Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #563227 in Books
• Published on: 1999-05-11
• Released on: 1999-05-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 420 pages

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. Agent, Anne McDermid.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Readers who delight in crime fiction for its academic elegance should find this novel steadily diverting despite its ponderous length. Farrowa pseudonym for a Canadian writer of literary fiction debuting in the United Stateshas the earmarks of a powerful and inventive mystery writer, foremost among them the ability to maintain an element of suspense. The plot has more facets than a flys eye, but essentially it is a graphic account of the tribulations of a go-it-alone Montreal police detective as he investigates the vicious murder of one of his snitches and faces rival motorcycle gangs who kill innocent victims as they vie for each others turf. While it takes forever to unravel all the complications, the book works with an odd, idiosyncratic magic. Libraries that neglect to add this to their thriller collections will be depriving their patrons.A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

A great read delivered in elegant prose
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.

Elegant chiller
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.

Starts Strong but Drags On
The city of the title is Montreal, and I picked this up specifically because I was going on vacation there for a week and wanted to get some of the flavor of the city. As it worked out, I ended up reading it while there instead, which was actually a kind of cool--although by the end I was exhausted and ready for it to end. It's a thriller/procedural, teaming a loner French-Canadian veteran police detective with a young English-Canadian, with the resulting sparks predictably followed by mutual respect. The plot revolves around gang-warfare between rival biker gangs (yes, this sounds hokey, but I gather it's based on real events) who are tied into international crime circles. By then end, it's all a bit much, but still worth reading if you're interested in Montreal. BTW- John Farrow is a pseudonym for Canadian literary talent Trevor Ferguson.