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Celtic Knot: A Clara Swift Tale
1868 Ottawa
Politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated. As Prime Minister John A. Macdonald cradles his friend's bloody head, he blames transplanted Irish terrorists: the Fenian Brotherhood. Within a day, Patrick James Whelan is arrested. After a show trial, Whelan is publicly hanged.
That much is history. Did Whelan do the deed?
What if Clara Swift, a mere slip of a girl, sees the trace-line of a buggy turn off Sparks Street, moments after the murder? What if housemaid Clara understands her dead mentor's shorthand, and forges an unlikely alliance with the Prime Minister's investigator? And ends up being trusted by the condemned man's wife -- and by Lady Agnes Macdonald . . .
Celtic Knot.
It's reimagining a crisis that tested a new country.
It's history with a mystery.
It's A Clara Swift Tale.
And it all begins with a shot in the dark.
Politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated. As Prime Minister John A. Macdonald cradles his friend's bloody head, he blames transplanted Irish terrorists: the Fenian Brotherhood. Within a day, Patrick James Whelan is arrested. After a show trial, Whelan is publicly hanged.
That much is history. Did Whelan do the deed?
What if Clara Swift, a mere slip of a girl, sees the trace-line of a buggy turn off Sparks Street, moments after the murder? What if housemaid Clara understands her dead mentor's shorthand, and forges an unlikely alliance with the Prime Minister's investigator? And ends up being trusted by the condemned man's wife -- and by Lady Agnes Macdonald . . .
Celtic Knot.
It's reimagining a crisis that tested a new country.
It's history with a mystery.
It's A Clara Swift Tale.
And it all begins with a shot in the dark.
332 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2018
4 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 8, 2019
Over the past 50 years, I've owned several cats, all of whom have been named after Canadian historical figures: (Sir Charles)Tupper, (Allen Napier) MacNab, Ikie (Brock), Laura (Secord), Nelly (McClung), (Pierre) Elliott (Trudeau), Fenian, and not least (Thomas D'Arcy) McGee.
So when I saw this novel by Canadian author Ann Shortell based on the real-life assassination of McGee, I was in!
In school, we learned about McGee's death, significant because his was the first political assassination in Canada, taking place just eight months after Confederation. Beyond that and the fact Fenians were allegedly somehow involved, I knew nothing. Although I realize that the author has taken certain liberties with the facts as in any historical fiction, I am certain that I understand a lot more about the political situation in Canada at that time now that I've read this than I ever learned in school!
Our protagonist is McGee's (fictional) Irish Catholic maid Clara Swift who was the closest to a witness to the murder that there was. Fifteen-year-old Clara is intelligent and observant and it is through her eyes that we see the tangled mess that is motivation for the alleged killer, the investigation, arrest and then trial of Jimmy Whelan.
If you have any interest at all in Canadian history, political or not, I highly recommend that you read Celtic Knot.
Thanks to James who blogs at The Mirimichi Reader who brought this book to my attention, and to the author who kindly sent me a beautiful hardcover copy to read in exchange for my unbiased (except for my love of Canadian history!) review.
So when I saw this novel by Canadian author Ann Shortell based on the real-life assassination of McGee, I was in!
In school, we learned about McGee's death, significant because his was the first political assassination in Canada, taking place just eight months after Confederation. Beyond that and the fact Fenians were allegedly somehow involved, I knew nothing. Although I realize that the author has taken certain liberties with the facts as in any historical fiction, I am certain that I understand a lot more about the political situation in Canada at that time now that I've read this than I ever learned in school!
Our protagonist is McGee's (fictional) Irish Catholic maid Clara Swift who was the closest to a witness to the murder that there was. Fifteen-year-old Clara is intelligent and observant and it is through her eyes that we see the tangled mess that is motivation for the alleged killer, the investigation, arrest and then trial of Jimmy Whelan.
If you have any interest at all in Canadian history, political or not, I highly recommend that you read Celtic Knot.
Thanks to James who blogs at The Mirimichi Reader who brought this book to my attention, and to the author who kindly sent me a beautiful hardcover copy to read in exchange for my unbiased (except for my love of Canadian history!) review.
April 27, 2019
An exceptional "history with a mystery" novel. Full review here: bit.ly/celticknotreview
November 14, 2019
An exceptional book - well researched and an utterly engaging page turner!
February 27, 2019
This book was entered in The Wishing Shelf Book Awards. This is what our readers thought:
Title: Celtic Knot: A Clara Swift Tale
Author: Ann Shortell
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Number of Readers: 17
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Content: 8/10
Cover: 5/10
Of the 17 readers:
13 would read another book by this author.
7 thought the cover was good or excellent.
10 felt it was easy to follow.
