Cover image of "The Storm Murders," a baffling murder mystery

When two rural police officers arrive in a snowstorm at an isolated house in the Quebec countryside to investigate a double murder, both quickly fall victim themselves. A retired Montreal City investigator, Sergeant-Detective Emile Cinq-Mars, receives a visit from his former partner and an unknown FBI agent who ask him to join them on the mysterious case.

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Thus begins John Farrow’s novel, The Storm Murders, a complex and baffling tale that takes Cinq-Mars from Quebec to New Orleans and back again, involving him in a string of unexplainable homicides. What links the murders is that each has been committed immediately after a major disaster (Hurricane Katrina, a tornado, and, unaccountably, the simple snowstorm in Quebec). Along the way Cinq-Mars encounters a suspicious New Orleans police officer, a resourceful hotel detective, and a special (perhaps rogue) unit of the FBI — and his wife is kidnapped. The resolution of this unsettling case is long in coming. It’s suspenseful all the way.

A murder mystery with too many twists and turns

Though the story is intriguing and seems impossible to figure out before the explanation is finally revealed at the end, the resolution, though neat, takes many pages to explain and seems far beyond belief. Farrow gets high marks for inventiveness. For credibility? Not so much.

The Storm Murders (Storm Murders Trilogy #1) by John Farrow ★★★☆☆

About the author

John Farrow is the pen name of Trevor Ferguson, one of Canada’s leading writers. The Storm Murders is the first book in a trilogy of the same name. Beginning in 1977, he has written thirteen novels and four plays

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