Review: Steamy Atmosphere Painted Like Graham Greene
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 5, 2014
Al-Quebeca by Alan AnnaudReading eloquently described places I know well in Montreal, my city, added a cherry to the cake that it was being dropped back to a period called The Bikers’ War. In an atmospheric portrayal of the confrontation between the Hells Angels and the Rock Machine biker gangs on one side and the various levels of public security on the other, the author skillfully finds a way to sneak a seemingly insignificant event into a larger canvas.Though the biker wars are important a sleeper cell of terrorists plots to threaten the delivery of electric power from Bay James to New York. One talented and persistent young police detective tenaciously sticks to her guns with her partner and unravels a web of deceit.Bureaucratic stagnation reigns at  some of Quebec’s institutions, but the female detective will stop at nothing to disentangle the various aspects of what she is sure is a terrorist plot. This police procedural created such accurate atmosphere that I was reminded of Inspector Renko of Martin Cruz Smith fame.