6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk

(1. - 1290.) 6:40 to Montreal by Eva Jurczyk - Agatha St. John is obsessed with detail. She grinds her teeth over the scrape of the heel of her husband’s slightly longer left leg. Stepping in abit of grit in the front hallway produces a “crunch that ruined my perfect silence”. She is a successful writer.

St. John is in the business class car on the 6:40 morning train from Toronto to Montreal. She is going to use the time to write. She does not need silence for writing.

She opens her laptop and stares at the “horror” of a “blank Word document”. 

Writing her first book had been easy. It was a thriller for women with a body count that increased in each draft after each feedback from her agent and editors. It became a bestseller.

In the present she is recovering from surgery for Stage 3C melanoma. There is a “handsized ‘V’ carved into the back of the leg”. She believes her prognosis is grim.

A blizzard is starting as the train leaves Toronto.

Her stress level shoots up when she realizes her nemesis, Cyanne Candel, is on the train with her.

St. John wants to write literary fiction. Books about feelings not bodies. Her literary manuscripts have all been rejected.

Reluctantly, she has accepted that her readers want stories about “upper middle-class white ladies killing or being killed”. She finds potential inspiration in the real life story of a Montreal university student, Genevieve. She starts adjusting Genevive’s experience for fiction. She would have loved to use the name Genevieve in the new book but there “are rules about that sort of thing”.

Three hours later St. John’s screen remained blank.

The train abruptly stops during the intensifying blizzard. The car doors automatically lock. The backup power will not run the Wi-Fi. There is no cell service.

The car attendant, the ultra capable Dorcas, carefully tends to the passengers and re-assures them they will soon be on their way. She reminds me of the butlers of Susan Juby’s novels and those I have known on cruises.

A passenger dies and turmoil follows.

Emotions run high.

Claustrophobia closes in on the passengers and Dorcas. Anxiety is acute.

Slow, slow hours go by.

Jurczyk keeps ratcheting up the tension. I started racing through the book.

All the action is presented through St. John’s eyes. While her mind is dominated by thoughts of cancer she retains her keen author’s eye for what is going on around her.

Listening to others, St. John eventually writes a thousand words. She likes to write down short conversations she has overheard to use in her writing.

St. John starts thinking of the events in the rail car for a plot.

The plot goes from unusual to bizarre as the hours creep by.

The conclusion is clever. I never saw it coming though there were clues.

St. John is a real person with virtues and flaws. Her mind is contradictory. She has a restless soul. She has a reason for going to Montreal beyond writing on the train.

Jurczyk is a good writer. She is an excellent writer when writing about a writer being a writer.

****

As I look at the front cover I shake my head. Instead of a train traveling between Toronto and Montreal it shows a train going through the evergreen forest of the Canadian Rockies near Banff and the train looks like a freight, not passenger, train.

****

Jurczyk, Eva - (2024) - The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and The Plantin Polyglot Bible in Fiction

Bill's Best of 2025 - Non-Fiction and Most Interesting

I conclude Bill’s Best of 2025 with the categories of Non-Fiction and Most Interesting. The latter is a list of books that were not favourites of the year in Fiction or Non-Fiction but had qualities that I found intriguing.

NON-FICTION

1.) Three Against the Wilderness  - Part I and Part II by Eric Collier - The saga of the Collier family in the eastern Chilcotin of British Columbia from the 1920's to the 1950's was my Dad's favourite book in the 1980's when he was in his 70's. I re-read the book this year as I am in my 70's.

Collier, an upper class Englishman ill-suited to becoming a lawyer, was invited by his father to try life in the B.C. interior. He met and married Lillian, an indigenous woman.

With a wagon containing their belongings they set out into the bush where they build a cabin on Meldrum Creek and lived off the land as trappers. My Dad, who trapped for 60 years, loved reading about their experiences.

The book is most memorable recounting how they re-introduced beavers into their area and re-created wetlands.

As I wrote this post I realized that one of my favourite books of fiction in 2025, Finding Flora, and my favourite work of non-fiction are both about English immigrants establishing homesteads in Western Canada a century ago. Flora and Eric had both lived their lives in cities but, with great determination and adaptability, succeeded in the prairie and bush of rural Canada.

