Customer Reviews

City of Ice: A Novel

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

As a born and bred Montrealer, with a couple of my own novels beginning in or passing through the city (see The Wrong Choice), Farrow has little grasp of the English language and reduces any chance of excitement to meaningless banality. Short on ideas, he attempts to cram the Russian Mafia, biker gangs, and the horsemen into the plot in the hopes that some excitement might result. Not.

I picked up City of Ice at the Montreal airport bookstore earlier this month. I noted a couple of other books in the series on the same shelf.
Wow! The author is a master storyteller. His character-in-context, full blown descriptions of place and place kickers, and intricate and deftly plotted adventure made an amazing read.
Regrettably, I finished the book in short order and headed immediately to my local bookstore for more Farrow (aka Ferguson).
Here's another mystery I uncovered. This author is not listed by either his pen name or otherwise on my local bookstore's computer database. Ditto his books.
On the internet, the US branch of his publisher does not mention his name nor his works.
Apparently he is well thought of in Canada.
I personally hold him in high esteem after devouring only 1 of his books.
I did go a trollin' around the internet and found a couple of his other books to buy.
How isolated are we here in the US from our celtic cousins up North?
I recommend City of Ice as a great read.
Thank you, Montreal airport bookstore!

I read this book over the Xmas holidays and we had warm weather, but reading about the cold in Montreal made me feel like I wanted to visit. I have studied recent Canadian history from newspapers and this book adds a more personal touch. My main difficulty was that the main character is not that likeable and neither are any of the others.