At the turn of the nineteenth century, naval officer David Buchan arrives in the Bay of Exploits with orders to establish contact with the Beothuk or "Red Indians," the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland facing extinction. When Buchan approaches the area's most influential white settlers, the Peytons, for advice and assistance, he enters a shadowy world of allegiances and old grudges that he can only dimly apprehend. His closest ally, John Peyton Jr., maintains an uneasy balance between duty to his father--a domineering ...
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At the turn of the nineteenth century, naval officer David Buchan arrives in the Bay of Exploits with orders to establish contact with the Beothuk or "Red Indians," the aboriginal inhabitants of Newfoundland facing extinction. When Buchan approaches the area's most influential white settlers, the Peytons, for advice and assistance, he enters a shadowy world of allegiances and old grudges that he can only dimly apprehend. His closest ally, John Peyton Jr., maintains an uneasy balance between duty to his father--a domineering patriarch with a reputation as a ruthless persecutor of the Beothuk--and his troubled conscience. When Buchan's peace expedition into "Indian country" goes awry, the rift between father and son deepens and begins to divide those closest to them. Years later, a second expedition leads to the kidnapping of an Indian woman and the murder of her husband and Buchan returns to investigate. As the officer attempts to uncover what really happened on the Red Indians' lake, a delicate web of obligation and debt slowly unravels. An enthralling story of great passion and suspense, vividly set in the stark Newfoundland landscape and driven by an extraordinary cast of characters, River Thieves captures both the vast sweep of history and the intimate lives of those caught in its wake.
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I did not enjoy this book and found it difficult reading and not at all engaging. I could only read a few pages before I had to put it down. Had I not been reading it for book club I would not have finished it.
It purports to be about the demise of the Beothuk Indians. However, we learn very little about them as a people, and it could have been set almost anywhere ? about any aboriginal people ? or even imaginary ones. It did not ring true.
In fact the whole premise of book seemed unlikely to me. The Beothuk had not had a good relationship with the settlers from day one, and had gradually retreated further and further away from new pioneer settlements ? clearly wanting to be left alone. To send an expedition to seek them out in their remote territory and in the middle of the Newfoundland winter, could only give them the impression they were being hunted ? not sought for friendly reasons.
The characters were, for the most part, brutish and impossible to feel engaged with. It?s hard to decide who were the ?savages? in the story. The settlers were all quite ready to kill Beothuk people like animals, while the Beothuk pillaged and stole whenever they could, in retaliation. John Peyton senior is taciturn and unbending. Peyton junior ? though peaceable towards the Beothuk - seems a hopeless sort of person, and too much under his father?s thumb.
Richmond is a complete brute, Taylor only slightly less so. Reilly, who had been a river thief in London (and part of the play on words of the book title), seems to be the most peaceable of all the characters, other than Peyton junior. He just wants to live his life with his Micmac wife and kids.
Cassie was not a character to ?warm to? and the facts about her are deliberately misleading. You are led to believe she was having a relationship with Peyton senior ? but it is revealed late in the book that this has never been the case. In fact, she was sexually abused by her father. When she sought help from her mother, her mother was horrified and completely unsympathetic. In fact, she threw her down the stairs which resulted in a permanent injury to Cassie's leg - though again, this seems like a needless detail that has little bearing on anything in the story.
In light of her father?s abuse, her affair with Buchan seemed unlikely. Why would she suddenly have sex with a man she hardly knew ? but who she knew was married ? and someone who would be gone out of her life very quickly. Moreover, she kept so much to herself that it seemed out of character that she would write in his diary that she had fallen pregnant ? and ended the pregnancy. It seemed like too convenient a twist in the plot - to prevent Buchan from bringing charges against any of the settlers. And why was he so ready to do so? He was the one who had influenced them to go into Beothuk territory in the first place.
There are many misleading twists and turns about who killed the two Beothuk men ? Mary?s husband and brother. You never find out what happened to her child. Richmond killed her husband ? because he was attacking John senior. But it was John senior who shot the second Beothuk ? Mary?s brother ? and wounded him. Reilly finally killed him ? more to put him out of his pain than because he really wanted to.
Mary was a pathetic character. Why did she not want to return to her people? Was it because her husband and brother were both dead and she would have no protection, or was it because she knew she had an illness that could spread among her people?
You get the impression that this took place over a couple of years. In fact it was more than twenty years. Cassie is 18 when we first meet her ? and in her 40s by the end of the story. All in all I found this a dreary book.
