The Ambitious City

Written by Scott Thornley

Narrated by Richard Poe

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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781980060208

Scott Thornley

SCOTT THORNLEY grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, which inspired his fictional Dundurn. He is the author of five novels in the critically acclaimed MacNeice Mysteries series: Erasing Memory, The Ambitious City, Raw Bone, Vantage Point, and Middlemen. He was appointed to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts in 1990. In 2018, he was named a Member of the Order of Canada. Thornley divides his time between Toronto and the southwest of France.

Reviews for The Ambitious City

[tobinelliott · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I've had the misfortune to read a pantload of, shall we say, less than stellar novels lately. There was the odd good one in the batch, but really, for most of this year, it hasn't been an enjoyable ride.

Then along comes this novel.

The writing is solid and confident, the characters are, with a few deft and economical strokes, well-drawn and real. At times I questioned why there were essentially two book's worth of material--the first a mystery of the bodies encased in concrete and how they related to a biker gang, the second a budding serial killer on the loose--but they worked quite well together in the end. There's still a part of me that wanted a bit more depth on the William Dance serial killer, and a little less of the internal dialogue, but it's a minor quibble.

But riding over all of this, soaring high above the already-excellent storylines, is the character of MacNeice. He's a fantastic and engaging character with depths still to be plumbed by the author. It's a testament that, in a 450-page novel, you find a character constantly interesting, but the author has the restraint to continue to hold so much back. Bravo.

This book was an absolute pleasure to read. Now I have to go back to the first book. And then eagerly await any followup novels from Scott Thornley.