Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere [Hardcover]

John McFetridge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 2008

Sharon MacDonald has a problem. It’s not being under house arrest. It’s not the Iranian guy who just fell from the twenty-fifth floor of her apartment building. It’s not even the police surveillance that’s preventing her from getting to her marijuana grow rooms. Sharon’s problem is a stranger named Ray: He’s too good looking, and his business proposal sounds too good to be true.

Detective Gord Bergeron has problems, too. There’s his new, hard-to-read partner, Detective Armstrong; a missing ten-year-old girl; an unidentified torso dumped in an alley; and what looks like corruption deep within the police force.

In a city where the drug, immigration, and sex industries are all inextricably intertwined, it’s only a matter of time until Sharon’s and Gord’s paths cross and all hell breaks loose in this pitch-perfect second installment of John McFetridge’s rollicking noir series.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

A man from the Middle East falls 25 stories and lands on the hood of a BMW SUV. Homicide or suicide? The case falls to Toronto police detective Gord Bergeron and his new partner, Armstrong. Soon after, a female torso, sans head, legs, and arms, is discovered; once again, Bergeron and Armstrong get the case as they size each other up. At the same time, former-biker-turned-crime-lord Richard Tremblay arrives from Montreal to reorganize the city’s underworld, and the Mounties may be investigating corruption in the Toronto PD. This is McFetridge’s second novel (Dirty Sweet, 2006), and once again, Toronto is a leading character in a fine crime novel. The city’s sprawling growth, its ethnic diversity, and its “almost American” focus on money are all ongoing motifs that enrich a novel already rich in on-the-make immigrants, edgy cops, and charming, devious women. Sex. Dope. Immigration. Gang war. Filmmaking. In McFetridge’s hands, Toronto might as well be the new L.A. of crime fiction. --Thomas Gaughan

Review

CANADIAN PRAISE FOR EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE

"Terrific . . . [In] this smart, slick story . . . McFetridge has a great ear for dialogue and a great eye for Toronto—even for those people and places that you might, as a rule, prefer to miss."—The Globe and Mail

"Spot-on and street-wise . . . McFetridge’s style can be compared to Elmore Leonard’s, as both writers seamlessly mix police procedural with perp procedural to underscore the parallel lives of members of the opposing teams."—Quill & Quire (starred review)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (July 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151014426
• ISBN-13: 978-0151014422
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,986,530 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast, darkly funny, and authentic, July 16, 2008

By 

Joseph Louis (North America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Hardcover)

Why do writers and reviewers like Ken Bruen, Parnell Hall and others keep comparing literary crime writer John McFetridge to Elmore Leonard? Because McFetridge is the real deal. Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, his latest novel, is tough, gritty, authentic, and peopled with characters who survive on quick wits and dark gallows humor on the mean streets of Toronto, one of North America's largest, most disfunctional cities. Once known as "Toronto, The Good," McFetridge has captured the darkest underbelly of "Toronto, The Bad," with the sharpest eye for location and character and the keenest ear for dialogue. Feeding off real life stories that have peppered the city's media for the past few years--from international biker wars and drug cartels, to an explosion of ethnic marijuana grow-ops, to the discovery of an unidentified headless, limbless corpse that recently turned up in a back alley garbage bin--McFetridge has packed it all into a taut, suspense filled mystery told through the eyes of a highly believable and enjoyable ensemble of straight and crooked cops; a down-on-his luck new guy in town with a sure-fire, get-rich-quick scheme that could get him killed; and a stripper playing footsy with a stranger who might be a hustler, a cop, or her best chance of surviving one more day in Nowhere. One of the best-ever openings for a crime novel. Congratulations, Mr. McFetridge.
Reviewed by Joseph Mark Glazner (AKA Shamus and Arthur Ellis Nominee Joseph Louis)

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "There's gonna be a takeover.", July 19, 2008

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Hardcover)

A shocking opening sets the stage for a fast-paced noir thriller that marries powerful drug cartels with international biker gangs enjoying unfettered opportunity in Toronto, where supply and demand drive an insatiable market. In McFetridge's thriller, the characters are colorful, the city teeming with thugs, drugs and a sophisticated market that has long since transcended independent biker gangs and an infusion of mob money, more sophisticated and creative as the times require. From the first chapter, when an Iranian plunges to his death from twenty-five stories, landing gracelessly on the windshield of an SUV parked in an alley, the surprised occupants' business transaction abruptly curtailed, cops quickly swarming over the scene, it is clear this city is in the throes of free enterprise gone wild. Watching the action from her apartment in the building, ex-stripper, self-employed weed entrepreneur Sharon Macdonald worries that her top floor grow rooms may be compromised by the enterprising detectives. She's right.

Although it takes a while before the dead man is identified, the detectives have not only spotted Sharon's enterprise, but are carefully monitoring increased suspicious activity by the cartel. It's in the air: something is going down. Recently returned to work after bereavement leave, Gord Bergeron is adapting to a new partner, the sharp-dressing, handsome Armstrong, the detectives called from the scene to aid in a search for a missing girl, later puzzling over their next call, a torso found in an alley; the partners rendezvous with their fellow officers, discussing the uneasiness in the streets and how much corruption may have tainted the department. With so much money available, temptation is unavoidable. Indeed, the cops are right, a move is in the works, but even Sharon, with her inside connections, cannot guess the extent of the coming changes. Her supply currently unavailable, Sharon meets with Ray, a new guy in town, who promises an outrageous supply, his presence sure to attract the notice of the ruthless bikers-cum-businessmen who control Toronto's drug market.

From earnest cops to petty hustlers, stone killers to undercover narcs, crime proceeds unimpeded by an overworked force, Toronto is a cornucopia of opportunity. A formerly loose confederation of independent operators has morphed into an organization that absorbs the opposition while disposing of any fools who get in the way. From detectives to crooks and all the players in between, the novel rocks from enforcement to violence, Sharon and her new friend small fry in the grand scheme of things, but determined to survive unscathed from the coming conflagration. Massage parlors, grow rooms, strip clubs, slums and gated condos compete for room in a city transformed by greed, corruption and mayhem, a few good men policing the mean streets in McFetridge's rollicking story. Luan Gaines/ 2008.

3.0 out of 5 stars Toronto can be scarey, May 6, 2009

By 

michael a. draper (Guilford, CT) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Hardcover)

Gord Bergeron is a detective in Toronto. He is back in the field after a period of desk duties when his wife was fighting an unsuccesful battle against cancer. Gord is given a young partner, Det. Armstrong.

Things happen quickly in this dialogue friendly story. A man falls or was pushed from the roof of a building, a 10 year old girl is abducted and rescued and drug deals are rampant.

Sharon MacDonald is a dealer and wants Richard Tremblay to front her 4 lbs of weed but he has a condition. There's a new competitor named Ray. He is offering a large quantity of weed and Richard wants to know if he's a cop. Richard thinks the deal that Ray is offering is too good to be true and wants Sharon to find out about him.

In the meanwhile, a group of bikers have taken control of the drug scene. Formerly in Montreal, they move the action to Toronto. Richard and his associates want to be in charge and increase the cost of the product.

Sharon and Ray become friendly and discuss partnering up and possibly moving away from Toronto. However, Richard has other ideas and murder is one of them.

There isn't much in the background of the characters except for Gord but their snappy dialogue zips across the pages and tells a pleasant story.