Every City Is Every Other City (Gordon Stewart Mystery, #1) by John McFetridge

Every City Is Every Other City (Gordon Stewart Mystery, #1) Reviews

• 
  SapphireBlue

  If you look up the definition of repetitive you’ll find a picture of this book. Guess what he is a location scout for movies, did you know he scouts location for the movies. He has a job right, he scouts locations and he’s a really horrid PI on the side for a very shady PI firm. But you never guess he scouts movie locations.
  
  And every description is accompanied with; if this was a script… insert pretty much any movie cliche or line here. And you’ll never guess he scouts movie locations but he also hates movies and never watches them. He’s so quirky, he doesn’t even know Ryan Reynolds.
  
  End me.
  
  The only reason it gets two starts is because it somehow got me to sit through the whole book and I liked the mfc.
  
  He is boring and the story would’ve been way better from the girls point of view.
• 
  Jim Thomsen

  I said, “We did what we could and now we leave it for professionals, we let other people do their jobs.”
  
  “But what if they don’t?”
  
  “It’s like a movie crew, don’t try to do everyone else’s job, just do yours. Improv works like that, doesn’t it?”
  
  “No, you always try to get the best lines for yourself.”
  
  “No, you don’t.” She nodded. “No, you don’t, but you want to. And you always worry the other people are going to blow the set-up, you hang one out there and you die inside waiting for them to hit it.”
  
  “And when they do, it’s fantastic.” Ethel turned her head and looked at me and said, “Look at you, Mr. Optimistic.”
  
  “I’ve really changed,” I said. “I went on my hero’s journey and I came through it a new man. It really does work.”
  
  She said, “Sarcastic bastard.”
  
  “Well, I didn’t get closure, so it doesn’t work completely.”
  
  “Sarcastic fucking bastard.”
  
  — John McFetridge, EVER CITY IS EVERY OTHER CITY
  
  
  Meta-fiction can often be too cute, with too many too-wide winks at the narrative camera, and walk an impossible fine line between story and sarcastic commentary. But EVERY CITY IS EVERY OTHER CITY, the newest crime novel by John McFetridge, sidesteps that trap by actually having something interesting to say about the sometimes blurry-from-oversaturation Venn diagram between reality-reality and scripted screen-reality. And it does so with a nice light, linear touch that's a pleasant departure from McFetridge's other novels, which can sometimes lay on the Elmore Leonard pastiche a little too thickly.
  
  Gordon Stewart — "the most Canadian name ever" — is a Toronto-based location scout for the film industry who also moonlights as a private detective. Here's he's got two jobs: one, find the uncle of a fellow co-worker on the set, a middle-aged ne'er-do=well who appears to have disappeared into the north Ontario woods to diel and two: to do occasional surveillance for an occasional employer. The first job takes Gordon to Calgary and back with little luck; and the second turns out to be a job gathering evidence to undermine victims of a Jeffery Epstein-like man on trial for serial sexual crimes. (Like Epstein, Michael Emery has powerful friends in and out of uniform, a discovery that gives this amiably second-gear novel its few jolts of high-stakes action.)
  
  Along the way, Gordon meets Ethel, a struggling actress and sharp cookie who both fits and rejects the sidekick/sidepiece role — and comments on it nonstop Their Nick-and-Nora patter is both knowing and vulnerable as things start to get real between them, and she does what every good woman in a private-eye story does: she gets Gordon to focus and prioritize — not just on his jobs but in his life priorities — and guides him to important revelations that help him draw a bead on resolution in both cases. Along the way, there's a lot of snappy patter about dialogue that sounds like movie dialogue, which can never go un-commented upon. An example:
  
  She said, “You’re Lloyd Dobler,” and I said, “Oh, it’s from a movie, of course. Everything everybody says is from a movie.”
  
  “Well, yes,” she said, “movies have used all the words. Sometimes people put them in a different order.”
  
  And:
  
  “Some private eye you are. You’re supposed to keep after them until they beat you up and tell you to leave it alone, and that just gets you to dig harder.”
  
  “I’ve been beaten up,” I said. “It would actually get me to stop.”
  
  And:
  
  Ethel said, “It’s a Toyota Corolla.”
  
  “Really?”
  
  “Yeah. Why, is that a surprise?”
  
  I said, “I only know investigative reporters from the movies, it would be some kind of SUV, maybe a Range Rover, and now that I think about it, that’s probably something a reporter could never afford.”
  
  And:
  
  “Most of the reporters are probably like most of the cops,” I said. “They protect and serve the rich and famous and everybody else is always a suspect.”
  
