Friday 12 June 2015

Book ~ "Miss Montreal" (2013) Howard Shrier

From Goodreads ~ After what happened in Boston, P.I. Jonah Geller can't show his face in the U.S. again. Which is fine with him. He's got a new case in Montreal, one of the world's most colourful and downright scandalous cities. An old friend has been brutally murdered there, and the police investigation is stalled. 

With an election looming and tensions seething, Jonah and former hit man Dante Ryan have to battle religious fanatics, gun runners and a twisted political dynasty to get to the truth.

Jonah Geller is a PI in Toronto.  He is hired by a wealthy old man who is dying to find out who murdered his grandson, Sammy, who was living in Montreal.  Sammy was found viciously beaten to death. Jonah and his friend, Dante Ryan, who is a former hitman, drive to Montreal to find out what happened.

Sammy was well-liked and respected and was a magazine columnist.  He was working on two stories ... one involved an immigrant family from Afghanistan and their new lives in Canada and the other involved a right wing anti-immigrant politician who is running for office.  Did being involved in one of these stories cause Sammy's death or was it a hate crime as it appears to be?

This is the fourth in the Jonah Geller series (and the fourth I've read by this author) and I liked it. I liked the writing style.  It's written in first person perspective from Jonah's point of view.  Because it is his voice, we get to read his thoughts and feelings ... at times Jonah is sarcastic which I appreciated.  As a head's up, there is violence and swearing.

I liked the main characters.  Jonah seems like a nice guy who is loyal to his friends and clients.  I like having Ryan as Jonah's sidekick ... I found him amusing.  He is a tough guy (almost every sentence has the F-word) with his own sense of justice and will do whatever it takes to right what he thinks is a wrong.  And there's no doubting the strong bond between Jonah and his best friend, Jenn.

Having it set in Montreal was fun.  I go to Montreal a couple times a year and I knew where some of the places Jonah went to.  Jonah speaks a bit of French and was forced to do so at times ... I was able to figure out what he was saying most of the time with my high school French.

I look forward to reading more by this author.

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