Every now and then a novel comes along that simultaneously fulfills the familiar demands of the mystery genre, while adding just enough new flavour to make the experience of reading both comfortable and refreshing. Such is the case with Erasing Memory, the first novel in the MacNeice Mystery series by Scott Thornley.
It’s my experience that great novels, be they mysteries or not, are driven by great characters, and Thornley doesn’t disappoint. His protagonist, Detective Superintendant MacNeice, has the right combination of encyclopedic knowledge, deductive reasoning, and street toughness that you can’t help but love in a detective. His passions are broad and deep, as are the scars of a turbulent past (especially with regard to his deceased wife).
But Thornley gives us more than just the archetypal detective: MaNeice (Mac to his friends) is surrounded by a cast of characters, such as his partner, Detective Fiza Aziz, who bring a refreshing air of diversity to a genre that isn’t exactly known for being ethnically inclusive. Some of these supporting characters even bring some welcome comic relief to a novel that so expertly steeps the reader in elegant tragedy and violence.
And the novel is nothing if not elegant: from the opening murder scene (a beautiful young woman in an evening dress, gracefully posed on the floor of a pristine summer cottage so that the finger of one hand regularly interrupts Schubert’s Piano Trio playing on an antique phonograph), to the dystopian decay of the streets of Dundurn (Thornley’s fictional rust-belt city, reminiscent of Hamilton and Detroit), Thornley weaves expertly-wrought imagery into an intricate story of murder and violence steeped in the ancient grievances of Eastern Europe brought across the ocean to North America.
Best of all, once you’ve devoured Erasing Memory, you won’t have to wait for long for the second installment of the MacNeice mysteries: The Ambitious City is scheduled to be in stores in May.