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., BostonCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The New York Times Book Review, Peter Khoury
Rich descriptions of Montreal in winter blend well with the bone-chilling plot...

From Booklist
There's something about ice and snow as a backdrop for crime fiction. How else to explain the fact that three of the most memorable novels in the genre's last 25 years have been set in frigid climes? First came Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park (1981), set in Moscow; then Peter Hoeg's Smilla's Sense of Snow (1993), set in Denmark and Greenland; and now John Farrow's City of Ice, a one-of-a-kind cop drama set in Montreal. Like Smith and Hoeg, the pseudonymous Farrow--identified by his publisher as "a respected Canadian writer of literary fiction"--uses his setting to establish a landscape of danger, the frigid atmosphere (lethal in itself) mirroring the all-encompassing peril that surrounds the hero. In the case of Montreal's star cop, Emile Cinq-Mars, the threat comes not only from a coalition of motorcycle gangs, Mafia, and Russian gangsters but also from the realization that his anonymous source over many years has been a CIA operative, using the unwitting cop to fight a vigilante-like war against the gangs and the Russians. Like Arkady Renko in Gorky Park (see p.1485 for a review of the new Renko novel), Cinq-Mars battles internal as well as external demons. The more he learns about the international scope of the criminal conspiracy he is up against, the more he realizes that all his assumptions about himself and his career have been false. This is a character-driven mystery of the highest order, yet it also boasts one of the most confounding, architecturally inventive plots imaginable. A new crime-fiction star has been born, and another frigid setting has imprinted itself indelibly on the genre map. Bill Ott

From Kirkus Reviews
A long, convoluted, debut thriller thats a test of reader stamina. Generally regarded as the top cop in the MUCPD (Montreal Urban Community Police Department), Emile Cinq-Mars accepts the billing as no more than his due. But team playing ``is not my style,'' he informs the head of an elite task force who tries hard to recruit him. The task involves the obliteration of biker gangs currently enjoying a hot time in the City of Ice. A worthwhile task, Cinq-Mars acknowledges, since these aren't just ordinary beer-guzzling, property-damaging, head-breaking biker gangs; these nasties seem highly organized, with an international flavor to their nefarious activities that hints at sophistication and staying power. Still, Cinq-Mars insists, whatever a team can do, a smart, tough, supercool copper can do better by his lonesome. This is, however, a position a little on the ingenuous side, since the truth is that for some years Cinq-Mars has been the beneficiary of a remarkably efficient snitch network not of his making. Tip after tip has led him to big-time arrests. The tips are pure gold; everything else about the network remains a mystery. Cinq-Mars has been disposed to treat his ignorance with a Gallic shrug, but now dead bodies start piling upwith trenchant little messages attached that are aimed at the great detective, tweaking him in his amour-propre. Certain that the snitch network is somehow connected to the needling, Cinq-Mars, like it or not, is going to have to penetrate it. And there are still the biker gangs to bring to justice. From there on, it's a war on two frontslots of battles, tactics, sound and furythat takes about a hundred years to end. The pseudonymous Farrow (a highly respected Canadian writer of literary fiction) seeds his first thrillerand first US publicationwith good scenes here and there, then plows them under all those pages. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review
Advance praise for City of Ice

"Marvelous. John Farrow combines gritty realism with smart, fast-paced storytelling in this taut, compelling thriller that never lets the reader off the hook."
--Lynda La Plante, author of Cold Heart and author/creator of Prime Suspect

"John Farrow's City of Ice is vintage cop novel--literate and hard-edged; sharp, funny, and mean. All the street reality and ass-kicking you could want, set in Montreal in winter and chilling well beyond that."
--Alan Furst, author of The World at Night and Red Gold

"City of Ice is a page-turner stuffed with reportage worthy of the likes of a Tom Wolfe or a Charles Dickens. Farrow's excellent novel has enough grit to satisfy fans of the genre and enough intelligence to be a welcome addition to the ongoing exploration of Canada's two solitudes in the context of a changing world."
--Quill & Quire (Toronto)


From the Hardcover edition.

