Erasing Memory

Starred review from May 7, 2018
Thornley’s impressive debut opens when a young violinist is found murdered and left in an artful death pose dressed in her best evening gown. Clearly a macabre message is being sent, or so Det. Supt. MacNiece believes. The only lead: a murder weapon used exclusively by former Eastern Bloc hit teams. The plot thickens when MacNiece discovers the victim’s father was once a highly placed microbiologist in communist Romania’s Ceaușescu regime. While the book starts out as a by-the-numbers crime procedural, it quickly becomes a stand-out character driven mystery. MacNiece, a brilliant detective whom the whole department admires, is still tortured over the death of his wife, and his inner demons distract him to the point that he makes errors on the job, resulting in the gruesome murder of an important witness he was protecting. MacNiece’s humanness, and his squad’s continued admiration of him despite his fallibilities, fuel this terrific novel as much as the tight plot does. Superb writing, complex and highly likable characters, and the occasional delicious burst of violence definitely make the next books in this series worth watching for. Agent: Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists.

November 15, 2018
In fictional Dundurn, Ontario, Detective Superintendent MacNeice's homicide team (last seen in Raw Bone, 2015) hunts a sophisticated serial killer and investigates the disappearance of one of their own. An unsuspecting house cleaner finds the bodies of an Anglican priest and his son, painstakingly arranged with a small metal V placed in a corner. Days later, another telltale V is found near an addict's body staged in a park, and then at the perplexing murder scene of two pimps. The highly organized killer leaves no physical evidence, and the team struggles for leads until Detective Fiza Aziz realizes that the killer's tableaux are re-creations of master artists' controversial works. As their search for the serial killer gathers steam, an emotionally weary MacNeice leans on Fiza when he's also tasked with hunting for the missing Dundurn detective. MacNeice's fourth outing offers an excellent opportunity to introduce American readers to one of Canada's best-loved fictional detectives, whose insight-laden conversations with his deceased wife and fascination with bird calls herald the kind of oddball investigative savant whom readers adore.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)