Every City Is Every Other City

It has been a long time since I've read John McFetridge. Everybody Knows This is Nowhere knocked my socks off. I was expecting something a little gritty, a little warped, a lot Canadian. I wasn't expecting something so funny. returnreturnThis story involves a mild-mannered location scout for films who has a side gig as a private investigator. (In addition to writing crime novels, the author writes film and radio plays; he knows this beat.) One of Gord Stewart's film connections asks him to look into a missing person case. A man left his middle-to-working class home in a suburb and drove to the woods where he took his gun and vanished. The police assume he committed suicide, though it may take a while for his body to turn up. His "widow" is furious and wants him tracked down because he had no business leaving her high and dry like that. And while our hero doesn't think he'll turn anything up, he takes it on pro bono (so long as some film project can pay his expenses. Sure, he's in Sudbury to scout locations.) Then he comes across something odd in the man's credit card records. And a body turns up, but not in the woods. returnreturnAt the same time, a ethics-challenged PI agency run by ex=cops wants him to take on emergency jobs. They have a major investigation on their hands, looking for dirt on the women who have accused a bigwig of sexual assault. It's icky work, but to find his missing person, he needs the favors only these cop-connected PIs can provide. Though he's only pitching in when an emergency arises, this investigation becomes serious and kind of turns the missing persons case into a MacGuffin. returnreturnThe best part is Ethel, a woman who gets a small speaking part in a film he's been working on, then gets a larger speaking part in the novel, helping him with his case. This is a great character, a woman comic who hasn't made it big, but wins over everyone with her impressions and her wit. She's working on a one-woman show about how the women sidekicks of famous comic couples were actually the star of the duos, even if they were cast as dim bulbs. Think Gracie Allen, think Edith Bunker. Or think Ethel - who steals every scene she's in.