A Little More Free (Eddie Dougherty Mystery #2) by John McFetridge

A Little More Free (Eddie Dougherty Mystery #2) Reviews

• 
  Sam Wiebe

  John McFetridge is the unsung hero of Canadian crime fiction. His Toronto novels, including Dirty Sweet and Everybody Knows this is Nowhere, offered smooth Elmore Leonard-inspired prose, and characters with a workmanlike (and workwomanlike) approach to crime and crime fighting. His new Montreal series, Black Rock and A Little Less Free, follow the career of Eddie Dougherty, a rookie officer working the divide between Anglo and French Montreal. Black Rock takes place during the FLQ bombings. Dougherty has a street's eye view of the panic and commotion of a city under terrorist siege.
  
  A Little More Free finds Dougherty a few years removed from the bombings, his career stalled, struggling to understand both the protest culture and the government's response to it. He's first on the scene to the murder of a young American draft dodger, who has connections to protestors, to criminals, and to the city's elite.
  
  Since Dougherty is a beat cop, we not only follow the main case, but also witness other crimes, from art theft to arson. Some of these are based on real events, such as a nightclub fire that claimed thirty-seven lives. The novel is backgrounded by the Canada-USSR hockey exhibition, which goes much rougher than the Canadians expect, highlighting how little we know about the people we're told are the enemy.
  
  Dougherty becomes involved with student activist Judy McIntyre, and while there's tension between Eddie's straight-laced working class take on society and Judy's political crusade, the more fundamental struggle is within them. As Judy says, "Democracy's hard and it's boring. And slow." It's a world where people are starting to substitute the self for the community, personal status and wealth for equality.
  
  And this might be the point McFetridge is making about how the civil rights movement dispersed into self-actualization and self-interest, how the protests stalled out, how a generation that fought for peace and the rights of African-Americans could fail to get behind other causes--gay rights, for instance.
  
  Montreal is a fascinating city. The seventies are a fascinating time. John McFetridge’s Dougherty series are the best Montreal crime novels since Trevanian’s The Main, offering engrossing crime stories with social commentary--about today, about Canada, about us. A Little More Free is a captivating read, and the Dougherty series might be the best work of McFetridge's career.
• 
  Dietrich Kalteis

  This is one of McFetridge's best. Believable characters and a great recreation of Montreal in the early seventies. A must read for mystery fans.
• 
  Rob Kitchin

  A Little More Free is the second outing for Constable Eddie Dougherty, an anglophone cop working in the largely francophone city of Montreal. The story has two real strengths. The first is Dougherty who is a fairly ordinary cop from a working class background who’s likeable and dogged. The second is the historical contextualisation and sense of place – McFetridge places the reader in the city during the famous Canadian-Soviet ice hockey series and the tail end of the Vietnam war. While the tale has three central cases - the mass murder of thirty seven people, a major heist, and the murder of an army deserter – the telling is somewhat low-key, focusing on the mundane, everyday grinding out of an investigation. The result is an engaging story that spits and sizzles rather than boils and explodes. It’s an interesting tactic, but one that works well, imbuing the tale with a sense of realism and drawing the reader into Dougherty’s world. I’ll certainly be reading the next in the series, One or the Other.
• 
  Paul Weiss

  “Seeing people spilling out of the bars, he realized that the whole city was likely going to shut down for the final game.”
  
  Eddie Dougherty is a constable in the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal. As a man with a French mother and an English father, his life and his thinking sits astride that tall, near impermeable fence dividing what Hugh MacLennan labeled as The Two Solitudes. As a young man whose beliefs are a product of their times, his upbringing and his work environment, it is hardly surprising that he doesn’t really understand the growing gay community in his city. Nor does he hold any respect for the rising tide of peaceniks, protesters, draft dodgers, deserters and conscientious objectors fleeing the militant environment in the USA, weary with its participation in the interminable Vietnam War.
  
  On the eve of the legendary “Summit Series”, the hockey showdown between Canada’s finest and the USSR that would electrify and all but paralyze an entire nation, a gay man is bludgeoned to death for no apparent reason. The same night, a country and western night club filled with patrons is torched and 37 young people meet their maker. Later that week, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is relieved of over $2 million of its most treasured art. Eddie Dougherty finds himself and his aspirations to a career as a detective adrift in a turbulent sea awash with class politics and “fag-bashers”, American Vietnam War politics and organized crime.
  
  If a reader is forced to categorize A Little More Free by genre, the probable choice would be “police procedural”. But, for my money, it was much more a vibrant re-creation of the city of Montreal in the 70s that used a week in the life of a young detective as a canvas on which an exciting historical, sociological and anthropological portrait of French Canada could be created.
  
