A college kid in a Santa Claus suit is tortured, murdered, and left hanging from a meat hook on Christmas Eve--a gift intended for one particular cop.
Reminiscent of Smilla's Sense of Snow , this gripping debut thriller set in bone-chilling midwinter Montreal features one of the most compelling new heroes to emerge in crime fiction: Sergeant-Detective Γmile Cinq-Mars. A brilliant logician, an eccentric who follows his own rules, this old-style cop is beleaguered by the virulent crime wave that has engulfed his city. While political uncertainty over separatism has damaged Montreal's social and economic life, organized crime has been quick to take advantage. The Russian Mafia, rival motorcycle gangs, and infiltrators from the CIA are engaged in violent turf wars, while the police force--teeming with corruption--struggles to keep the city safe.
Even Cinq-Mars, whose stunning arrests have made him a local hero, appears to have been compromised. How has he managed to penetrate Montreal's criminal elite? Who are his informants and how do they acquire their vast knowledge? And who is the young female American operative he seems so desperate to save from the clutches of the mob?
Against the backdrop of events in today's headlines, John Farrow constructs a vivid tableau peopled with home-grown and international criminals, each fighting for a piece of this frozen city, where dynamite and chain saws have become the weapons of choice. Taut and timely, City of Ice dazzles with its complex plot and grittily realized characters; it's a suspense read that's difficult to put down, impossible to forget.
Amazon.com Review
An unusual hero and a fresh, sharply observed Montreal setting add strength to this ambitious but overlong first thriller by John Farrow (the pseudonym of noted Canadian novelist Trevor Ferguson).
The chief protagonist of City of Ice is Emile Cinq-Mars of the Montreal Urban Community Police. He works by himself but is supported by a large network of informants. A new species of criminal seems to be moving into the Montreal crime scene: sophisticated biker gangs, apparently backed by the currently ubiquitous Russian mafia. When serious turf wars develop, an elite task force is formed to combat the gangs. Cinq-Mars is pressed to join, but initially decides to wage his war alone. Then his informants begin to disappear and die, and the biker gangs take on even more dangerous significance. He is forced to reconsider his independent status.
Cinq-Mars has a darkly modern, almost surreal streak. He's the consummate loner, but his life is full of surprises. City of Ice is an impressive debut--but next time let's have 50 pages less. --Dick Adler
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.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.