Ontario Inspector MacNeice is now one of the heroes we like to find in thrillers.
With this fourth volume in the series, the man whom the police officers of the (fictional) town of Dundurn, not far from Toronto, nickname the “Wayne Gretzky of major crimes” finds himself faced with a most unusual crime scene. The victims were abandoned in a strange setting that reminded him of a famous painting. When another body is discovered, it quickly becomes clear that the two cases are linked.
But the massacre does not stop there, and MacNeice’s team is on edge, unable to identify the profile of the killer. The plot moves at a rather slow pace in the first third of the novel, while we immerse ourselves in the mourning of MacNeice, who struggles to cope with daily life without his wife.
We also learn why, through his meetings with a psychologist appointed by his superior, he became a police officer (although it is not necessary to have read the previous novels to fully appreciate reading it).
We must also highlight the work of the translator, who endeavored to Quebecize the dialogues to create an effect of proximity; we may find it funny to read Ontarians expressing themselves with coronations, but he certainly succeeds in making us feel that we are not very far from home.
Death in perspective
Boreal
432 pages