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Scott Thornley

Auteur de Erasing Memory

7+ oeuvres 114 utilisateurs 8 critiques

Séries

Œuvres de Scott Thornley

Erasing Memory (2011) 78 exemplaires
The Ambitious City (2012) 15 exemplaires
Vantage Point: A MacNeice Mystery (2018) 11 exemplaires
Raw Bone (2015) 6 exemplaires
Jusqu'à la moelle 1 exemplaire

Oeuvres associées

English Embroidery in the Royal Ontario Museum (1972) — Concepteur — 7 exemplaires
Chinese jades in the Royal Ontario Museum : an exhibition (1971) — Concepteur — 3 exemplaires

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Critiques

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. There will be spoilers.

A solid police procedural. The pace of the story changes frequently - it starts slowly, which I think really showcased MacNeice's detecting methods. He quietly takes in the scene of the crime, the sights, sounds and smells. The author reveals a lot about MacNeice in the first few chapters; for me this meant I was right at home in his pocket as he goes about investigating. As the story unfolds, various characters are pulled into the fold - his fellow detectives, the medical examiner - although some with smaller roles than others, I felt like I could see the author put all the pieces on a board, ready to be built (into I hope many books!!).

What I did not like about this story was the crime / mystery itself. It started out beautifully - a tragic end to a young violinist's life, her hand upon the record player .... her brain erased by acid injected into the ear. There was something about the death that was so refined. It continues, the father a dealer in rare books and documents (I admit, since I am a librarian, I got so excited at this point!!) ... then the let down. I typically like juxtaposition between scenes (so the refined death scene and the gritty scene at the marina); however I could not connect them in this case. That the death turned out to be about the brother getting the formula from the father to create biological weapons (so long to get there!) in a war between Romania and Bulgaria was .. anticlimactic and for me jarred with the death. It felt too weird - plus, throw in a bunch of other tensions, and I had the feeling I was an inch away from the kitchen sink. Then the suicide of the professional who orchestrated such a refined death - it just felt too twilight zone to me.

That being said - that I was unhappy with the crime / mystery had little effect - I still enjoyed the book and would highly recommend it. I am also looking forward to reading his next one - and from what I can tell, there are currently 3 others I can read.
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Signalé
jarichardsonsmyth | 6 autres critiques | Feb 24, 2023 |
It was OK, not sure I fancy another though
 
Signalé
daaft | 6 autres critiques | Aug 13, 2022 |
My sister loaned me this book which is the first in a Canadian mystery series. I thought I was pretty up on all the Canadian mystery writers but Scott Thornley was unknown to me. Nice to find a new interesting series.

Detective Inspector MacNeice is a homicide investigator in a fictitious Ontario town that is based on Thornley's home town of Hamilton. His wife, who was a violinist, died about 3 years prior to the start of this book. MacNeice has been visiting her grave some spot north of the city and is on his way back when he hears a call about a body in a cottage on Lake Charles. He is very near to the turn-off to the lake so he arrives first. He discovers a beautiful young woman dressed in a designer gown lying on the floor with her hand draped over a portable record player. A recording of the second Schubert Piano Trio is playing and every time the record arm hits the woman's hand it goes back to the beginning and starts over again. There are no marks of violence on the body and she has no identification on her. MacNeice does notice that she has a small bruise on her neck which he recognizes as the mark a violin leaves. Going on that small piece of evidence he believes she may be a graduate of a music school who was celebrating her graduation at the cottage when her life ended abruptly. A search for recent graduations turns up the woman's name. She was Lydia Petrescu, daughter of Antonin Petrescu, a man who immigrated to Canada from Romania. He runs an antique furniture which obviously does quite well judging by the house he lives in. His daughter had an apartment elsewhere so he didn't know she was missing and he was devastated by the news that she was dead. Even worse was what the pathologist had discovered about the manner of her death. A syringe of sulfuric acid had been inserted in her ear and the contents injected into her temporal lobe. The acid dissolved her brain killing her almost instantly. She would have been knocked out and have felt nothing but it was still a horrible way to die. Unfortunately, Lydia's body is not the only one to be discovered at the lake. It seems like a dangerous place to hang out. MacNeice is on the case and through diligent work plus superior investigative skills he manages to solve all the killings.

MacNeice is obviously still grieving his wife's death but he maintains an interest in other matters, particularly music and reading. I got a very good idea of his personality from the music he enjoyed in particular. I have never been a big Schubert fan but I have to admit that the trio piece is quite lovely.There are a number of versions available on YouTube.
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Signalé
gypsysmom | 6 autres critiques | Jan 28, 2022 |
I've had the misfortune to read a pantload of, shall we say, less than stellar novels lately. There was the odd good one in the batch, but really, for most of this year, it hasn't been an enjoyable ride.

Then along comes this novel.

The writing is solid and confident, the characters are, with a few deft and economical strokes, well-drawn and real. At times I questioned why there were essentially two book's worth of material--the first a mystery of the bodies encased in concrete and how they related to a biker gang, the second a budding serial killer on the loose--but they worked quite well together in the end. There's still a part of me that wanted a bit more depth on the William Dance serial killer, and a little less of the internal dialogue, but it's a minor quibble.

But riding over all of this, soaring high above the already-excellent storylines, is the character of MacNeice. He's a fantastic and engaging character with depths still to be plumbed by the author. It's a testament that, in a 450-page novel, you find a character constantly interesting, but the author has the restraint to continue to hold so much back. Bravo.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Now I have to go back to the first book. And then eagerly await any followup novels from Scott Thornley.
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Signalé
TobinElliott | Sep 3, 2021 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
7
Aussi par
2
Membres
114
Popularité
#171,985
Évaluation
3.9
Critiques
8
ISBN
30
Langues
2

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