2.) Captured by Fire by Chris Czajkowski and Fred Reid - Fred was a childhood friend in Saskatchewan who moved to British Columbia with his family in the 1960's.

By 2017 he was living on a small farm with his wife, Monika, in the western Chilcotin when they were threatened by the huge Precipice Fire.

Despite a mandatory evacuation order they stay to fight the fire.

My review sets up the drama of August 3:

"...the fire reached but 2-3 kilometres from the home of Fred and Monika, exploded into a rank five fire (fires are ranked 1-6) and the last helicopter flew away ....."

I concluded my review:

"It is a gripping draining story. I felt as if I was in the midst of the 'ordeal'. The fire dragon may rest awhile puffing smoke but can suddenly erupt in rage."

MOST INTERESTING

1.) The 6th Lamentation by William Brodrick - Last year Brodrick's book, The Discourtesy of Death, was my favourite work of Fiction.

This year the first book in the Father Anselm series tops my "Most Interesting" category.

Brodrick drawing on the Lamentations of Jeremiah makes the Holocaust the 6th Lamentation.

The book challenges the reader as it explores the deportation of French Jews to concentration camps and what was known in 1942 about the fate of the deported.

At the same time Father Anselm is having powerful conversations with Agnes Embleton, born Aubert, who is dying from motor neuron disease.

2.) Prairie Edge by Conor Kerr - Isidore “Ezzy” Desjarlais, an experienced car thief, and Grey Ginther, a university educated Indigenous activist, steal bison from a national park and release them in the Saskatchewan River valley in Edmonton. Drama ensues.

Kerr is not predictable. He examines "activism":

"Kerr’s depiction of the indigenous activist business is biting. Fame and a comfortable living for full time activism is alluring. While Grey is a dedicated activist she is reflecting on the nature of professional activism."

What made Prairie Edge a "Most Interesting" book was Ezzy. He is a remarkable character. While he has spent his life surviving he is a thoughtful man. I wish Kerr would write another book on where Ezzy goes in his life after Prairie Edge.

3.) The Katharina Code by Jørn Lier Horst - It is the coldest of cases. It has been 24 years since Katharina Haugen disappeared.

As he has done on each anniversary of her disappearance Norwegian Chief Inspector, William Wisting, examines the file.

The routine review becomes compelling when Katharina's husband, Martin, is connected to another missing persons case.

What made the book "Most Interesting" was the code left behind by Katharina “a series of numbers arranged along three vertical lines”.

I described the code:

"Its design was ultimately simple but unless you had the key impossible to decipher. It was a brilliant concept."

Bill's Best of 2025 Fiction

I continue a personal tradition
of posting Bill’s Best of Fiction on December 31. I like to make it an actual assessment of my reading for the full calendar year. My next post will have Bill’s Best of 2025 Non-Fiction and a personal category of Bill’s Most Interesting of 2025. The lists do include books published earlier than 2025.

For the first time there was a tie for my favourite work of fiction. I could not decide between Finding Flora and The Hunter:

1.) Finding Flora - Part I and Part II by Elinor Florence - The story of Flora Craigie homesteading in Alberta resonated with me as a wonderful story, a great example of historical fiction and because my paternal grandfather, Carl, homesteaded in Saskatchewan in 1907.

Elinor sets out the challenges to homesteading in Western Canada and credibly outlines the prejudice against women filing for homesteads. What she does not do is make Flora some kind of superwoman. She imbues Flora with incredible determination. No matter the trial or tribulation Flora seeks out solutions.

Like her creator, Flora is woman of optimism.

1.) The Hunter Tana French - The author returns to Ardnakelty with another powerful story involving teenager Trey Reddy and former Chicago police officer, Cal Hooper.

The unlikely duo have connected over carpentry projects. Life is difficult at home for Reddy especially with the unexpected return of her charming abusive father, Johnny.

The murder mystery is an integral part of the plot. Life in rural Ireland is picturesque on the surface. The residents, especially in the presence of tourists, are genial.

In my review I said "French continues to capture the lyrical expressiveness of the Irish and their blunt descriptiveness".

At the same time they do not tolerate outsiders interfering in their business. Having been there but two years Cal is still a "blow-in". 

