Wayne Arthurson is the author of several novels and several books related to First Nations peoples. He grew up on an Army base, in Alberta. His parents are of Cree and French Canadian descent. Quill & Quire published an op-ed by Arthurson on December 19, 2018, where he commented on the surprising phenomenon that novels by non-aboriginal authors, who write about First Nations peoples are far better known than First Nations authors. He pointed out that only Jessie Cox made the top fifty of Goodreads' Native Americanmystery novels list. In an interview with Shelagh Rogers, on CBC Radio, on March 27, 2020, he talked about escaping prejudice for being of First Nations heritage, because his heritage is not obvious to a cursory examination.
Fiction
Arthurson's first novel, Final Season, published in 2002, is set in a First Nations community that faces profound environmental change, due to a new hydroelectric project. Arthurson has two mystery series he works on, in addition to stand-alone novels. The recurring hero of three of his novels, so far, is Leo Desroches, a metis journalist, who has had his own run-ins with the law. Fall from Grace was published in 2011, A Killing Winter was published in 2012, and Blood Red Summer was published in 2015. In May 2017, in an interview, he said the fourth novel was tentatively titledSpringtime Sacrifice. His second series starts with Dishonour in Camp 133, which is set in a POW camp for captured Germans, in Alberta. Arthurson says he was fascinated when he learned that the Germans themselves were allowed to administer their camp, because of a shortage of soldiers to serve as guards, and the difficulty for Germans to escape Canada and return to occupied Europe. He said that when he learned of the camp he immediately thought it would be a prime venue to set a murder mystery. The hero of Arthurson's sixth novel, The Red Chesterfield, published in 2019, is "M", a by-law enforcement officer. Arthurson told Shelagh Rogers he deliberately chose to play with, and break, some of the conventions as to how mystery novels are supposed to be written, what constitutes a "red herring", and how often they should be mentioned. While enforcing bylaws on where trash can be disposed of M finds a severed foothidden in an abandoned chesterfield, and Rogers noted that Arthurson seemed to have made M devote as much or more investigative effort into the chesterfield as he did into the identity of the deceased.
