Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Interview and Review

An interview I did a few weeks ago with my own publisher is up on their website now:

http://www.ecwpress.com/[catpath]/john_mcfetridge_interview

An interview with your own publisher has to be the very definition of softball questions, but it is kind of fun.

Also this week, Scene magazine in London, Ontario reviewd Swap. There's no link, but I'm happy to post the whole thing here:

Following on the heels of the well-received 2008 release, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, Canadian author John McFetridge returns to the gritty streets of Toronto with his newest novel, Swap. When a husband and wife are murdered in their car on a busy downtown onramp, their unusual deaths spark an investigation leading police into the darkest recesses of the city’s criminal underworld. All of a sudden Toronto the Good isn’t looking so good anymore, and in McFetridge’s vision, the multicultural metropolis seems to assume a personality all its own - brooding, worldly, corrupt. Typical demonstrations of underworld power are passé here, and biker gangs consisting of well-groomed men driving European sports cars or Hummers roam streets filled with peeler bars and massage parlors. On the other side of the tracks, the cops are in disarray – having been the subject of a recent internal affairs probe - and rifts have started to fracture the force. Detectives Price and McKeon find themselves following the finest thread of a lead in the married couple’s murder case to an exclusive Toronto swinger’s club, where their investigation really starts to pick-up steam. McFetridge’s readership will recognize some of the shady characters from his earlier book here – Richard, Nugs, J.T. - but that knowledge is hardly required to appreciate the story. The magic of the writer’s electric prose lies in his sense of pacing and his ability to create plausible dialogue between characters. McFetridge doesn’t judge their actions; he lays bare their motivations, and benefi ts from all the tantalizing narrative possibilities he finds there. Come to think of it, so do we. ~ Chris Morgan.



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4 comments:

Dana King said...

Maybe the questions were softballs, but they also did a nice job of setting up answers that let the readers see more of your and your influences and approach to writing. That's all a good author interview should do; it's not like you're under investigation on 60 Minutes.

It's also nice to see you've reached a point in your career where multi-national television shows are paying homage to your writing by throwing people off roofs to start stories.

That's a great review for SWAP. Congratulations and god luck with sales.

MY CINEPINION said...

Hey John - congrats on your third book. Maybe we can do some event with you @ Chapters, I've been there almost 8 yrs now. I'd love to get your feedback on my blog and we should get together for a chat or a flick some time. I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards to Lori,

John

MY CINEPINION said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
adrian mckinty said...

I thought it was a great interview actually. Good questions and penetrating answers.