10% First Impressions: Never Forget by Martin Michaud

When a homeless man jumps to his death in Old Montreal, the police discover two wallets in his possession: one belonging to a retired psychiatrist who was murdered in a bizarre ritual, the other to a powerful corporate lawyer who has vanished. As Montreal police detective Victor Lessard and his partner, Jacinthe Taillon, work to solve the separate mysteries, a dark conspiracy begins to emerge.

While the pressure builds and the bodies accumulate, disturbing secrets come to light about a pivotal moment in political history. But will Lessard and Taillon crack the case in time to stop the killer from striking again?

I'd imagine a combination of the book description and its cover was what sold me on requesting Never Forget by Martin Michaud. By the time I'd downloaded my eBook edition, had seen the page count, and re-read the quick blurb I wasn't sure I was going to enjoy my read. I'm glad to say that per the first 10% of the book my doubts have been heavily swept away. Reading the first rounded 56 pages from the first page of story text, I read the first 13 chapters. Chapters are sweet and relatively short. When longer they flow like butter, a testament to the writing style. Non-linear storytelling is setting up a dramatic reveal of long hidden secrets.

The third in an existing French-language series named after the titular character, Victor Lessard, this is the first English translation of any of the series with sister books to be released at later dates. Generally I've been really involved in the plot. What took me out was the character of Jacinthe Taillon. Confidently brusque and in a position of authority, of course I'm not surprised that "masculine" is attributed to her character. Taillon is also portrayed as an overweight glutton with a penchant for abuse. Again, not surprised, especially since that's a generic cop portrayal, but upset that the only female character who so far appears regularly with pertinent dialogue is stereotyped this way. Still, the reveal of an abusive character softened my offense.

My outlook for the rest of this book is really positive. I no longer imagine the struggle of trying to finish this book before January as hard as I had been. Instead I think I can flow through it and complete my respective #VSCOReadathon prompt. Based on what I've read so far this has a potential to be a 5-star book.

This English translation of Never Forget is set for publication February 2020.