City Of Ice - Softcover

FARROW JOHN

Softcover

ISBN 10: 071268042X ISBN 13: 9780712680424

Publisher: Century, 1999

Synopsis

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 Émile 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.
From the Hardcover edition.

About this title

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 the Back Cover:

Advance praise for City of Ice

"Marvelous. John Farrow combines gritty realism with smart, fast-paced storytelling in this taut, compelling thriller that never lets the reader off the hook."
--Lynda La Plante, author of Cold Heart and author/creator of Prime Suspect

"John Farrow's City of Ice is vintage cop novel--literate and hard-edged; sharp, funny, and mean. All the street reality and ass-kicking you could want, set in Montreal in winter and chilling well beyond that."
--Alan Furst, author of The World at Night and Red Gold

"City of Ice is a page-turner stuffed with reportage worthy of the likes of a Tom Wolfe or a Charles Dickens. Farrow's excellent novel has enough grit to satisfy fans of the genre and enough intelligence to be a welcome addition to the ongoing exploration of Canada's two solitudes in the context of a changing world."
--Quill & Quire (Toronto)

About this edition

• Publisher: Century
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 071268042X
• ISBN 13: 9780712680424
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 471