There is a rare combination of subtlety and pace pounding drama in the closing 100 pages.

2.) The Solitary Friend by Gail Bowen - The 23rd book in the Joanne Kilbourn series sees her caught up in a contemporary manifestation of an ancient profession. 

Calista Wallace has worked for seven years in Regina for The Right Woman which is "a discreet escort service that served two generations of our city's wealthy and sexually needy men".

Joanne imposes no moral judgment upon Calista. As a practical woman Joanne recognizes that there will always be sex workers.

What most drew me into the story were the trio of teenage girls (Joanne's granddaughters and one of their friends). They are the third generation of teenage girls to have a significant role in the series.

Joanne's back story is enhanced with a powerful story of a Christmas Day spent by herself with staff at boarding school.

I repeat my closing that The Solitary Friend has "a comfortable and compelling and challenging plot".

3.) May the Wolf Die by Elizabeth Heider - In her first novel Heider presents a complex plot set in and around Naples.

Her sleuth, Nikki Serafino, is a member of Italian liaison unit working with American military police.

When a pair of American naval officers are murdered there is a fierce jurisdictional battle over who will conduct the investigations. 

The City of Naples is an important part of the story. I said in my review that "[I]t is a vibrant, often chaotic, city pulsing with energy, especially at night. Serafino thrives on its vitality".

The pressure of two governments (Italian and American) upon the investigators is intense.

Will dangerous men prevail? A witness says:

“The world is run by wolves. It’s their system, their rules. We can’t change it.”

I look forward to Heider's next book being published in 2026.

****

As I reflected on this post I realized that a strong woman dominates each book. I found it striking that they range in age. Trey is a teenager. Flora is in her mid-20's. Nikki is in her late 20's to early 30's. Joanne is 57.

Happy New Year everyone!

An Agatha Christie Experience in Istanbul

Pera Palace Hotel

Literary experiences can come in the most unexpected ways. Two months ago Sharon and I traveled to Istanbul to commence a 32 day cruise on Oceania Cruise Lines. 

For the first day of the voyage we stayed in Istanbul. I decided to look for a bookstore within walking distance of the port. Searching online I found one of the options was the Minoa Pera bookstore.

With GPS to lead me I set off for the store. It seemed to be uphill all the way. I went through a narrow street with a group of street shops selling hardware supplies. It was so different from the large hardware stores of North America.

When I reached the store I was entranced. It is a large two storey shop which includes a large English section. It is spacious and inviting.

I restrained myself to buying a single book - A Three Dog Problem by S.J. Bennett. It turned out to be a very good book which I read during the cruise.

Most fascinating were the staircases to the upper floor. The space under each step is painted with the spines of
books creating the illusion there is a row of books beneath every step. As you can see in the photo a vivid colouful staircase is created.

There is also a nice cafe with a wonderful selection of cakes. Knowing of all the choices on the ship I reluctantly held myself back from trying them. I did enjoy a glass of lemonade.

While sitting in the cafe looking for information about the bookstore on the net I found out that I was only a 100 metres from the Pera Palace Hotel and learned of its literary connections.

I had not known Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express while staying at the hotel. From followup research I read that she may have written most of the book while with her husband on an archealogical expedition in Aleppo. All of my research was short of actual sources for concluding where she wrote the book. For this post I will accept the assertions of the Pera Palace that it is “rumored” that she wrote the book at the hotel.

The Pera Palace is a wonderful hotel in appearance. The hotel, built in 1892, has a 1920’s feel that I am sure would make Mrs. Christie still feel at home.

I was welcomed by a beautiful flower display.

The lounge and bar area made me wish I had the time to sit down and have a drink and think of Hercule Poirot.

The photos show the 1920’s details of the space but cannot replicate the experience of being there.

The hotel website says she was there often between 1926 - 1932 staying in Room 411. It is a spacious room, almost 500 sq. ft, with a nice desk for writing. It has been restored to look like it was when Agatha was there including a typewriter.

There is a display case off the lobby containing some of Mrs. Christie's novels and some memorabilia.

Had we known of its connection to Agatha we would have stayed there before going on the cruise and enjoyed a meal in the Agatha Restaurant.