  “Not exactly like the cops on TV.”
  
  “It’s not really all that different,” I said. “Except there isn’t really the one who’s willing to go up against his bosses to see that justice is really served.”
  
  Fun stuff, and it all goes down as smooth as blended Canadian whiskey, with a nice dark glow in the depths of the gut that lingers in a satisfying way. Highly recommended.
• 
  Laur

  Started off as intriguing, kind of interesting storyline, as a movie set locator (and also working as a security PI for a special group) is asked to investigate the disappearance of her husband whose truck was abandoned in the woods. Missing now for quite a while. Reports filed - nothing known and not much being done to find out. Is the guy dead? Did he commit suicide? Foul play? Or just walked away and wanted to disappear. Why would he ever leave his wife who dearly loved him?
  
  Stuff doesn't add up as he starts to investigate. Lot's of type-lipped people. But the story starts to really slow down about mid-way through, and without giving anything away, the ending was just ...uh...uninspiring and rather bland.
  
  The Audio Book had way too much of the "f" words for my taste, but the audio narrator, Tim Campbell was brilliant. For that reason, a 1.5 rating is rounded up to 2.
• 
  Christina

  As someone admittedly not really into the genre I enjoyed this more than most PI novels.
  
  Gordon Stewart works as a location scout for movies, and when filming gets slow he supplements his income working as a private eye. Knowing this his boss on set hires him to find her missing (presumed dead) uncle.
  
  According to the police it was an open and shut case; he left his truck beside the road in a rural area, walked into the sense Forrest and shot himself. But his wife is convinced that he’s still alive.
  
  Gordon ends up on a goose chase looking for a man who may or may not be alive and even if he is alive he's not a man wanting to be found.
• 
  Siobhan O

  Tried the audio book. Painful to listen to the narrator. I felt like the author got side tracked on what the story was supposed to be about.
• 
  Iris Ann

  I listened to this book and found the reader reminded me of Jack Webb’s character, Joe Friday, from the 1950’s tv show, Dragnet. It was not nor is a favorite. The storyline of locating a missing man did catch my interest. However, all of the subplots were annoying, especially, Ethyl, who introduced the F bomb into her conversations without restraint. I listened to all I could endure, skimming through much because of the language. In other words, it should be a 1star except I do give the author credit for choosing an interesting idea that seems to be happening more and more in our society. Men dropping out of life, picking up in another location, and leaving their old lives behind for greener grass in the future. Don’t think I’d refer this one to anyone.
• 
  Pauline Clark

  Light but highly entertaining. I loved the familiarity of the Canadian-isms in this book and the references to northern Ontario etc. I'd read another Gordon Stewart mystery if I saw one.
• 
  Theomanic

  Ha ha ha, this book, man. It cracked me up, though I gotta admit I was listening to it and the narrator could not have been chosen better. His chill, deadpan voice was so perfect. So that definitely made me love it all the more.
  
  I loved the gentle meta nature of the story. I liked the rumination on the interchangeable nature of cities, the questions of identity. I liked how the narrator talked about how generic Toronto was while painting a very clear and specific picture of Toronto. I liked the whole side character wink situation. Like I said, subtle meta.
  
  I did find Ethel to be a wee bit MPDG in that I wasn’t sure why she would’ve been interested in the main character to begin with, but there she was, helping him become his best self and all. She was still fun. The discussions she raised added all the more to the sly analysis of story and media.
  
  It really was a pleasure to read this book. It made me smile, a feat considering all the dark themes, and managed to be educational and give some societal commentary without being preachy. I'm definitely curious about this author's other work and I'll be seeing if it also has that deadpan humour that I enjoyed so much.
• 
  Stephanie C

  A definite hard-boiled Sam Spade wannabe type of mystery novel with a bit of a intriguing plot about a movie set production guy who moonlights as a private detective on the side and is hired by a woman whose husband either committed suicide or perhaps lets people think he’s dead. Either way, I could only get a third of the way through the book because the dialogue was so cringeworthy (insert awkward, unnecessary lead-in to phone sex with thankfully leaving out the gross details here) and the writing style so mediocre that I couldn’t finish. I would suggest if you want the truly intelligent wit and dry humor, stick with Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett who are leaps and bounds the ultimate standard of this genre.
• 
  donna_ehm

  Starts out promising with an intriguing hook, that being having the detective character being a location scout in the film industry who does investigating on the side, and what I liked about this set up was that the type of investigative work Gord does feels entirely appropriate to what a regular person would be doing. In other words, we don't have an amateur PI suddenly capable of performing like an ex-Special Forces dude. Gord stays in his lane. He has one contact to whom he goes if he needs database work, basically, which is the security firm he does occasional work for, but that's about it. How he approaches looking for the uncle of a co-worker, as well as the surveillance he's doing for the security firm at the same time, comes off as being entirely reasonable: he asks questions, he follows up. In several instances Gord is basically, "Well, that didn't work out and I have no idea what to do next." and it's other characters who give him ideas on how to proceed. I mean, it felt real.
  