13 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
6 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
11 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
12 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
13 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘The mystery elements work the best in this cleverly-written historical saga. The characters were developed, and the author worked hard to offer the reader a well-described historical setting.’ Female reader, aged 38
‘This story oozed good research. I loved that. But the author was not scared of putting a new angle to this crisis in a country’s history.’ Male reader, aged 64
‘Suffers a little from a bland cover, but the story is excellent. The prose, but for the odd clumsy paragraph, flowed perfectly, and the suspense, particularly towards the end of the story, filled the page. Excellent job!’ Male reader, aged 52
‘This is a gripping tale of mystery and murder. It is a bit of a challenge to follow all of it, and there are a lot of characters to stay on top of. The author is superb at showing off her historical knowledge; it’s not too ‘in your face’, which I like. The character work is by far the strongest element. Many of them were memorable.’ Female reader, aged 62
To Sum It Up:
‘A fascinating mystery in an atmospheric setting. A Red Ribbon Winner and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
Title: Celtic Knot: A Clara Swift Tale
Author: Ann Shortell
Star Rating: 4 Stars
Number of Readers: 17
Stats
Editing: 9/10
Writing Style: 8/10
Content: 8/10
Cover: 5/10
Of the 17 readers:
13 would read another book by this author.
7 thought the cover was good or excellent.
10 felt it was easy to follow.
13 would recommend this story to another reader to try.
6 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘plotting a story’.
11 felt the author’s strongest skill was ‘developing the characters’.
12 felt the pacing was good or excellent.
13 thought the author understood the readership and what they wanted.
Readers’ Comments
‘The mystery elements work the best in this cleverly-written historical saga. The characters were developed, and the author worked hard to offer the reader a well-described historical setting.’ Female reader, aged 38
‘This story oozed good research. I loved that. But the author was not scared of putting a new angle to this crisis in a country’s history.’ Male reader, aged 64
‘Suffers a little from a bland cover, but the story is excellent. The prose, but for the odd clumsy paragraph, flowed perfectly, and the suspense, particularly towards the end of the story, filled the page. Excellent job!’ Male reader, aged 52
‘This is a gripping tale of mystery and murder. It is a bit of a challenge to follow all of it, and there are a lot of characters to stay on top of. The author is superb at showing off her historical knowledge; it’s not too ‘in your face’, which I like. The character work is by far the strongest element. Many of them were memorable.’ Female reader, aged 62
To Sum It Up:
‘A fascinating mystery in an atmospheric setting. A Red Ribbon Winner and highly recommended.’ The Wishing Shelf Book Awards
June 7, 2019
Ripped-from-the-headlines story about an incident in Canadian history of which I was heretofore unaware. Written by a relative, it was pressed on me by both my mother and mother-in-law, and I was slow to give in. Glad I finally did.
September 15, 2018
On April 7th, 1869, fifteen-year-old housemaid Clara Swift recalls the murder of her former master, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, exactly one year earlier. It is a difficult task for her to relive these events, but she has been asked to do so by none other than Sir John A. Macdonald, the Prime Minister of Canada, who is anxious that a true account of McGee’s life, and of his death, be preserved for history.
She begins by recounting McGee’s emigration from Ireland in 1848, hounded for being a rebel. After settling in America he came to realize that their system of government was also flawed, and did not offer the justice and peace of mind that he sought. But ironically, after moving to Canada in 1857, McGee had found a British Colony in which Catholics enjoyed equal rights. Tempering his enthusiasm he soon encountered the Fenian rebels; Irish nationalists, they had invaded Canada from the United States, hoping to bring British troops into the conflict. But although Irish himself, McGee came to regard the Fenians as dangerous, and put his faith instead in the democratic system that the fledgling Canada was striving to establish. His Irish roots, combined with his opposition to the Fenians, caused them to condemn him as a traitor.
Following his election as a Member of Parliament, McGee and housemaid Clara Swift moved to Ottawa. They settled in a boarding house at 71 Sparks Street, presided over by Mrs. Nancy Trotter and her son, Willy, who was a Parliamentary pageboy and an aspiring journalist.
Shortly after half-past two in the morning, on April 7th, 1868, the silence in Mrs. Trotter’s boarding house was abruptly shattered by the sound of a single gunshot. Clara opened the front door to find D’Arcy McGee lying on the doorstep. She summoned help from inside, but it was too late. The only sign of his assailant was her fleeting glimpse of a carriage disappearing around a distant street corner.
Immediately following the attack there had been an inquest and an autopsy. The word went out to watch the railway lines and canal lock stations for signs of McGee’s assailants, and the net began to tighten. But just as a fishing net gathers all manner of creatures as it is hauled in, so the investigation into D’Arcy McGee’s murder extended its reach to include the famous and the infamous, victims and villains, the powerful and the powerless, and the Canadian political landscape became forever altered. Before it ended, political beliefs became fused with religious convictions, and all Irish people became the targets of public hatred. And although one man was sent to the gallows for the assassination of D’Arcy McGee, three other deaths reckoned in the final accounting.
