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Description
The novel follows world-weary Detective Inspector Luc Vanier as he hunts down a disturbed killer of homeless people. Vanier confronts his own demons while his investigation draws him into the heart of the Catholic Church in Quebec, the boardrooms of Montreal’s business elite, and the back-alleys and soup kitchens of the dispossessed. With a cast of fascinating characters, this is a Montreal that will cast its icy shadow over your shoulder for a long time to come. Step into the world of Inspector Luc Vanier – it is a world you will want to come back to more than once.
About the Author
Peter Kirby was born in Ireland and grew up in the hardscrabble neighbourhood of Brixton in South London. He came to Canada as a cook, went to university at night, and eventually became a lawyer. He now practises international law in one of Canada’s largest law firms and has been recognized as one of Canada’s leading 500 lawyers. His thrillers, all part of the Luc Vanier series and published by Linda Leith Publishing, include The Dead of Winter (2012), Open Season (2015) and Vigilante Season (2013). He lives in Montreal.
Awards
- Short-listed, Arthur Ellis First Book Prize
Editorial Review
"Taut. Claustrophobic. Compelling. A chilling tale--in ever sense of the word. Peter Kirby's story of murder and its machinations tightens around the reader like a noose."-- 2012 Giller Prize-winning author Will Ferguson of 419.
"A powerful ride through the dark and raw of Montreal. Temperance Brennan would feel right at home."--Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance Brennan and Tory Brennan series.
"One of the new additions to the fine stable of crime writers in this country."-- The Sunday Edition, CBC Radio."
"Saints, villains, the homeless, and the powerful are held in winter's suspenseful grip, as are readers as Luc Vanier struggles to unravel who is killing whom and why before the murder count clims higher. In a riveting new series, Peter Kirby reveals Montreal at the worst of times, its underbelly exposed, and dire forces at play." -- John Farrow, author of City of Ice and River City."
"Peter Kirby’s The Dead of Winter (Linda Leith Publishing, $21.95) also doubles as the first mystery outing of Blue Met festival founder Linda Leith’s new publishing house. As such, the stakes are even higher, for a new publisher must announce its sensibility — and the seriousness of its purpose — with its launch title. Fortunately there’s nary a flat foot withThe Dead of Winter, which introduces police detective Luc Vanier and his chosen beat of Montreal.It’s Christmas Eve, he’s more than a little lonely cranking up the Patsy Cline, pondering a dissolved marriage and a recently fractured relationship, when the inevitable phone call comes: five street people are dead in various Montreal outposts, the speed and frequency suggesting something more sinister than natural causes. And since “crime doesn’t take holidays,” Vanier spends the period between Christmas and New Year’s following a trail of corruption and betrayal starring the Church, the moneyed and the charitable. All the while Vanier reveals himself as a worthy series detective, one who takes his job seriously but doesn’t let self-pity get in the way of living his life — not too much, anyway." --Sarah Weinman, The National Post Nov 9, 2012.
"Peter Kirby has fashioned a gripping work of fiction with his first novel, The Dead of Winter, a crime thriller set in his adopted hometown of Montreal. Clearly, it didn’t take the author long to grasp the darkness that can overtake this city in the dead of winter. The book touches on all the murky elements of city life as a dispirited police detective investigates the murders of five homeless people over the Christmas holidays. His trail leads him through back alleys and corporate boardrooms and even into the hallowed halls of the Catholic Church.All compelling stuff, and no doubt there will be follow-up thrillers to come, featuring Kirby’s anti-hero cop Inspector Luc Vanier. And a bestselling crime writer has been born — in his late 50s. But Kirby’s own story is almost as compelling as that of his novel." --- Bill Brownstein, The Gazette (Montreal), October 16, 2012.
"The characters are varied, interesting, and believable; the action in The Dead of Winter is very well paced." -- Jim Napier, Montreal Review of Books (Fall 2012)
