Farrow, the pseudonym of literary novelist Trevor Ferguson, taps into the real-life gang warfare plaguing Montreal for his mystery debut, weaving the death of 11-year-old Daniel Desrochers--who was literally caught in the cross-fire between the Hell's Angels and Rock Machine--into the plot of City of Ice. A student in a Santa suit is found hanging from a meat hook on Christmas Eve. An insurance executive-tuned vagrant seems to hold the key. As Cinq-Mars investigates, his sources--an idealistic investigative reporter and a thrill-seeking young woman--make it clear that the Russian Mafia and CIA are in play. And Cinq-Mars--who evokes Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse--can't shake his suspicion that there's something vicious about the elite Wolverine police squad that's been set up to put the bikers out of business.

The Francophone detective's relationship with his rookie Anglophone partner, Bill Mathers, provides a forum to explore the French/English issues that dominate Quebec's political landscape. What really gives City of Ice its chill, however, is Farrow's romantic yet realistic rendering of the Canadian winter:

2:12 A.M. The Locksmith had dozed off in the backseat of Cinq-Mars's cruiser. Now the ground fairly trembled. The machines' cantankerous roaring drew closer. Before long, an armored division of snow removers crossed the Main, then St.-Urbain and Clark Streets, and Emile Cinq-Mars prepared to move.