The Storm Murders

In Farrow’s smart, enthralling fourth Émile Cinq-Mars thriller (after 2011’s River City), the retired Montreal police detective consults on a case involving the murder of a married couple at an isolated Quebec farmhouse. Cinq-Mars works with an FBI agent who’s investigating several murders committed in like fashion in the U.S. Each of the American murders was committed after a natural disaster, and the Canadian one occurred during a severe snowstorm. In every case, the wife’s naked body was found upstairs with no sign of sexual assault, the husband found shot or knifed to death, and each victim’s left ring finger severed and taken from the crime scene. After Cinq-Mars’s much younger wife, Sandra, who’s considering leaving him, offers to assist him, he knows his marriage may well depend upon the success of their collaboration. The hair-raising action moves from New Orleans to Alabama and back to Quebec, building to a brilliantly executed conclusion. [em]Agents: Carolyn Forde and Bruce Westwood, Westwood Creative Artists (Canada). (May) [/em]