Black Rock

June 9, 2014
A killer is stalking Montreal. Four women are dead, and yet the police seem no closer to catching the depraved murderer. The fourth victim is young Brenda Webber, whose sister Constable Eddie Dougherty knew. Unfortunately for the Webbers, it is 1970 and the escalating Front de libération du Québec terrorist campaign, a campaign of bombs, kidnapping, bank robberies and murder that will ultimately see tanks and soldiers on the streets of the City of Saints, consumes all available police resources. Determined to get justice for Brenda, Eddie carries out a quiet one-man investigation, steadfastly searching for a hidden killer. A comparatively young officer, Eddie's ambition is greater than his ability in this novel. Neither entirely Anglo nor French, he occupies an uncomfortable position in the divided Montreal of 1970, but his outside status grants him a perspective others may lack. Born in Montreal himself, McFetridge (Swap) uses the events of 1970 to good effect, providing his historical procedural with an atmosphere of oppressive fear and paranoia. A short afterword explains how his fiction ties into the actual events of the time. Quietly competent, this work succeeds both as a mystery and snapshot of Canada in a particular fraught era.