You can actually stay in Mrs. Christie's room! I am not enough of a fan to spend $800 to stay in her room. We would spend $300 for one of the regular rooms.

The Minoa Pera bookstore and Pera Palace are well worth a visit in Istanbul. 

Whenever I think of Murder on the Orient Express I will be reminded of the beautiful Pera Palace Hotel.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny

(10. - 1253.) The Grey Wolf by
Louise Penny - A lazy August Sunday morning in the Gamache backyard with Armand and Reine-Marie reading their respective sections of the newspaper is interrupted by repeated calls. Finally, Armand answers and, to the surprise of myself and Reine-Marie, for he is not a rude man, he says “Go to hell” and ends the call. 

The alarm in their pied-à-terre goes off in Montreal. It turns out an old jacket of Armand’s has been taken. It is then returned to the Sûreté Headquarters with two notes. One is a request to meet Gamache and the other a list of herbs and spices.

The meeting involves an apparently homeless man. The conversation is filled with his evasions. Gamache senses the man is brave.

It is a confusing and murky situation for the Gamaches and the reader.

The plot takes Gamache and his team into a huge conspiracy.

I love the Gamache series but not every book in the series.

The Grey Wolf includes all the elements I do not think work well in the series. 

I had to suspend disbelief for too much of the book. 

The return to the Gilbertine monastery of Saint-Gilbert-Entre-les-Loups was as unconvincing the second time as it was the first time in The Beautiful Mystery. 

Having the Abbot cryptically disappear from the monastery was not credible.

The Grey Wolf adds a second monastery, Grande Chartreuse in France, the motherhouse of the Carthusian Order. I did not find convincing how that monastery was entangled in the plot.

The book has an apocalyptic theme. Gamache and his team are struggling to prevent an attack upon the Montreal water system. The consequences are portrayed as devastating for world order. 

Earlier in the series in The Nature of the Beast there was a desperate search for the plans to build a supergun to prevent Armageddon.

I did not find a plot involving the fate of the world credible in either The Nature of the Beast or The Grey Wolf 

Even earlier in the series was a conspiracy involving senior members of the Sûreté . I found it a distraction. While the current conspiracy includes police officers which makes them directly relevant to the story their roles did not feel right to me.

It is hard to write a convincing conspiracy that threatens world stability. The conspiracy in The Grey Wolf was shrouded with such shadows that it was hard to assess the conspiracy. A more modest conspiracy in All the Devils Are Here was much more believable.

My image of Gamache is not as a super hero. I cannot see him as a larger than life personality on a desperate mission to save the world. From the short lived series Three Pines the actor, Alfred Molina, is my image of Gamache. He is a man of courage and conviction but not Superman.

I think the books where, as here, the characters who live in Three Pines play an insignificant role are at a disadvantage. I see a good reason why they are bit players in The Grey Wolf. The residents of Three Pines create a special atmosphere that is ill-suited to a plot saving the world from catastrophe.

I am always disappointed when the characters who live in Three Pines have little role. I acknowledge that several of the books set outside Three Pines are outstanding books.

In the nature of the story and the pacing The Grey Wolf is a thriller not a mystery. It has a Hollywood climax. A double digit body count confirms it is a thriller. If you like American thriller fiction Penny has written an excellent book. She drives the narrative skilfully.

Penny appears to have two sides to her writing. One side involves serious credible stories solved by intelligence. The other side has non-credible stories with great drama and significant violence. Mysteries v. thrillers.

I wish she would create a different series for her thriller plots with a new lead, an aggressive intensely physical man of action, rather than inserting Gamache into a role that is wrong for him.

I hesitated to write this review. I have not been this negative about a previous book in the series. I appear to be in a distinct minority lamenting The Grey Wolf. After reflection I decided my comments were more than just personal frustration.

It is with considerable trepidation that I approach The Black Wolf. Will it also cast Gamache as a super-hero?

