Don Macdonald’s The Faithful is a classic detective novel that takes place in and around a very guarded, close-knit Hutterite community in the Prairies. Like the Amish and the Mennonites, the Hutterites are a branch of the Anabaptist movement who live in closed-off agricultural communities, or colonies, as they are called. So while being Canadian, the story has a touch of secretive foreignness. 

The story opens with Jacob Waldner rushing off to an impending meeting in Winnipeg with his accountant. At this point, we know very little about him, other than the fact that he lives in an agricultural community outside of Winnipeg with his family, where he manages the community’s accounts. Just as he is about to leave, Jacob sees a text on his phone and follows it up with a call. His brother Amos notices his excitement, and we get the feeling this is a particularly bad omen. Once in the city, Jacob settles into a luxurious Airbnb and not a page later, he’s been violently murdered. That leaves us with over three hundred pages to meet the (many) characters involved and get a glimpse into their background stories. 

Detective Sergeant Michael Shelter and his partner, Gabriel Traverse, are called in to investigate. Surprisingly, they learn that Jacob is a Hutterite from the Round Rock Colony, near the little town of Krefeld. The venue of the brutal murder, an opulent condo in the popular part of town, is completely out of character for someone like Jacob, who doesn’t mix with those on the outside and is definitely not prone to life’s little or big luxuries. 

The investigation starts by focusing on who was involved. Elias Stahl, an ex-Hutterite turned art gallery director, had arranged to meet Jacob at the condo, and we quickly come to understand that he was who Jacob was speaking to on the phone before leaving for the city that morning. In spite of the fact that both are married, the two men are in an intimate relationship. But the intrigue becomes way bigger than this illicit affair. Let’s not forget, Jacob had gone into the city to meet the colony’s accountant. 

Macdonald is good at keeping the many strings of who’s done what and when lined up with different hypotheses and suspects. At first, we are fed haphazard clues: there’s the inheritance of a farm gone sideways, pitting two brothers against each other, one of whom has had quite a few run-ins with the law; then there’s Jacob’s sick grandmother from the Hutterite community and the nurse treating her, who has a special connection to Detective Shelter; and of course, Elias, Jacob’s ex-Hutterite lover. Shelter investigates every clue, sometimes intentionally, sometimes through a twist of luck. 

Gradually, several of the leads line up and a chain of events starts to take shape, but does it point in the right direction? We’re never sure, as Shelter’s personal life complicates things. His uncontrollable hallucinations and blackouts start to unnerve him. Gabriel also starts to wonder if the PTSD Shelter suffered from his previous case isn’t seriously affecting his behaviour and reasoning. And then there are the arguments with Shelter’s girlfriend, Penny, who wants to have a child with him: a difficult home life that leads Penny to move back in with her mother. 

Against a backdrop of conflicting clues and mounting pressure, Shelter comes off as the lone cowboy, albeit travelling by car and not on a horse, as he goes back and forth between Winnipeg and Krefeld in search of the murderer. Although at times, the story lingers while the reader gets filled in with background facts and details, The Faithful is a good read and as far as detective fiction goes, the plot is solid. Setting the novel in the Prairies is a nice touch too, with its wide open space that seemingly conceals nothing.mRb