A Patient Death

The splendid review in the Winnipeg Free Press:

Who knew New Hampshire was a heroin haven for hooked old folks?

And who knew they were dying at a ghastly rate, though they were sitting up and had their needle tracks covered, so it appeared they’d died of the inevitability of old age?

Well, this is all tragic enough, but A Patient Death, the 10th book in John Farrow’s exceptionally great series about retired Montreal homicide cop Émile Cinq-Mars, opens with the renowned detective being (brace yourselves) gunned down by a sniper.

That usually ends in tears.

Cinq-Mars is happily fishing in a bucolic New Hampshire river when the villain – whom we will soon meet again – takes aim from his hiding place in the trees, fires, and Émile topples into the quickly reddening water.

And then without so much as a by your leave, Farrow does the “five days earlier…” routine, and we’re off and running on one of the year’s best murder mysteries.

Is Cinq-Mars one of the victims? As if you’re going to learn that here…

The venerable tall detective with the over-abundant nose is in New Hampshire with his wife Sandra, whose mother has recently died, leaving

Sandra and her sister her house and all kinds of domestic quandaries.

There are hints the marriage is a tad rocky. The two live on a horse farm in Quebec, but Sandra is an American and may be ready to return to New Hampshire for good.

They’ve been there before – Émile is quite famous for solving murders in New Hampshire in previous books in the series. No, he’s not the first retired sleuth to assist the local constabulary, and he’s darned good at it.

So when Émile’s good buddy Trooper Hammond of the New Hampshire state police calls and asks if he has a moment or two to look at something a little suspicious, we know, and Sandra knows, the game is afoot.

But there’s that dreadful scene coming five days later.

It’s really not fair to disclose what Cinq-Mars ferrets out over the next five days – suffice to say your book club will have lots to discuss.

You’ll meet some fascinating characters: a teenage girl who suffered life-altering injuries; a single mother severely injured by an IED in Iraq; a gentlemanly blind lawyer who collects unusual watches; several seniors who have each others’ backs; an over-caffeinated perky real estate agent.

And the assassin, of course, an evil presence lurking in the shadows, who’s probably watched the guy in No Country for Old Men a few times. What he does with a common hardware store gadget such as a – no, you’ll want to read those parts with your eyes closed.

John Farrow is a pseudonym for author Trevor Ferguson. Maybe he’s tired of Cinq-Mars, maybe Émile dies in that river and the bad people get away with whatever it is they’re doing. Maybe.

You’ll have to read A Patient Death to find out, it goes without saying. It’s well worth it. Read. Enjoy… enjoy a lot.

Retired Free Press reporter Nick Martin reckons he wouldn’t fall victim to heroin as he heads into his late 70s. No way, because, you know, it involves (cringe) needles.

+++++

John Farrow is Trevor Ferguson’s crime fiction nom de plume. Under the two names, he is the author of 17 novels. He’s had four plays produced, including in New York – the French version of Long, Long, Short, Long was seen by more than 22,000 patrons, remarkable for a play in Canada and for an English writer in Quebec. The film of his novel, The Timekeeper, was released in 2009. His crime novels have received extraordinary acclaim around the world. City of Ice, which introduced his iconic detective, Sergeant-Detective Émile Cinq-Mars, was a bestseller in lands as diverse as Singapore, France, the Netherlands, and South Africa, and was published in 17 countries. He currently resides in Victoria, British Columbia.  www.johnfarrowmysteries.com