One or the Other (Eddie Dougherty Mystery #3) by John McFetridge

One or the Other (Eddie Dougherty Mystery #3) Reviews

• 
  Paul Weiss

  Montreal 1976 … “ a big party, but changes were in the air”
  
  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. He’s a young man whose beliefs are a product of their times, his upbringing and his work environment. With a strong desire to earn a promotion to homicide detective, he knows the importance of deferral to police authority even when he doesn’t agree with it. And, often enough, he knows that any anger he might feel toward police brass should be directed at his own conduct or mistaken judgment.
  
  On the eve of the opening of the 1976 Olympics, in which a young Romanian gymnast would shock the sporting world with no less than seven never before awarded perfect scores, a Brinks armored car was brazenly hijacked and relieved of its $2.8 million cargo. Police were convinced that the proceeds of the heist would be used to finance unprecedented levels of drug operations on the streets during the Olympics. The same night two teenagers meet their deaths crossing the Jacques Cartier bridge as they returned home from a rock concert. Eddie Dougherty finds himself and his aspirations to a career as a detective adrift in a turbulent sea awash with police politics as he is assigned to assist the suburban Longueuil force with the investigation of the deaths. Whether they were mugged or whether it was a murder-suicide seems to be of little interest to most of the force when so much effort is being put into security and preparation for the Olympics.
  
  If a reader is forced to categorize ONE OR THE OTHER 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 with the shocking election of the Parti Québecois; 60s and 70s protest rock music; the focus on anti-terrorism security in the aftermath of the murder of Israeli athletes held hostage at the 1972 Olympics in Munich; and, of course, ABC Television’s unforgettably hilarious gaffe cutting to a commercial during the entry of the US athletes into Olympic Stadium because they failed to realize entry would be alphabetical by country name in French (États-Unis).
  
  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 ONE OR THE OTHER as captivating as I did. Highly recommended.
  
  Paul Weiss
• 
  Sam Wiebe

  I got my hands on an ARC a few months ago, and I highly recommend this book--even, and maybe especially, if you're not a fan of police procedurals.
  
  I've read a lot of classic procedurals, from McBain to Wambaugh, but I've never read one that straight-up refutes the idea of the hero cop. All the familiar tropes--the obsessive crusade to solve a crime, the destruction of personal relationships, the bending or breaking of the law--this book and its protagonist take a hard look at those cliches and ultimately toss them.
  
  The Dougherty series has been one of my favorites since the first book, Black Rock. One or the Other might be the best of the three.
• 
  Margaret Sankey

  In 1976 Montreal (with NYC's 70s ugly problems AND a French accent), junior constable Eddie Dougherty attempts to solve the daylight robbery of a Brink's truck, and the deaths of two teenagers. As the Olympics loom, and the threat of a repeat of Munich foremost in his bosses' minds, Dougherty engages in Ed McBain-style gritty street work. This is a an okay procedural, interesting mostly for the 1970s Canadian setting.
• 
  Tony

  I really hate to read crime series out of order, but I inadvertently read this third book in the Montreal-set "Eddie Dougherty" trilogy without realizing there were two earlier books. In any event, this one takes place in the weeks leading up to and after the 1976 Montreal-hosted Olympics. Dougherty is an "English" uniformed cop who is detailed to a variety of assignments over the course of the book, while he grapples with whether or not to get an apartment with his girlfriend and take a big step closer to getting married and settling down.
  
  With the background noise of the Olympics and separatist politics, Eddie is is part of a task force dealing with a bank heist, another targeting ticket-scalpers, is assigned to counter-terrorism security for the Olympics, deals with Eastern European defectors, and even has a brush with Béla Károlyi. But the case that sits at the center of it all is the murder of two teens, killed following a concert by English prog rock group Gentle Giant. This brings him into contact with a female "French" cop and they team up to work the case off the books on their spare time.
  
