Claire Mulligan currently lives in Pennsylvania, but she turns to the history of her home province of B.C. in this remarkable tale of the Cariboo gold rush of 1863.

The three main characters in The Reckoning of Boston Jim meet only briefly, yet their lives are inextricably bound together. Dora, whose gentleman friend, Mr. Hume, has just left to seek his fortune in the Cariboo, finds and returns a pouch of money belonging to Boston Jim, an eccentric local trapper. Dora invites Jim for tea and chatters inconsequentially with him for the entire afternoon.

From that modest beginning, the reader alternately follows Mr. Hume as he travels the Cariboo Wagon Road; Jim as he tries vainly to find something to give Dora in exchange for her kindness; and, through Jim’s memory, the reminiscences that Dora shared when they met. These three strands come together in a shocking conclusion that feels inevitable.

These characters are complex and intriguing. Jim is cursed with a perfect memory and remembers every detail of every day he has lived. He avoids familial connections and, unable to forget a face, “rarely looks directly at people unless he need intimidate.” Even the minor characters, such as the depressive roadhouse owner with his collection of badly stuffed wildlife, are colourfully drawn.

The Reckoning of Boston Jim is rich in character and detail. It is a novel of obsession, constructed through an intricate weave of stories – the ones Mr. Hume makes up, the ones Dora tells, and the ones Jim cannot forget. There is also enough vivid incident – at one point, the drunken Mr. Hume dances with a corpse – to keep the plot moving along.

This is a clever and assured first novel that deserves to be noticed and, hopefully, announces a strong new voice in Canadian storytelling.