****

Penny, Louise – (2005) - Still Life; (2006) - Dead Cold (Tied for 3^rd Best fiction of 2006); (2007) - The Cruelest Month; (2009) - The Murder Stone (Tied for 4th Best fiction of 2009); (2010) - The Brutal Telling; (2011) - Bury Your Dead (Best Fiction of 2011); (2011) - A Trick of the Light; (2012) - The Beautiful Mystery (Part I) and The Beautiful Mystery (Part II); (2013) - "P" is for Louise Penny - Movie Producer and Review of the Movie of Still Life; (2013) - How the Light Gets In; (2014) - The Long Way Home; (2014) - The Armand Gamache Series after 10 Mysteries - Part I and Part II; (2015) - The Nature of the Beast (Part I) and The Nature of the Beast (Part II); (2016) - A Great Reckoning - The Academy and Comparisons and The Map; (2016) - Louise Penny and Michael Whitehead Holding Hands; (2017) - Glass Houses - Happiness and Unhappiness and Getting the Law Wrong; (2019) - Kingdom of the Blind and Irreconcilable Dispositions; (2019) - A Better Man; (2020) - All the Devils are Here and Relationship Restaurants in Fiction and Real Life and Reading of the Marais Simultaneously; (2021) - The Madness of Crowds and Responding to Evil and Considering "People"; (2021) - Three Pines - The Amazon Prime Series; (2022) - Season One of Three Pines; (2023) - A World of Curiosities and Do You Believe in Goodness; (2023) - Surprise Cancellation of Three Pines Series; Hardcover

A Capital Mystery Anthology edited by Bernadette Cox and Mike Martin

(44. - 1287.) A Capital Mystery Anthology edited by Bernadette Cox and Mike Martin - The Crime Writers of Canada and the Capital Crime Writers have organized a volume of 21 short stories by Ottawa writers with all the stories set in Ottawa and area.

I have modest overall knowledge of Ottawa geography but familiarity with downtown and Parliament Hill.

Set in mid-winter, the Ottawa setting along the Rideau River has the dominant role in the opening story by Barbara Fradkin, Cold Shock.

The writing of “emerging author” A.E. Pittman is “influenced by his life experiences as a lawyer and a police officer”. He provides an interesting story on the break-in of a bookstore in The Sparks Street Sapper. Why would someone break into a bookstore? There were no rare valuable books in the store.

Café Amore by Adrienne Stevenson features two women, Deborah and Sophie, who have turned their “red-brick Victorian townhouse on Somerset” from an establishment where the customers could get extra services upstairs to a supper club. They hire a burly ex-cop from Vancouver as Head Waiter / Bouncer. Threatened by poison pen letters with exposure of their past the trio, in a clever marketing ploy, start naming their dishes with a sexy theme - “Sultry sausages … Flirtatious flaming figs … Ribald mushroom risotto … Lewd lamb chops … Cock-a-leekie”. In real life I have been in Mamma Teresa, an Italian restaurant on Somerset.

Brenda Chapman has an interesting story about a pregnant woman, her government lawyer husband and his brother just released from prison. There is a clever twist at the end I did not see coming.

I found The Roaring Lion by Gary Coffin the most intriguing story. It is set in the famed Chateau Laurier Hotel. Private detective Carver is examining the famed Churchill photo taken by Yousuf Karsh that was stolen from the hotel and recently recovered. Carver develops a fascinating story about the photo.

I found Ruby Urlocker’s story, Crazy About Him, moving, even haunting. Lucy, a young woman in the Schizophrenia Recovery Program at Ottawa’s Royal Hospital, is doing her best to cope with schizophrenia. The whole story is narrated by her sending the reader deep into her mind. Looking into her psyche is absorbing and deeply unsettling.  

In Not All Polar Bears are Created Equal by Elizabeth Hosang a clever criminal scheme involving mishapen animal figurines unravels through a late night alcohol fueled shopping excursion on the net and an alert dog from a police K9 unit. 

In classic Canadian crime fictional style guns play little role in the book and there are no double digit body counts.

As with most short story collections I found several very good and others average. Overall it is a strong collection of stories. 

I was impressed how each story is deeply connected to its physical setting in Ottawa.

The cover is brilliant and perfect for the book.

I was surprised that it was mainly the stories of the lesser known writers that appealed to me.

I would be glad to read another anthology from the Capital Crime Writers. I am sure there is much more creative mystery and mayhem to read about in Ottawa.