Created by Maurice Gagnon
(1912-99)
“That wily redhead, private investigator ROWENA GRANT, formerly of the MUC” is called back by her former employees, the Montreal police, to help them crack the case of a serial killer who seems to be targeting newly-promoted women on the Montreal police force, in her one appearance to date, 1990’s By Hate Posessed.
At first, he seems content to kill his victims with poison-filled darts, but eventually he moves on to shooting and some particularly nasty stabbings.
But “wily”?
Possibly it’s the odd phrasing (a bad translation from French?) or the archaic tone, but I found this book more off-putting than engaging, as though Gagnon had merely cranked out a book he thought would sell, by working through a checklist of a few then-hot tropes (serial killers, lesbian detectives, the then-recent local massacre of several women) without any real feel for, understanding of or insight into any of them.
In fact, given its alleged sympathy for its female characters, there’s an oddly tone-deaf, misanthropic vibe to the whole thing.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
French-Canadian author Maurice Gagnon was born on August 13, 1912 in Winnipeg, Manitoba and died in 1999. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in law from McGill University and also holds a master’s degree in history and a doctorate in philosophy. His literary career began in 1956, writing in both English and French, and over a long and successful career he produced more than 60 radio and television plays for the CBC/Radio Canada, ABC and others, as well as more than 40 novels, including mysteries and science fiction. In the last few years of his life, at least three of his mysteries were published in English, including the adventures of Montreal lawyer/marine investigator Deirdre O’Hara. He also published short stories in La Revue populaire, La Revue moderne and Châtelaine. His archives are kept at the Montreal Archives Center of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.
NOVELS
- By Hate Posessed (1990)Â |Â Buy this book
SHORT STORIES
- “Book Logic” (1995, Investigating Women)
FURTHER INVESTIGATION
- Murder in a Distinct Society (C’est ma ville aussi…)
Montreal Eyes
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith (October 2000). “I’ll tell you right out that I’m a man who likes talking to a man that likes to talk.”