  Gord initially comes off as a laid back, go-with-the-flow kind of guy. He never has a sense of urgency about him, he doesn't get over-excited about things or have moments where he's screaming at someone. "I'm trying to not draw any attention." he says at one point, and it's an accurate encapsulation of his character. Being calm and unflappable seems to be a good combination for someone working in two fields - film and private investigation - characterized by a high level of uncertainty and constantly changing conditions you have to adapt to.
  
  But as the story goes on, those traits start to reveal a less positive side and Gord seems to just...exist inside the story, like he's standing still while the plot flows around him. It's like he's simply not interested in doing an iota more than the bare minimum. Other characters seem far more invested in either solving the mystery of the uncle's disappearance and/or turning the tables on the dirty tactics being employed by the security firm as they seek to smear female sexual assault victims trying to bring legal action against a very rich man who has hired the firm to keep everything out of the press (and himself out of prison).
  
  One character in particular is Gord's erstwhile girlfriend Ethel who gets very fired up when she finds out Gord has been contracted by the firm to surveil one of the victims. She essentially shames him into being a kind of double-agent while simultaneously trying to do her own PI thing in order to help these women.

  Ethel said, "We have to do more."
  I said, "We're doing everything we can."
  "We're doing nothing. You and me, we're doing nothing."
  "Yes, and that's what we have to keep doing."
  "There must be something we can do."

  
  So we get this odd situation where the narrative shifts away from the titular search for the missing uncle to this whole storyline involving the security firm and the women bringing suit against their assaulter. At the same time, Gord's laconic persona takes on a decidedly passive flavour. As other characters come to the fore, particularly his girlfriend Ethel, Gord just seems along for the ride, and sometimes has to be pushed and cajoled to action. It's like McFetridge loses interest in the character, as well as the search for the uncle, in favour of focusing on the latter plot and characters such as Ethel. It's interesting that the book summary doesn't even mention this plot; goodness knows it didn't do much for me, probably because it seemed to be the Ethel show with Gord plodding along somewhere behind.
  
  Gord's passivity just became more and more irritating, as did the writing itself. The quote above is characteristic of how McFetridge captures conversations and dialogue. One one level, it does comes across as accurate in that it focuses entirely on the dialogue and doesn't feel the need to explicitly describe a pause or if someone was fiddling with a button on their coat or scratching their ear or whatever. It's a transcription, basically, of two people talking from the perspective of not being able to see them, and I think there is an energy and freshness to that. You do feel like you're hearing the conversation, not having a whole scene described to you that also includes characters talking.
  
  But on another level? Oh my god, is it annoying to read. I've never read anything else by McFetridge so I don't know if this is just how he writes dialogue (and if it is I won't be going out of my way to expand my reading in his direction) but in this book, there are - no joke - entire chapters of this. I tagged Chapter 29 as an example which opens with a brief description of Gord entering a lunchroom looking for Lana (niece of the missing man and the one who hired Gord to find him). What follows is a transcription of the people there talking about various celebrities who had committed suicide. A sample:

  When I walked in, someone said, "Robin Williams," and someone else said, "Yeah, that was surprising," and someone else said, "Or was it."
  Another person said, "Vern Troyer."
  "Really, Mini-Me?"
  Lana said, "Dana Plato."
  A woman I thought was in accounting, Marilyn, I think, said, "That was an overdose, wasn't it?"
  "Later ruled suicide," Lana said and then I understood what they were talking about.
  "Anthony Bourdain."
  I said, "Is this because Luke Perry died?"
  "No," Marilyn said, "that was a stroke, this is suicides."
  "Oh. Why?"
  "Didn't you hear? Keith Flint, singer from Prodigy."
  Someone said, "Brad Delp," and someone else said, "Oh yeah, 'More Than a Feeling.'"
  "Guy from Big Country."
  "Guy from Crowded House."
  "Guy from Linkin Park."
  "Guy from INXS."
  "Guy from The Band."
  "I love The Last Waltz."
  "Guy from Badfinger."
  "Two guys from Badfinger."