Review
Advance praise for City of Ice

"Marvelous. John Farrow combines gritty realism with smart, fast-paced storytelling in this taut, compelling thriller that never lets the reader off the hook."
--Lynda La Plante, author of Cold Heart and author/creator of Prime Suspect

"John Farrow's City of Ice is vintage cop novel--literate and hard-edged; sharp, funny, and mean. All the street reality and ass-kicking you could want, set in Montreal in winter and chilling well beyond that."
--Alan Furst, author of The World at Night and Red Gold

"City of Ice is a page-turner stuffed with reportage worthy of the likes of a Tom Wolfe or a Charles Dickens. Farrow's excellent novel has enough grit to satisfy fans of the genre and enough intelligence to be a welcome addition to the ongoing exploration of Canada's two solitudes in the context of a changing world."
--Quill & Quire (Toronto)


From the Hardcover edition.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

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. This debut thriller set in bone-chilling midwinter Montreal features one of the most compelling new heroes to emerge in crime fiction: Sergeant-Detective Emile 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?

SYNOPSIS

From the Author

City of Ice is based upon factual material. In Montreal, Canada, over the last 4 years, we've experienced more than 90 murders and 90 bombings and 120 arsons that are all related to a war between rival biker gangs, the Hell's Angels, and the Rock Machine. Into this mix, we also have the Russian Mafia. While the situation is violent and unpleasant, it's also furtile ground for a thriller, and City of Ice is intended as a an old-time cop novel, with a detective battling against the criminal gangs and against his own squad. The gang warfare is international in scope, with repercussions for the rest of Canada and for the U.S., as international gangs increase their influence and power. My detective is Emile Cinq-Mars, based on a real guy. A moralist, independent, meditative, ultimately he must rely upon his mind to save the few who are innocent. Hope you enjoy the read.

John Farrow, May 25, 1999, (trevorferguson@compuserve.com)

FROM THE CRITICS

The Globe and Mail

Nothing less than astonishing. A layered detective-thriller aimed squarely at readers who delight in genre novels like Smilla'sSense of Snow and... Gorky Park

Quill & Quire

City of Ice is a page-turner stuffed with reportage worthy of the likes of a Tom Wolfe or a Charles Dickens.

Peter Khoury - NY Times Book Review

[A] deft thriller...that explores the question of how far those who are supposedly on the right side of the law should go in pursuing justice....Rich descriptions of Montreal in winter blend well with the bone-chilling plot...

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

Kirkus Reviews

A long, convoluted, debut thriller that's a test of reader stamina. Generally regarded as the top cop in the MUCPD (Montreal Urban Community Police Department), Emile Cinq-Mars accepts the billing as no more than his due. But team playing "is not my style," he informs the head of an elite task force who tries hard to recruit him. The task involves the obliteration of biker gangs currently enjoying a hot time in the City of Ice. A worthwhile task, Cinq-Mars acknowledges, since these aren't just ordinary beer-guzzling, property-damaging, head-breaking biker gangs; these nasties seem highly organized, with an international flavor to their nefarious activities that hints at sophistication and staying power. Still, Cinq-Mars insists, whatever a team can do, a smart, tough, supercool copper can do better by his lonesome. This is, however, a position a little on the ingenuous side, since the truth is that for some years Cinq-Mars has been the beneficiary of a remarkably efficient snitch network not of his making. Tip after tip has led him to big-time arrests. The tips are pure gold; everything else about the network remains a mystery. Cinq-Mars has been disposed to treat his ignorance with a Gallic shrug, but now dead bodies start piling up—with trenchant little messages attached that are aimed at the great detective, tweaking him in his amour-propre. Certain that the snitch network is somehow connected to the needling, Cinq-Mars, like it or not, is going to have to penetrate it. And there are still the biker gangs to bring to justice. From there on, it's a war on two fronts—lots of battles, tactics, sound and fury—that takes about a hundred years to end.