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ASYLUM
by Jeannette de Beauvoir
Minotaur Books, March 2015
320 pages
$25.99
ISBN: 1250045398


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Four women have been found dead, their bodies posed on various benches in Montreal's parks. This is never good news for the tourist trade of any city. Worried about the impact of these murders, the mayor appoints Martine Le Duc, his director of PR, as a liaison between his office and the police department, in the person of Detective Julian Fletcher. He is young and she is an amateur at investigating but they are determined to find out who is killing these women and why.

The predominant theory is that it is the work of a sexual serial killer. However, digging to find a link between the victims, they soon shed that hypothesis and come to the conclusion that the motive goes back to the 1950s, the years of the grande noirceur (the great darkness), when politics and religion dominated life in Quebec and when orphanages were transformed into asylums where children of unwed mothers were subject to harsh treatment and even torture and death. How this horrible historical event reverberates into the present is what they have to find out.

The author would make a good PR director for Montreal. You can feel her knowledge and love for the city. However, as is often the case when writers tackle a not altogether familiar setting, we have an outsider's view and she doesn't quite get the social dynamics of the city, especially when it comes to language. Some of the expressions are wrong and details are sometimes out of kilter. But then I am a native Montrealer and a francophone so what is an irritant to me might pass unnoticed for a stranger to the city.

Martine is an interesting character, dedicated to her goal, if a little prone to do things on her own which leads to dangerous situations, bright and perceptive, with a balanced family life. Her investigating is somewhat naïve but intense. The author's research into the unfortunately true events of our past is thorough and the links she incorporates into the satisfying plot is probable if not proven. I would have preferred to see more cooperation between her and Detective Fletcher who is quite often standing back from the investigation while he should be the one piloting it. De Beauvoir also manages a smooth balance between the past and the present, without dwelling on the gory details.

Despite these few shortcomings and the darkness of the subject matter, the book is nevertheless remains a satisfying first outing that should appeal to most readers.

§ Nicole Leclerc is a native Montrealer, avid reader, long time reviewer and moderator of the 4MA online discussion group.

Reviewed by Nicole Leclerc, March 2015

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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