  How's your blood pressure? Spiking yet? If not, no worries. That's just the chapter opener. The conversation eventually shifts to Gord and Lana discussing the case and it's exactly the same:

  Lana said, "That was going on for twenty minutes before you got there." She sat down behind her desk and stared at her monitor. "So, what's up?"
  "I told you your uncle was in Ontario, right?"
  "You thought so."
  "Now I know. He was working in Sudbury last week."
  "Well, isn't that convenient. You're going back to Sudbury tomorow."
  "But that's actual work," I said. "I won't be looking for your uncle."
  Lana leaned back in her chair and tilted her head from side to side a little. "You might look around a little."
  "Am I getting an extra Locations PA?"
  "We're already over budget on locations."
  "That's because you sent me looking for your uncle."
  "And locations. Did you find any?"
  I said, "I found some, I guess. But I'm going to need a department, I'm going to need a few people."
  "You can hire one person there."
  "If it's going to be locals with no experience, I'll need two at least."
  "They'll have experience," Lana said, "we're shooting there all the time. Start with one and we'll see how it goes."
  "If that's the best you can do."
  "And you'll keep looking for my uncle."
  "Come on."
  "In your spare time."
  "Right, me and my one assistant, I'll have lots of spare time."
  "You can try."
  "I guess I can talk to the guy he was working for."
  "There you go."
  "But you know I'm not going to find him."
  "You might."
  "Finding out he was still alive was more than I expecting."
  "Then why did you ask me to look?"
  " My aunt was really upset."
  "Well, then I guess this is something."

  YEAH, IT'S SOMETHING, ALL RIGHT. I don't know if this had you primed to either start screaming, throw the book, or a combo of the two but I certainly was. Just...jesus, get on with it.
  
  It just wears you down because it's like reading long passages in italics. Not to mention the chunks of it that are just irrelevant. It's not that every conversation has to be about the main plot or storylines but good grief, did we need that whole suicide thread? What was the point? It's not like the participants outside of Lana were relevant. Pick a few bits and then move on.
  
  Eventually I was skimming these types of exchanges or skipping them entirely. I didn't have the energy for them. Soon, I didn't have the energy, or interest, in how either plot was going to resolve. I mean, if McFetridge didn't seem to be too bothered one way or the other, then I didn't see why I should be doing the work for the both of us (or for the three of us, if you count Gord).
• 
  Natasha

  I listened to this book in Audiobook. I fell asleep after chapter two and woke up in the last two chapters. I don’t feel the need to go back and listen to what I missed or to read this book. The first thing I noticed was that the writing is not good at all. There are so many filler words and eye rolling situations. The author often makes fun of predictable movie situations, by saying “if this were a movie, this is what would happen next” it’s interesting that he makes fun of the predictability but writes a storyline that has so my of predictability in it. I know I didn’t hear that much of it but the parts I did hear had me only feeling annoyance towards the main characters.
• 
  Robyn

  EVERY CITY IS EVERY OTHER CITY
  John McFetridge
  
  OMG, Gordon Stewart or Stewart Gordon (pick one) is a movie scout... he looks for locations. Check, I got it...
  
  If he didn't tell me at least every page, I might have forgotten it. In fact, I think I just quit reading those words!
  
  Other than that, I enjoyed the book. Gordon is a laid-back kind of guy that seems to worry about just about everything. He seems on the edge of being depressed and rather uninformed with the exception of knowing how to scout movie locations. If life was a movie, Gordon would be so happy.
  
  I did enjoy the series, I don't really mind being reminded of Gordon's job all the time. I was a bit concerned that someone will audit the movie budget and find the payments made to him. While he is out righting the wrongs of the world, he is allowing himself to be paid rather illegally. My kinda guy.
  
  4 stars.
  
  Happy Reading!
• 
  Sandra Valk

  This book raised so many interesting and important topics…and then delivered on none of them. The whole story felt flat and predictable and so SO monotone. I feel like there were almost no emotions in the whole book. I could not make sense of Gord, no matter how hard I tried. And I could not understand where the romance came from. The chemistry was nonexistent.
  A huge part of the bad review is probably also the audiobook. I do wonder if my experience had been different if the voices hadn’t been so flat. I definitely do not recommend the audiobook.
  I don’t even know who to recommend this book for. It just leaves you sad, frustrated and confused.
• 
  Pam

  3.5 rounded up
  I read the audiobook version. I agree with others, the bland, monotone used for the protagonist was a bit odd. I didn't really get that from the words themselves.
  
