Dirty Sweet: A Mystery (The Toronto Series) [Hardcover]

John McFetridge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2006 | Series: The Toronto Series

Nothing is what it seems and everyone knows more than they let on in this fast-paced crime story. On a busy street on a Monday morning, a man behind the wheel of an SUV is shot in the head, and his killer drives off before the light changes. But what appears to be road rage or a random act of violence is actually an opportunity for everyone—everyone, that is, but the victim. The getaway driver is a Russian mobster who needs to rent a space for his new strip club, which funds his other, even less savory enterprises. The eyewitness is a real estate agent with some new leverage, legal and otherwise, on that strip club lease. Her other tenant, a petty pornographer, sees a chance to expand his business—if the realtor plays along—and the homicide squad sees its own opportunities in the brazen murder. Events unfold with speed and surprise as the players eye the prize and race to the finish.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

When real-estate agent Roxanne Keyes witnesses a shooting at a streetlight, she realizes she knows the killer. Like a heroine in an Elmore Leonard novel, she decides the appropriate course of action, rather than turning the killer over to the police, is to blackmail him. Naturally, her scheme does not go according to plan. McFetridge combines a tough and gritty story populated by engagingly seedy characters (Boris Suliemanov, the Russian mobster; Vince Fournier, the Internet-porn czar; and a couple of shady police detectives) with an effective use of a setting, Toronto, not that familiar to many American readers of hard-boiled fiction. Brad Smith's One-Eyed Jacks, set in 1950s Toronto, and John Farrow's Emile Cinq-Mars series, are other examples of how Canadian cities can bring freshness to the familiar hard-boiled world. Readers will also notice a connection between McFetridge and such gritty British writers as Ken Bruen and Ian Rankin. David Pitt
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Review

"McFetridge is an author to watch. He has a great eye for detail, and Toronto has never looked seedier."  —Globe and Mail

"The dubious fun is in the dialogue and details of a very entertaining and libidinous local debut."  —Toronto Star

"A sexy, fast-paced story about ambition, greed and motorcycle gangs."  —Hour

"Pulls you in from the top of page one. A truly awesome read."  —Book 'em

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: ECW Press (May 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1550227173
• ISBN-13: 978-1550227178
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,074,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Canada's Elmore Leonard, January 26, 2008

By 

M. Newman - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Sweet: A Mystery (The Toronto Series) (Hardcover)

Dirty Sweet was a great first effort at crime fiction. It was nice to read something set in a different setting (Toronto). I'm looking forward to his next book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No scruples, December 13, 2010

By 

Steve Weddle "Steve Weddle" (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dirty Sweet: A Mystery (The Toronto Series) (Kindle Edition)

Another fine offering from John "No Scruples" McFetridge. Heck, no, these folks have no scruples. Well, most of them don't. They don't sit back, hesitate, consider what their troubled conscience tells them. They act. Bam. It's fast. It's furious. Yeah, these are bad folks. If you're sitting on your deck, looking over your manicured backyard, and waiting for Shane ("Shane. Shane. Come back!") to come back and put on his white hat and save you from the baddies, well, have another drink, pal. That ain't this kind of book. They're all wearing black hats and shooting people where they sleep. This is full-on action, one thing falling into another until the momentum of crime is inescapable. If you like your crime fiction full of crimes and great fiction, you'll love this one.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A real yawner, May 19, 2007

By 

Satisfied Lone Wolf (Timonium, MD) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dirty Sweet: A Mystery (The Toronto Series) (Hardcover)

I made it to page 200 with this poorly written mystery. The characters are so stereotypical yet boring, characters that you wish would all be killed off. There is NOT one person in the whole bunch who has any scruples, so I found that I was not interested in any of them. There are long narrative passages between Roxanne the blackmailer and the porno king that are more like a rock and roll narrative then a mystery novel. There were dull with dialogue that would put you to sleep. The author keeps introducing characters, and the whole thing is a jumbled mess. Don't waste your time on this garbage