This is based on the audio version of this book, which I first read many, many years ago.First a disclaimer: I lived in the Montreal area for years, and listening to Steve Scherf read John Farrow’s “City of Ice” brings back a lot of memories. Eating at Ben’s, trying to navigate the streets near McGill in the winter (or sometimes even the summer) brings back many fond memories. And another disclaimer: Jon Farrow has been one of my favorite authors with his “City” series, and Steve Scherf is my favorite audio-book narrator.This is Farrow’s (pseudonym for Canadian author Trevor Ferguson) first book in his series featuring g Montreal Detective Émile Cinq-Mars, a detective in the Montreal Urban Community Police Department. The book revolves around the biker wars that occurred in the 1980’s and the line the Police straddled between letting the bikers eliminate themselves and keeping order. The catalyst is the murder of a young child, caught in the wrong place when a car bomb exploded during the biker war, an event that did happen.Cinq-Mars, literally translated as “March the Fifth” is an honest cop in a corrupt police department, whose survival in the police force is by the sheer volume of high profile, very public, arrests he makes. His partner, the man he is mentoring, is a young Anglophone who loves Montreal as much, perhaps more, than Cinq-Mars, and together they form a team that stands out in the Montreal police. Their relationship is one that is familiar to many Francophone and Anglophones who worked together in Montreal, outwardly joking about their respective cultures, but for the most part, just working together. This is a good representation of Canadian diversity and culture at its best.The book itself starts a bit slow, then builds to the point where I was regretting that this was an audio book; I actually found myself sitting in my driveway listening to it until my wife eventually came to find out why I wasn’t going inside. The narration was what I expected from Scherf. The pace was good and the voices as fantastic as always.If you like police procedurals or thrillers, if you like books based on real events, if you want some insight into the “Two Solitudes” of Quebec or the multicultural aspects of a cosmopolitan city like Montreal, then this is a fantastic book. If you want to hear a first class audio book, then this is a must.
Super read! This book sure isn't a short quick read but on a couple of sessions it kept me up well past bedtime just saying one more chapter and turning one more page. Especially so for the wild, appropriate and fairly satisfactory ending and the following wrap up which kept me reading until I finished the book! The book did kind of slow down a bit in the middle and perhaps became a bit repetitious but not to the point where I skipped through any of it. The Montreal history lessons are well integrated into the story flow and help the reader get a feeling and some understanding of the Franco/Anglo "Two Solitudes" atmosphere in Quebec. The city of Montreal, the weather, customs, landmarks and traditions all become a character in the story just as Toronto does in Robert Rotenberg's Ari Greene series. I am still somewhat undecided as to whether or not I like Emile Cinq-Mars. In some ways he is a little too pure, "Saint Emile" as Andre calls him, but he sure is a dedicated and effective detective and it's kind of nice to have a lead detective portrayed without tons of personal family strife. I didn't really like his treatment of Bill Mathers but it is partially attributable to the "Franco/Anglo" thing. One thing Emile is, most definitely, is a "Lone Wolf", much like Michael Connelly's "Harry Bosch", with his own interpretation of ethics and rules and he is very cynical regarding the Police bureaucracy! All the time I was reading this story I kept thinking what a marvellous movie this book would make! I will definitely read the rest of John Farrow's mystery novels but I'm not sure about Trevor Ferguson's as I am not really a great fan of most "Can-Lit"
Do You like book City Of Ice (1999)?
Written before "River City" (which is actually a prequel to this one and getting a lot of buzz these days), Cinq-Mars has an Anglais partner not by choice, and someone sending him messages with dead bodies. Then there's a young woman, little girl lost, who thinks playing at spies will give meaning to her life, but she may end up somewhere she can't come back from.Since I read "River City" first, I knew to expect insightful historical narrative alongside a good mystery and Farrow delivered.I'm very happy that Farrow is getting his due. Really good writer.
—Scotchneat
Crime fiction is so not my genre, but picked it up at recent BookCrossing meeting. So, an adventure.Surprisingly, I really enjoyed this book. A page-turner through and through. I think if I lived in Montreal or even had been there enough to know landmarks, it would have been even more goose-pimple raising.A totally and scarily believable plot, fascinating characters. Although if being a police officer is anything like as it's made out to be in this story, I don't know who in their right mind would ever want to be one.There were a couple of things that didn't quite ring true with me, or at least piqued my curiosity and seemed in the end unanswered.1. Just why/how did Julia allow herself to get involved in this mess?2. Why did Cinq-Mars care so much about saving her? She was young sure, but still an adult making her own choices and really, she chose to do bad things.Those things aside, this was a darn good read.
—Pooker
