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MIDDLEMEN
THE LATEST MacNEICE MYSTERY!
OUT JUNE 27, 2023
Detective Superintendent MacNeice returns to Dundurn following a month-long suspension and is immediately thrown into the mysterious case of a wounded runner named Jack and a blood trail that spans over forty miles. At the trail’s source in a Carolinian forest, MacNeice and DI Fiza Aziz find evidence of two homicides, but no bodies.
Two days later, Mac is called to a torn-up orchard set ablaze by lightning. A body has been found lying next to a stack of burnt fruit trees. There’s no evidence to suggest the killings are related, and yet MacNeice suspects they are. But why disappear the bodies in the forest and leave the orchard corpse to be discovered?
As the case develops, the team is confronted by the daylight abduction of a Brant University professor—Mac is convinced it’s a killing about to happen. Going on the offensive, he employs the provincial alert system, in part, to let the kidnappers know the net is closing.
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Middlemen: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Middlemen is the author’s fifth novel in his superb series featuring Detective Superintendent MacNeice, set in a fictitious city in Eastern Canada. A bloodied runaway dog leads MacNeice and his sidekick DI Fiza Aziz to a forest where they uncover evidence of two homicides but no bodies. Shortly afterwards, bodies start turning up, a professor is abducted in broad daylight and a spate of cases involving persons disappearing in other jurisdictions come to light. Can MacNeice prove that they are related? Is the head of an international crime gang responsible for organizing these disappearances and murders, much like a business, shielded by several layers of middlemen?
As was the case with the author’s earlier MacNeice novels, Middlemen is a pleasure to read with engaging leading characters (both good and bad), excellent dialogue, and a compelling, fast-moving plot. MacNeice is an appealing, strong central character. This would make for a terrific TV series. I’m greatly looking forward to the next MacNeice novel.
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"Not since P.D. James' Adam Dalgliesh has there been a police inspector as sophisticated as MacNeice."
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"MacNeice is a splendid addition to the pantheon of detectives... More please, Mr. Thornley, and quickly."
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"This series will be a real winner."
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"MacNeice is the Gretzky of Detectives"
This is the fourth book in the author's impressive series featuring Detective Superintendent MacNeice set in a fictional Eastern Canadian city that resembles Pittsburgh. MacNeice and his team of homicide detectives are confronted with a series of murders committed by a former Special Forces veteran who uses his victims to stage and produce photographic art of a high quality. MacNeice, recovering from the death of his beloved wife, is a uniquely compelling, multi-faceted character and inspiring leader of his team. Scott Thornley is a polished storyteller whose books just keep getting stronger and stronger.
NEWS & REVIEWS
CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA ANNOUNCES 2024 AWARDS OF EXCELLENCE
Crime Writers of Canada (CWC) is pleased to announce the Shortlists for the 2024 Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence in Canadian Crime Writing. Since 1984, Crime Writers of Canada has recognized the best in mystery, crime, suspense fiction, and crime nonfiction by Canadian authors, including citizens abroad and new residents. On behalf of […]
NATIONAL POST: 2023’s Best Canadian Crime Fiction
(taken from full article at NationalPost.com) Sharp-eyed readers of Scott Thornley’s latest roller-coaster thriller, Middlemen, will suspect it’s happening in the Ontario city of Hamilton. But as always with his books, Thornley gives the place a fictional name and scrambles the geography a bit. When it comes to crime fiction, he’s a late-flowering success story […]
BIO
SCOTT THORNLEY grew up in Hamilton, Ontario, which inspired his fictional Dundurn. As president and creative director of Scott Thornley + Company, a strategic creative firm, Thornley worked with cultural and health science clients in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.
Over time, his love of graphic and typographic design grew to include writing the stories that would bring his client’s products and services to life. Scott lives with his wife Shirley Blumberg in Toronto and in the southwest of France.
Middlemen is the latest in the MacNeice series, and follows Erasing Memory, The Ambitious City, Raw Bone and Vantage Point.
Scott is published by House of Anansi Press, and represented by Westwood Creative Artists.
Photo credit: Robert Popkin
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