***2025 Summer: Murder Across Canada***
Quebec
For my summer Quebec book, I wanted to avoid the obvious choice of Louise Penny. I've already read several Gamache novels and desired something different. This book is copyrighted 2015 and there is no evidence of any more writing by this author (although one review hints that there are others). That intrigued me. As it turns out, I think there is a good reason for the obscurity. I rarely give one star reviews, but I honestly can't justify giving this novel any more than thst.
The narrative style is very odd. The author wanders from one character to another, head hopping continually. It's almost stream of consciousness. She tries to assert that Toni Damiano, the woman detective, is the main character, but virtually every character gets exactly the same treatment as Toni. The clues and facts are chaotic, all over the place. The other characters tell Toni repeatedly that she's an awesome detective, but we see no evidence of it. I don't understand how the author decided where to end chapters—it feels pretty random. Add to that some confusing and unrealistic dialogue, and I couldn't stand to read the whole thing.
At the fifty percent mark, I felt that I had spent enough time on a poor book. I skipped to the end at that point to see who the murderer was and put myself out of this misery. The last two chapters were every bit as confusing and chaotic as the first half of the book. Really, the murderer could have been any one of the suspects. The conclusion made as much sense as anything, I guess.
Not recommended.
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