  All the procedural copy and crime stuff is decent, if a little stiff at times. I did like how Eddie is forced over the course of the book to contend with how his default approach to policing -- intimidation and a little violence -- has its limitations. However, the book is probably best enjoyed for the sights, sounds, and feel of mid-70s Montreal. Readers with an interest in that city, or Canadian crime novels, are probably the best audience for this series.
• 
  Rob Kitchin

  One or The Other is the third book in the Eddie Dougherty series set in Montreal in the 1970s. In this outing it’s 1976. The two big events in the city are a major armed robbery and the Olympics. Dougherty is at the fringes of both, but is out of sorts at work and home. He wants to be a detective but is only ever temporarily assigned and the case he’s working – the death of two teenagers – is taken away from him and in his view mis-investigated, and his relationship with his girlfriend seems to have reached the point where they make a longer term commitment. The tale is stretched out over the year, tracking Dougherty’s unofficial investigation undertaken with a port cop of the teenage deaths. In many ways, this is a bold move. The armed robbery and the Olympics would have been much bigger hooks, but both are largely skirted. Instead McFetridge concentrates on the mundane – everyday policing and the slog of office politics, the ordinariness of crime and a potential miscarriage of justice in a case that is little cared for, and a slightly unsettled home life. On one hand it gives a kind of hyper-realist account of policing, and on the other it leaves the tale somewhat flat and insubstantial. The result is a book that feels like a bridging tale, a filler-episode, as Dougherty’s life transitions. Nonetheless, it’s an interesting police procedural of a case tangential to the key action in the city.
• 
  Wendy Hearder-moan

  It took me a long time to get into this book —in fact, at one point I almost ditched it. But then it started to draw me in, and now I’m thinking of picking up the other ones in the series. The picture of policing in Montreal in the seventies as seen by cops in the lower echelons is not flattering. It was interesting to be taken back to Montreal in the run-up to the Olympics and also to observe the evidence of two solitudes - like streets that change name as you move from an Anglo enclave to a French neighbourhood and vice-versa. But the real draw were the characters of Eddie and Legault how they wouldn’t give up on the case of the two murdered teenagers.
• 
  Gary Van Cott

  This book takes place in Montreal in 1976. While it isn't a trip down memory lane for me, I did live 60 miles south of Montreal in Plattsburgh NY from 1974-1980. I attended a number of events at the Montreal Olympics and visited the city a few other times.
• 
  Sandra

  A very good crime set in Montreal in 1976. I loved all the details about Montreal and everything that was happening that year.
• 
  Richard

  The final book of the series, very enjoyable especially that I grew up in MTL, went to VHS and I am just a couple years older than JM. Well worth the retelling of the times.
• 
  Brownguy

  When I chose this book, I was expecting a sort of punch-fest through Montreal with maybe some interesting side information next to a Dirty Harry style plot. Even with that, I was surprised at how fun this book was to read though. The reader follows Constable Eddie Dougherty around 1970’s Montreal as he chases, questions and assaults criminals in pursuit of various crimes. Dougherty navigates his career through the police as an Anglo in a French run department and is looking for a promotion. Meanwhile working out his relationship with his girlfriend while the famed 1976 Montreal Olympics change the city.
  
  As someone with an interest in Montreal and history, I found the book really engaging on a few levels - there were the detective stories of Dougherty and information sprinkled throughout about Montreal and some of the major developments. It seems like McFetridge has a pretty strong interest in the city, even if he’s not exactly from there. There are tons of music references too, with more than a couple flying over my young head. In fact, the book starts off with a quote from The Band about saving your neck or your brother and while that didn’t fit into the main character, Dougherty’s story, it was a nice motif throughout.
  
  The characters were ok, I liked them all for the most part. They tended to be a little too on the nose for the time period; there was a divorced couple, and lots of stuff with Quebec’s potential separation that felt a little one dimensional. It didn’t detract from the story though and I think it was appropriate for the genre. The ending felt a bit rushed (doesn’t it always though?) and a bit deus ex machina but the rest of the book was so good that it didn’t really matter.
  
  After reading this one, I think I’d like to read more of the Dougherty series. It was a pretty fast, engaging read with plenty of history and action.
• 
  Kendra

  Eddie Dougherty is tired of working homicide cases without ever achieving a place on the homicide squad. Six years after his first foray into detective work, he's still working the beat out of Station Ten.
  
  With a fair amount of soul-searching about career and marriage goals, Eddie does manage to work a double murder case that he just can't let go. Set during the Montreal Olympics, there's plenty of historical colour to this fun mystery.