One or the Other: An Eddie Dougherty Mystery: 3 - Tapa blanda

"Several things can be said about One or the Other. It's a crime story, it's a historical novel, it's charming -- and above all it's utterly, extremely Montrealish . . . The cover copy calls One or the Other a mystery and in fact Dougherty spends a lot of time investigating a killing. But the book reads more like a sweet love letter to the Montreal of four decades ago." -- National Post

"John McFetridge writes with deft characterization and keen insight into working class identity." -- National Post

"John McFetridge writes with deft characterization and keen insight into working class identity." -- National Post

"Eddie Dougherty is the kind of guy who grows on you, and now, in John McFetridge's third Dougherty novel, Eddie is in full bloom as a solid character and an intuitively smart cop...a McFetridge book at his excellent best." -- Toronto Star

"Dougherty is once again a basically decent working-class bilingual cop -- who, it must be pointed out, sometimes beats information out of lowlifes -- who serves as our window on our unknown or forgotten socio-political history, educating us slowly while awakening to the real world around him and solving crimes in another superb McFetridge whodunit." -- Winnipeg Free Press

"Dougherty is a believable, complicated and yearning character in another fine McFetridge achievement." -- The London Free Press

"McFetridge seamlessly weaves these period details into a fast-paced narrative . . . This is an enjoyable read brimming with colorful characters that immerses readers in a tumultuous period in Canadian history." -- Publishers Weekly

An extremely good crime novel, brimming with historical verisimilitude . . . with a richly detailed protagonist and a seriously compelling mystery.” Booklist on Black Rock

In the weeks before hosting the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Montreal police are tightening security to prevent another catastrophe like the ’72 games in Munich. But it isn’t tight enough to stop nearly three million dollars being stolen in a bold daytime Brink’s truck robbery. As the high-profile heist continues to baffle the police, Constable Eddie Dougherty gets a chance to prove his worth as a detective when he’s assigned to assist the suburban Longueuil force in investigating the deaths of two teenagers returning from a rock concert across the Jacques Cartier Bridge. Were they mugged and thrown from the bridge? Or was it a murder-suicide?

With tensions running high in the city and his future career at stake, Dougherty faces the limits of the force and of his own policing, and has to decide when to settle and when justice is the only thing that should be obeyed.