- Hardcover: 438 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction (Feb 25 1999)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0002255170
- ISBN-13: 978-0002255172
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,028,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
John Farrow introduces crusty, independent, and deeply moral Sergeant-Detective Emil Cinq-Mars in City of Ice, a noir police thriller that revels in the contradictions that make Montreal such a memorable ville. Cosmopolitan and corrupt, Farrow's Montreal is a flawed and seductive as Mordecai Richler's version of the city.
Farrow, the pseudonym of literary novelist Trevor Ferguson, taps into the real-life gang warfare plaguing Montreal for his mystery debut, weaving the death of 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers, who was literally caught in the crossfire between the Hells Angels and Rock Machine, into the plot of City of Ice. A student in a Santa suit is found hanging from a meat hook on Christmas Eve. An insurance-executive-tuned-vagrant seems to hold the key. As Cinq-Mars investigates, his sources--an idealistic investigative reporter and a thrill-seeking young woman--make it clear that the Russian mafia and CIA are in play. And Cinq-Mars, who evokes Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, can't shake his suspicion that there's something vicious about the elite Wolverine police squad that's been set up to put the bikers out of business.
The francophone detective's relationship with his rookie anglophone partner, Bill Mathers, provides a forum to explore the French/English issues that dominate Quebec's political landscape. What really gives City of Ice its chill, however, is Farrow's romantic yet realistic rendering of the Canadian winter:
2:12 A.M. The Locksmith had dozed off in the backseat of Cinq-Mars's cruiser. Now the ground fairly trembled. The machines' cantankerous roaring drew closer. Before long, an armored division of snow removers crossed the Main, then St.-Urbain and Clark Streets, and Emile Cinq-Mars prepared to move.--Deirdre Hanna
From Publishers Weekly
Wintry Montreal cityscapes provide a backdrop for the debut of detective Emile Cinq-Mars, a Dirty Harry of French and Indian extraction who tracks down bad guys with brute determination and Holmesian logic. In his first thriller, Farrow (a pseudonym for "a highly respected Canadian writer of literary fiction") introduces this tough cop who polices the multifaceted, bilingual city. Helped by an anonymous informant, Cinq-Mars has an arrest record that turns him into a local deity. On Christmas Eve, Cinq-Mars finds his source's messenger, a young Armenian in a Santa suit, hanging from a meat hook with a message for Cinq-Mars strung around his neck. The detective relentlessly investigates the murder despite a corrupt police force, international criminal conspiracies and interfering governmental organizations, all the while playing mentor to his junior partner, Mathers. Together, they confront a motorcycle gang, a Russian mafia kingpin, an American spy and Canadian bureaucrats as they struggle to stop the spread of violence and save the brave girl who has infiltrated the criminal organization. Cinq-Mars enlists the aid of discredited cops, journalists, a lawyer, even his wife to fight global crime. As they travel, from the tunnel that runs under Montreal to Mount Royal in the city's midst to the spare fields and farms of distant suburbs, Farrow artfully depicts French-English working relationships as well as immigrant groups on the fringes of Canadian culture, including the arrogant, well-meaning Americans. Clever and quiet, Cinq-Mars proves more surprising than any of the plot twists or turns. Fortunately, he survives for another day and another sequel, hopefully one worthy of his complex character. Agent, Anne McDermid.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great read delivered in elegant prose,
By A Customer
This is one classy cop novel. Farrow delivers a complex thriller of the highest order. The intricate plotting, complex characterizations and beautifully evoked sense of place, reveal a consumate craftsman at work.As a born and bred Montrealer, I can only applaud Farrow's considerable achievement in his gritty realization of the city at its bone-chilling bleakest. The material for City of Ice has been culled from to-day's headlines, with some prophecies about tomorrow's. Montrealers are only too aware of the deadly biker turf wars that are raging in this city, and which form the backdrop to City of Ice. Fans of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse, will find Farrow's hero detective, Emile Cinq-Mars, equally appealing, as he struggles against the forces of corruption. City of Ice not only satisfies as a thriller, but manages to transcend the genre with its exquisite writing and psychological insights, as Farrow examines the dilemma of the moral individual in an increasingly amoral society. ---And hang on to your hats, the second half of the novel is one heck of a rollercoaster ride.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elegant chiller,
By A Customer
This novel is much more stylish than the usual police/crime book. The main character is thoughtful and complex, and the prose is elegant. If you like thrillers, don't let the idea that this is a literary work deter you from reading it. The hero is so intriguing that you'd like to meet him. I hope Farrow/Ferguson writes more books starring Cinq-Mars.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
The City is the Most Likeable Character,
By Jim Pugh (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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