This is a novel of contrasts. Shabby Park Avenue in Montreal
against elegant Park Avenue in New York City. French language and
churches against the English-language glass towers of high finance. The lifelong criminal
against the ageing, ailing Sargeant-Detective Emile Cinq-Mars.
A novel of Hells Angels' violent expansionism layered with psychological, even philosophical,
suspense.
It’s also history, both of old school policing and old style biker
warfare between the Rock Machine and Hells Angels that only ended after 150 bombs, uncounted shootings, and gang leadership on both sides imprisoned or entombed.
In some
ways, it's a retrospective of the long history of the Emile Cinq-Mars novel
series.
Yet for all that, a person can pick this book up knowing nothing
about the characters or the series, and to be drawn in by the strange request of a
suspect in a biker bank massacre for a conversation with a retired cop
now recovering from a gunshot wound. Once you're in, you may well find yourself going back to the earlier novels to learn how our wounded detective became this complex individual attempting to orchestrate a just solution to a whole symphony of criminal activity.
The external settings change as the evolving plot demands, but
the internal landscapes of these men - the main suspect, the detective, an
imprisoned biker leader, and a low level hitter with unsuspected
connections - are more deeply explored. Can Emile unravel these criminals' business, emotional, and psychological links to make sense of the growing spiderweb of crimes. Can he settle this complex business before one of them, or their minions, catches up with his own wife while
he is helpless to protect her?
This quote from the novel may be the best summation:
“a good story, a good metaphor, a strong mythology that appeals
to the imagination, that’s a way to interpret the world and keep us
yearning, going forward forever. Revealing the intricacies of the trick
has to await its time.“
The novel draws readers from the early, strange request and keeps us immersed through layers of investigation and excavation, through ethical and legal conundrums, to the final reveal. Storytelling in the hands of a master.
The novel draws readers from the early, strange request and keeps us immersed through layers of investigation and excavation, through ethical and legal conundrums, to the final reveal. Storytelling in the hands of a master.
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