  The story was interesting, but I wasn't a fan of the pacing. It was as if the first half of the first act and the last half of the third act were chopped off. There wasn't much of a setup beat and the ending was so abrupt. I know they say there should be a body on page one of a mystery, but for a stand-alone or introductory book, I prefer getting to know the characters before diving right into it.
• 
  Austin Ziche

  I couldn’t finish this one, which is rare. Gordon’s lack of empathy is mind blowing. “Have you ever felt hardships or difficulties being a man?” Asks a man who has considered suicide and thinks his old friends has already killed himself… Gordon be like “nah, I can’t empathize or relate to that idea.”
  “Men don’t suffer, and those who say they do are obnoxious” is a weird back drop to a book a about the prevalence of male suicide.
  Also, the love story between Ethel and Gordon? There is more chemistry and better dialogue between oil and water.
• 
  Ron

  I wasn't sure this low stakes missing person story about a Toronto movie location scout who works as a private investigator in the off season was going to work for me—especially when the love interest appeared—but somehow it did. Good exploration of the suicide epidemic among older men, and the MeToo movement backlash.
• 
  Katlyn Taylor

  Listened on audiobook. Intriguing story. Kept me wanting to listen to hear what happens next.
• 
  Elie Grenz

  Listened to as an audiobook and really really enjoyed it! Kept me engaged from beginning to end.
• 
  Pren Clair

  This would have been ok save for the fact that I could not find any reason for Ethel to be so interested in gord. Literally none he shows no interest in her but she Pursues him. She’s charming and lively he’s a giant drag. She has some ethics he’s willing to overlook any moral stance to just “do his job” I could do without gord (the main character in this book) and just gave the series with the rest of the characters who are ALL more interesting and likeable than him. Also there’s a lot of rambling on about inane minutiae that doesn’t REALLY matter to the unfolding mystery or help to set the scene.
• 
  Beth Vandegriff

  This book takes a weirdly casual approach to suicide and it almost becomes a running joke throughout the novel which is pretty fucked up. The actual story is entertaining though. Ethel is an incredibly annoying character. Reading it kinda feels like hallmark producing a Jack Ryan story.
• 
  Zach Relling

  This was my first foray into detective/private eye fiction. The premise was interesting, a location scout for movie sets who moonlights as a private eye during the off season. At times I felt like nothing was really happening, then suddenly there was 30 minutes left and it felt like there were a ton of questions. It wrapped up neatly, but with room to expand on one of the larger investigations. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator definitely detracted from the experience. I feel like this is a 4 star story that suffers from 2 star narration in the audiobook form. Gordon Stewart has a dry humor and sarcasm that the narrator chose to deadpan the entire time. It made Gordon seem super boring and didn’t show his subtle personality in a good light. Would recommend reading the book instead of listening to the audiobook
• 
  Jason

  I really enjoyed this book. Not only did it have a decent mystery of a missing person, it added many over arching stories, like a 'Me Too' lawsuit, some insight to working behind the scenes in movies, a father finding new life, and a "Ready Player One" fan-life love of movies and older female comedians. I feel it should be rated higher than this.
• 
  Gary Olson

  Not a big fan of this book so won't finish the rest of the series, but it was entertaining enough to finish. The title indicates this to be a "mystery" but the book lacks any element of suspense, surprise, intrigue, or ability to gather interest in the lead characters. This read as a very slow burn of a book written by an author conflicted as to whether they wanted to highlight the very real problem of male suicide and depression amongst a group predominantly told they "are the problem". Perhaps because the author didn't want the backlash from a woke society unwilling to admit that yes, white males have struggles too the author decides to overlay a me-too arc and feminist narrative over top. The end result is that the lead narratives do not flow or compliment one another and the book just ends without anything meaningful being added to either story arc.
  
  
• 
  Annerlee

  The main character is a film location scout and part time PI. the story is told from his pov, in Chandler-esque style, except he’s a Canadian film scout so not really that ‘hard boiled’. When an actress describes him as ‘charming on the outside and soft on the inside’, he retorts that he’s ‘pretty soft on the outside too’. I loved the laid back turn of phrase and soft humour. And the number of times he accepts yet ANOTHER coffee, despite not really wanting one kept me pleasantly amused.
  
  Having said that, the book also includes themes such as suicide, misuse of power and mysogony, so is thought provoking at times. And theres a search for a missing person / drama too!
• 
  Andrea A

  My thank to Net Galley and ECW Press Audio to review.
  
  Gordon Stewart is a P.I and movie location scout. He is asked by a coworker to locate her missing uncle who she thinks killed himself. The story goes into this investigation but then veers off into a secondary plot, male suicide statistics and and things about movie sets, Ethel, his love interest, was fun. Dry narrator. I didn't hate this but wasn't wowed.