Phonse Jessome

Well holy crap, I was not expecting this.

I've read a ton of police procedurals, some good, some meh, some downright embarrassing. This is a book I picked up in the bargain bin, because, as I've said so many times, that's where I get to meet my next favourite author. To be honest though, I was expecting this one to be, in the words of the dearly departed TV Guide, "An okay time-waster."

Instead, I got an interesting, twisty story, a good look into the local police/RCMP dichotomy, a guided tour of an area of Canada I'd never been to, some top-notch cop writing, and a whole other side that could have come straight out of a Sons of Anarchy season.

Honestly, this is just a stupendous book, and the last fifty-odd pages are simply unputdownable.

This. This right here is why I cruise bargain bins. I will read anything else Phonse Jessome writes.… (mehr)

Every now and then I get in the mood for some good ol' true crime. Since we don't have cable, I can't just turn on TruTV anymore, but I saw this book on Netgalley and figured I'd see if it could satisfy that craving. This is a book about the murder and assault of four nighttime workers at a McDonald's in a small industrial town. All over a few thousand dollars that the robbers got out of the safe, when they mistakenly thought there were going to steal hundreds of thousands.

First of all, I didn't realize for a while that this was set in Canada. I'm sure it's mentioned somewhere in the promo materials, but I totally missed it. The differences in their criminal law procedures was interesting to read about (especially since I am a law nerd), and I really enjoyed all of those bits. The narrative style he used to tell the reconstruction of the murders was also very well done. He was able to have several concurrent storylines (the three perps, the separate police investigations, etc) moving at the same time without it getting confusing.

The only thing I was less enthusiastic about was the self-insertion of the authors experience as a reporter of the case while it was being investigated and tried. It's not that I didn't appreciate the insight and point of view this added to the entire narrative, but reading his personal experiences always jarred me out of the main story. I would have preferred his experiences to be added as an afterward, or something like that, but that's just my personal issue.

Overall, this was a very well written account of a horrific crime in a small industrial town in Canada. I would recommend this without reservation for true crime readers, because my one gripe is more a personal pet peeve.

Copy courtesy of Mill City Press, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)