Ball Park

I would like to thank Netgalley and Severn House Publishers for an advance copy of Ball Park, a police procedural featuring Montreal detective Emile Cinq-Mars.

1975 and Emile has just transferred from the notoriously incorruptible Night Patrol to day shift where he is partnered with Yves Giroux, a former Night Patrol Officer with a whiff of corruption around him. Their first case is a burglary with some strange events. The burglar is teenager Quinn Tanner who quickly realises she may have stolen more than she thought.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ball Park which is a clever piece of writing with some great twists. It must be at least fifteen years since I read City of Ice and Ice Lake and, to be honest, all I remember is that I loved them and looked out for more for a few years until recently when I saw the Storm Trilogy, which I haven’t got round to reading yet, and then this became available so I scooped it up. I’m glad I did as my memory hasn’t failed me, despite frequent suggestions of otherwise nowadays. It is a great read and appealed to me on so many levels. Firstly it is a police procedural, my favourite kind of reading. The plot held my attention throughout as it is not a run of the mill murder mystery. It draws in various characters with different motives and these motivations are what drives the novel. The overarching question is why and this is gradually teased out as the novel progresses. I know that sounds a bit woolly but I don’t want to issue spoilers. I also liked the writing which is inviting and I loved the dialogue which seems natural and human, being at times elliptical and ambiguous but always understandable.

I like the relationship between Quinn and Emile which can be feisty but seems like the start of a good friendship. The contrast between their, don’t know what to call it, innocence, idealism, goodness (?) and the self serving cynicism of their opponents is somehow satisfying, as if they can rise above the sewer. It gives the novel a feel good factor.

Ball Park is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

John Farrow immerses us in Montreal 1975 as Detective Cinq Mars transitions from the Night Patrol of tough honest cops to daytime police. A teen female thief steals a baseball; her driver is killed during the theft. The crime victim is the daughter of a Mafiosi. Ball Park shows the interplay among the underworld of the mafiosi, domestic murder and police informants. Gritty and gripping tale.