Asylum: A Mystery
By Jeannette de
Beauvoir
Publisher: Minotaur
Books
Published: Mar. 10, 2015
ASIN: B00MSYOCNC
Amazon Synopsis:
Martine LeDuc is the director of PR for the mayor's office
in Montreal. When four women are found brutally murdered and shockingly posed
on park benches throughout the city over several months, Martine's boss fears a
PR disaster for the still busy tourist season, and Martine is now also tasked
with acting as liaison between the mayor and the police department. The women
were of varying ages, backgrounds and bodytypes and seemed to have nothing in
common. Yet the macabre presentation of their bodies hints at a connection.
Martine is paired with a young detective, Julian Fletcher, and together they
dig deep into the city's and the country's past, only to uncover a dark secret
dating back to the 1950s, when orphanages in Montreal and elsewhere were
converted to asylums in order to gain more funding. The children were subjected
to horrific experiments such as lobotomies, electroshock therapy, and
psychotropic medication, and many of them died in the process. The survivors
were supposedly compensated for their trauma by the government and the cases
seem to have been settled. So who is bearing a grudge now, and why did these
four women have to die?
Not until Martine finds herself imprisoned in the terrifying
steam tunnels underneath the old asylum does she put the pieces together. And
it is almost too late for her...in Jeannette de Beauvoir's Asylum.
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My Thoughts:
What seems to be the
work of a serial sex killer doesn’t quite fit the usual modus operandi. The
victims are of different ages, don’t look alike and don’t seem to have anything
in common. Because the mayor is concerned that Montréal is going to become
known as the murder capital of North America, he wants Martine LeDuc, the
city’s directrice de publicité (publicity director) to be the liaison between
his office and the police director.
Martine was paired
with Lieutenant Detective Julian Fletcher. Martine took a more active role in
the case than simple liaison when the police seem determined to sweep the
entire situation under the rug by indicting a homeless man for the murders.
Martine LeDuc was an
interesting character and I found I quite liked her. The story was told from
her point of view, with some journal entries of an orphan named Gabrielle from sometime
in the 1940-1950’s interspersed throughout. We got to know Martine quite well,
and what she thought about the other characters in the book. Martine was a
complex character, uncomfortable as a stepmother, with a courageous desire to
see that justice was done.
Martine felt very
French to me – probably because of the amount of French that the author used in
the book. I liked that too. The English translation was given or the context
and English equivalent were close enough that high school English were
sufficient to confer the meaning of the words. It was nice to be able to read a
book and expand a bit on my French skills at the same time.
The mystery of what
connects these four women was fascinating and very unexpected. It was actually
a lesson in history for me as I had never heard about these events before. I
had no idea when I started to read this book that the story was based on real
events. The author had obviously done a lot of research on her topic and knew
it well. The fictionalize portions meshed with the real events seamlessly to
create a book that was truly difficult to put down.
The italicized diary
portions that began Asylum: A Mystery
and were interspersed throughout the novel were both riveting and horrific. The
acts contained within those sections were not just horrible (nothing graphic) but
horrific when you realize by the end of the book (be sure to read the Author’s
Note) that much of what happened in the those portions were based on actual
events from the 1940’s through the 1960’s.
Asylum: A Mystery was fast-paced with many twists and turns in
the plot. With the various points of involvement of the Québec government, the
Catholic church, the American CIA and pharmaceutical companies, the novel
leaves you thinking long after you’ve finished reading it. And as you read some
of the names of the minors that they have been able to identify as having died
and been buried at Cité de St.-Jean-de-Dieu asylum you’ll be left wondering how
it could ever have happened.
If you are looking
for a riveting book in the mystery/thriller/suspense genres this one may just
be to your liking. I rated it 5 stars out of 5. It will definitely stick with
you after you’ve finished it.
Thank you to the
publisher for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest
review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.
About the Author:
Jeannette de
Beauvoir is a novelist, poet, and playwright whose work has appeared in 15
countries and has been translated into 12 languages.She explores personal and moral questions through different literary genres and is the author, under various pseudonyms, of mystery novels, historical and contemporary fiction, an award-winning book of poetry, and a number of produced plays, as well as teaching workshops and classes in writing.
She grew up in Angers, France, and currently divides her time between Cape Cod and Montréal.
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