  And, make no mistake, McFetridge’s detailed and unerringly accurate brush strokes brilliantly brought that canvas to realistic and gritty life – the first whiff of the politics of Quebec separation; free sex unburdened by fears of STDs or AIDS; smoking in hospital waiting rooms and restaurants; 60s and 70s protest rock music; the release of Jethro Tull’s Aqualung; the murder of Israeli athletes held hostage at the 1972 Olympics in Munich; Trudeaumania and the re-election of Nixon before his ultimate resignation after the Watergate scandal; and, of course, Paul Henderson’s never-to-be-forgotten series winning goal in the last 34 seconds of the final game of the series in Moscow.
  
  Those looking for a somewhat more traditional mystery or procedural novel may be disappointed. But if realism is your bag and you’re interested in what French Canada felt like in the latter part of the 20th century, then you’ll likely find A Little More Free as captivating as I did. Highly recommended.
  
  Paul Weiss
  
  
• 
  Sharon Thurnell

  I enjoyed this book It was an interesting look back at the 70's and the epic hockey games, used as a background in the story line. Being from Ontario, having relatives in the Montreal area, and having taken french in school, it was not to hard to follow the french of this book. However, not having this background might make it hard for anyone outside of this area of knowledge, to grasp the use of french. The extensive use of street locations got very annoying after a while. I don't think it was necessary, or maybe it could have been turned around a little in the writing to become more of the story rather then just facts. The directions seemed to interrupt the flow of the writing.
• 
  Wendy Hearder-moan

  Another good one. Dated to the time of the big hockey match between the Canadians and Soviet teams when Henderson scored the winning goal (1972). Eddie’s case revolves around a deserter from the Viet-Nam war. Should have read the series in order but I read them close enough together that this one fills in the blanks for me. I like how McFetridge illustrates the divide between the two solitudes in Montreal.
• 
  Richard

  Good story set in MTL back in 1972, many name and place references that made it very familiar to me, an ex MTLer. Story was a bit lite but definitely worth the read, and I have started the third and final book in the series.
• 
  A Reader's Heaven

  (I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)
  
  Montreal, Labour Day weekend, 1972. The city is getting ready to host the first game in the legendary Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. Three men set fire to a nightclub and Constable Eddie Dougherty witnesses the deaths of 37 people. The Museum of Fine Arts is robbed and two million dollars’ worth of paintings are stolen. Against the backdrop of these historic events, Dougherty discovers the body of a murdered young man on Mount Royal. As he tries to prove he has the stuff to become a detective, he is drawn into the world of American draft dodgers and deserters, class politics, and organized crime.
  
  This book was a bit hit-and-miss for me.
  
  The good things first: As someone who has recently married a Canadian, I am always on the lookout for books regarding Canada and its history so, when I saw the blurb for this one, I just couldn't resist. And I was very pleased because it drew me a picture of Montreal during the early 1970's that I would otherwise not know. The setting and storytelling were great - and the references to other historical events gave me something to go on with regarding my love of Canada.
  
  The part that let me down was the French - others have said that the dialogue was choppy and seemed to come from Google Translate - for me, I don't speak French at all so i was on the back foot and felt disconnected from the dialogue at times. And that disconnects me from the story.
  
  Otherwise, this was a very good crime mystery novel and I hope that I soon learn enough French to read another!
  
  
  Paul
  ARH
• 
  Melanie

  This is a very enjoyable crime novel, well told and with wonderful characters. The setting, Montreal, is a character in and of itself. Lots of description of places and the political climate in 1970's Montreal.
  
  I enjoyed the way the author developed the characters amidst a swirl of politics, protests, urban development issue, and of course hockey. It is a great introduction to a certain time in our past, and it's also a fascinating crime read. The main character is complex and really worth following.
  
  I'm definitely going back to read the first book in this series now!
• 
  Gary Van Cott

  While this book is a bit out of my normal reading range, the fact that it takes place less than 18 months before I arrived at Plattsburgh AFB (60 miles south of Montreal in the US and mentioned in the book) makes it special. I look forward to more in this series.
• 
  Kendra

  Definitely a series I'll keep reading. McFertridge has a quirky writing style that perfectly suits his eager detective-wannabe protagonist and the throwback to seventies Montreal setting. I love that the murder mystery is saturated with historical events.
• 
  Lynn Kearney

  This with or is new to me. Lovely, familiar accounts of life in Montreal in the late sixties, early seventies. Who cares about the mystery.
• 
  Colleen

  The story is set in a time that I remember well during my university days. The setting adds the depth to make this not only a good mystery but a social commentary on the times.