John J. Barr

John Barr retired from a lengthy career as a public affairs consultant in 2010. The next year he became an emerging independent novelist with the publication of his first novel, GERONIMO'S CADILLAC, a thriller. He went on to publish the second novel in his trilogy of stories about ex-Mountie James M. Walsh, AND JUSTICE FOR NONE, in 2019.

Both "Walsh" novels highlight important contemporary issues -- in the case of Geronimo's Cadillac, terrorism and the rise of the "security state"; in the case of And Justice For None, cyber-crime and big business corruption.

"Both stories deal with the Mounted Police -- the real Mounties, not the Mounties of myth -- and with the challenges of law enforcement, and justice, in contemporary Canada," he says. Over time, Barr hopes, J.M. Walsh may become one of "the quintessential Canadian detectives."

The third novel in the Walsh trilogy, tentatively titled GOLD OF FOOLS, takes place in Alberta's Crowsnest Pass. Barr hopes to publish it in late 2021.

"The Crowsnest Pass of my stories is a little like William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County in Mississippi -- it's almost a real place, with just a little imagination added."

Barr says his training as a journalist and historian helped him become a storyteller but didn't prepare him to write fiction. "Creating fiction that's both true to life and good storytelling is stimulating and stressful at the same time, and, God knows, a long slog. I always try to write with the reader in mind."

After a lifetime of voracious reading (everything from fiction to politics, cosmology, history, science fiction and psychology) Barr finds that working as a novelist has steadily deepened his respect and appreciation for his favorite novelists, especially Martin Cruz Smith, James Lee Burke and Elmore Leonard.