Sunday, September 06, 2009

The Globe and Mail Review

It's always stressful waiting for reviews of a new book - or really just wondering if you'll even get any reviews.

I've been very fortunate with my books to have received generally very good reviews.

I must admit I've been surprised that Margaret Cannon of the Globe and Mail has been so supportive. I guess I've always felt that she usually favours more traditional mysteries with a central detective, lots of suspects, clues and a resolution. But the fact that I don't really have any of those things in my books doesn't seem to bother her.

Here's her review of Swap:

If you're interested in learning about the backside of Toronto the Good, Swap is a great place to begin. Drugs, guns, gangs and just plain nastiness hide in the suburbs, just outside the shiny city centre. For Vernard McGetty, a Detroit homeboy in search of lucrative partnerships, Toronto's biker gangs are a perfect fit. They deliver the dope, he delivers the guns. Of course, he's a bit mystified by bikers who ignore their Harleys in order to drive SUVs, but who cares about appearances?

While Get is planning his get, Toronto detectives Price and McKeon have a pair of dead bodies on their hands. The couple are Mr. and Mrs. Clean, not so much as a traffic ticket. Someone sailed by and shot them as their car headed up a freeway ramp. Who knows what company these nice family folk may have been keeping?

McFetridge has his difficulties keeping the plot moving, and some of the dialogue owes a bit to Quentin Tarantino, but this is a slick little story.


Pretty good, I think.

26 comments:

pattinase (abbott) said...

Congrats, John. I got to read it in person on Saturday and cheered.

Dana King said...

I read this yesterday, thanks to a link on Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind. I thought it was a good review then, but even better now that you've provided some background on the reviewer. A traditionalist may not "get" your books, as there's no crime to be solved in the usual sense. The fun is in watching the story play out, and in the interplay between characters. That makes her plot comment not only understandable, but allows me to pretty much ignore it, because she's looking for it in a place other than where you wrote it.

pattinase (abbott) said...

John, does durham county get a bit less frightening? I stuck with it but no one else that i know did. I think it's gonna be worth it but too many more scenes like dancing with dead schoolgirls might scare even me.

John McFetridge said...

Patti, Ihaven't seen all the Durham county episodes, so I can't be sure, but I think they were aiming to keep it very dark.

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