Two bodies have been found in the master bedroom of a mansion in Dundurn's old-money neighbourhood under the mountain. Howard Terry and his son Matthew have both been shot twice in the chest. Under Matthew's body is a doll with blood red cotton wadding spilling out of its head. Nearby, a female mannequin in a nightshirt lies on its back with two bullet holes in the chest. On the other side of town, a body is discovered below the Devil's Punch Bowl waterfall. Leaning against an enormous rock is a man in a cotton nightshirt wearing a papier mache donkey's head. Two rounds in the chest. Something about the way the bodies have been arranged triggers a memory in MacNeice of an image he saw years before . . .
MacNeice finds himself in the line of fire when two seemingly random acts of violence lead him deep into the seedy underbelly of Dundurn. On a cold morning in early spring, the body of a young woman is found trapped in the ice of Dundurn Bay. The next day at dawn, a homeless man discovers an unconscious school teacher in a public park. Gagged and bound with duct tape, the man is rigged to an elaborate bomb that's been set to blow if anyone attempts to free him. Detective Superintendent MacNeice and his team are called in to investigate the two seemingly unrelated crimes and quickly find themselves venturing into the dive bars and rooming houses of Dundurn, where Irish immigrants rub elbows with mercenaries and the city's criminal underclass ...
As a local biker war rages ? seven shrink-wrapped corpses have been found buried on a farm just outside of Dundurn ? an ambitious waterfront project meant to revive the dying industrial city is underway. Dredging is nearly complete when six more bodies turn up at the bottom of the lake. With the body count rising, the situation in Dundurn escalates as a serial killer begins targeting the city's successful young women of colour. Outgunned by the bikers and outmaneuvered by the serial killer, MacNeice convinces Fiza Aziz, the young Muslim detective who burned out on their last case together, to come back to the force. Things go well until Aziz deliberately puts herself in the killer's sights. The Ambitious City is the smart and suspenseful second installment in Scott Thornley's critically acclaimed MacNeice Mysteries series.
Detective Superintendent MacNeice is returning from a pilgrimage to his wife's grave when he's called to a crime scene of singular and disturbing beauty. A young woman in evening dress lies gracefully posed on the floor of a pristine summer cottage so that the finger of one hand regularly interrupts the needle arm of a phonograph playing Schubert's Piano Trio. The only visible mark on her is the bruise under her chin, which MacNeice recognizes: it is the mark that distinguishes dedicated violinists, the same mark that once graced his wife. The murder is both ingenious and horrific, and soon entangles MacNeice and his team in Eastern Europe's ancient grievances. Erasing Memory is a thrilling and assured debut that kicks off an exciting new crime series from Scott Thornley.