Those who think Canadian history lacks drama will find, in Celtic Knot, a suspense-filled fictional tale that chronicles the impact of a singular event at a turning point in a young nation’s development. It is a confident, meticulously researched, and superbly written tale. Shortell perfectly captures the language and atmosphere and ethos surrounding those momentous times. The panoply of intriguing characters paraded for the reader includes housemaids and barmaids, a parliamentary page who is an aspiring journalist, doctors and detectives and attorneys and judges—and, not least, the passionate nationalists whose fervent political beliefs were intricately woven into the fabric of the earliest days of Canadian confederacy. A finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada “Unhanged Arthur” Award for Best Unpublished Novel of 2017, it is a tale that will not only appeal to students of history, but to anyone in search of a well-told, gripping tale of murder and its aftermath.
She begins by recounting McGee’s emigration from Ireland in 1848, hounded for being a rebel. After settling in America he came to realize that their system of government was also flawed, and did not offer the justice and peace of mind that he sought. But ironically, after moving to Canada in 1857, McGee had found a British Colony in which Catholics enjoyed equal rights. Tempering his enthusiasm he soon encountered the Fenian rebels; Irish nationalists, they had invaded Canada from the United States, hoping to bring British troops into the conflict. But although Irish himself, McGee came to regard the Fenians as dangerous, and put his faith instead in the democratic system that the fledgling Canada was striving to establish. His Irish roots, combined with his opposition to the Fenians, caused them to condemn him as a traitor.
Following his election as a Member of Parliament, McGee and housemaid Clara Swift moved to Ottawa. They settled in a boarding house at 71 Sparks Street, presided over by Mrs. Nancy Trotter and her son, Willy, who was a Parliamentary pageboy and an aspiring journalist.
Shortly after half-past two in the morning, on April 7th, 1868, the silence in Mrs. Trotter’s boarding house was abruptly shattered by the sound of a single gunshot. Clara opened the front door to find D’Arcy McGee lying on the doorstep. She summoned help from inside, but it was too late. The only sign of his assailant was her fleeting glimpse of a carriage disappearing around a distant street corner.
Immediately following the attack there had been an inquest and an autopsy. The word went out to watch the railway lines and canal lock stations for signs of McGee’s assailants, and the net began to tighten. But just as a fishing net gathers all manner of creatures as it is hauled in, so the investigation into D’Arcy McGee’s murder extended its reach to include the famous and the infamous, victims and villains, the powerful and the powerless, and the Canadian political landscape became forever altered. Before it ended, political beliefs became fused with religious convictions, and all Irish people became the targets of public hatred. And although one man was sent to the gallows for the assassination of D’Arcy McGee, three other deaths reckoned in the final accounting.
Those who think Canadian history lacks drama will find, in Celtic Knot, a suspense-filled fictional tale that chronicles the impact of a singular event at a turning point in a young nation’s development. It is a confident, meticulously researched, and superbly written tale. Shortell perfectly captures the language and atmosphere and ethos surrounding those momentous times. The panoply of intriguing characters paraded for the reader includes housemaids and barmaids, a parliamentary page who is an aspiring journalist, doctors and detectives and attorneys and judges—and, not least, the passionate nationalists whose fervent political beliefs were intricately woven into the fabric of the earliest days of Canadian confederacy. A finalist for the Crime Writers of Canada “Unhanged Arthur” Award for Best Unpublished Novel of 2017, it is a tale that will not only appeal to students of history, but to anyone in search of a well-told, gripping tale of murder and its aftermath.
March 10, 2020
A finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award, Shortell’s debut which details the assassination of the politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee and its aftermath, is both original in conception and thorough in detail.
On April 7th, 1869, a year after the politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated, Sir John A. Macdonald, the Prime Minister of Canada, assigns fifteen-year-old Clara Swift, McGee’s former housemaid, to recount circumstances of the senseless murder to preserve the true account of McGee’s life and death in the history. Trusted by both the condemned man's wife and Lady Agnes Macdonald, Clara becomes an invaluable asset for the Prime Minister’s investigator and finds herself in the middle of the much-hyped case that has the power to alter the Canadian political landscape.
Through the eyes of her protagonist, Shortell presents a marvelously textured picture of the 1800s Ottawa with its sharply defined class system. The prejudice against the Irish community after the assassination as people’s political beliefs merge with their religious convictions is handled with as much clarity and precision as McGee’s transformation from a onetime Irish Revolutionary to a champion of Canada and Confederation is done.
