he sets out from Calgary to investigate the case.

I liked the setting and the fact that Wallace is an actual police detective. (My tolerance for amateur sleuths has dropped significantly… give me a copper any day). However, I stopped reading and then couldn’t be bothered to find out whodunnit. I do now want to read The Last Spike, by Pierre Berton, and of course none of the Berton books are available in my library’s electronic catalogue :( ( )