Clara comes out as an intelligent, bright young woman whose keen observations and attention to detail bring out the personalities of other characters with subtle shading. McGee is portrayed as a charismatic figure whose passionate political beliefs, firm convictions, and gentle dealing earns him tons of friends and an equal number of enemies. The coolly distant Lady McGee, the motherly Mrs. Nancy Trotter, and the sharp-eyed Willy among others are equally memorable.
Sir John A. Macdonald’s first-hand involvement in the investigation of the murder provides not only added intrigue but also an old-world charm to the story. Shortell’s narrative is smooth, the prose crisp, and her skill at developing the tension of the situation with precision make it a completely absorbing tale. She gives Clara’s first-person narrative plenty of intrigue with occasional use of Gaelic, Latin, and French, and the latter’s detailed observations are a consistent pleasure.
Shortell’s research is marked with authenticity, and all the historical details are right on the spot. Shortell’s fascinating take on a significantly important part of Canadian history marks her as a talented newcomer to the historical fiction scene.
Historical fiction readers craving intriguing story and intelligent plot will savor this gripping literary tale.
On April 7th, 1869, a year after the politician Thomas D'Arcy McGee is assassinated, Sir John A. Macdonald, the Prime Minister of Canada, assigns fifteen-year-old Clara Swift, McGee’s former housemaid, to recount circumstances of the senseless murder to preserve the true account of McGee’s life and death in the history. Trusted by both the condemned man's wife and Lady Agnes Macdonald, Clara becomes an invaluable asset for the Prime Minister’s investigator and finds herself in the middle of the much-hyped case that has the power to alter the Canadian political landscape.
Through the eyes of her protagonist, Shortell presents a marvelously textured picture of the 1800s Ottawa with its sharply defined class system. The prejudice against the Irish community after the assassination as people’s political beliefs merge with their religious convictions is handled with as much clarity and precision as McGee’s transformation from a onetime Irish Revolutionary to a champion of Canada and Confederation is done.
Clara comes out as an intelligent, bright young woman whose keen observations and attention to detail bring out the personalities of other characters with subtle shading. McGee is portrayed as a charismatic figure whose passionate political beliefs, firm convictions, and gentle dealing earns him tons of friends and an equal number of enemies. The coolly distant Lady McGee, the motherly Mrs. Nancy Trotter, and the sharp-eyed Willy among others are equally memorable.
Sir John A. Macdonald’s first-hand involvement in the investigation of the murder provides not only added intrigue but also an old-world charm to the story. Shortell’s narrative is smooth, the prose crisp, and her skill at developing the tension of the situation with precision make it a completely absorbing tale. She gives Clara’s first-person narrative plenty of intrigue with occasional use of Gaelic, Latin, and French, and the latter’s detailed observations are a consistent pleasure.
Shortell’s research is marked with authenticity, and all the historical details are right on the spot. Shortell’s fascinating take on a significantly important part of Canadian history marks her as a talented newcomer to the historical fiction scene.
Historical fiction readers craving intriguing story and intelligent plot will savor this gripping literary tale.
March 24, 2019
I kinda know who D'Arcy McGee is because my childhood home is on a street named after him. However, I didn't know he was assassinated nor do I remember ever hearing of Fenians so I don't what that says about my education.
But this is exactly why I had set a goal for myself a few years ago to read more books that take place in Canada and/or feature Canadian characters and/or Canadian history.
So I am thankful for great historical fiction that makes it enjoyable to learn about this stuff! It was a great read.
But this is exactly why I had set a goal for myself a few years ago to read more books that take place in Canada and/or feature Canadian characters and/or Canadian history.
So I am thankful for great historical fiction that makes it enjoyable to learn about this stuff! It was a great read.
March 23, 2020
I was engaged with Clara from the beginning. She is feisty, smart as a whip and as faithful to her religious beliefs one can expect from a teenage girl. Certainly, she has more respect for the truth than those around her, and she is determined to find out who is responsible for the death of her beloved former employer. The language/slang of the time-frame, and of the various nationalities in late 1800's Ottawa Canada, added authenticity to this tale of a fictionalized true event.
May 27, 2020
This historical novel incorporates the actual events with well developed characters and a tension in the plot that keeps readers' interest throughout the novel. The plight of young women in poverty, without rights or security, is clearly drawn with the strong characters that are part of the plot. The prejudice against the Irish is often forgotten today but was a large part of the political scene then. This is a well written novel about an important part of 19th century Canadian history.
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September 24, 2018Review available at Foreword Reviews.
June 3, 2020
We are proud to announce that CELTIC KNOT: A Clara Swift Tale by Ann Shortell is a B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree. This tells readers that this book is well worth their time and money!
February 5, 2022
Learned about Black Rock at foot of Victoria bridge
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