Mike Ward Books

Michael Ward is a journalist newly arrived to the Left Bank. When he falls in with Jason Waddington, an expatriate American writer who introduces him to the cafe scene and his crowd of writers and artists, Ward soon discovers that Jack de Paris is not the only trouble afoot in the City of Light. Rumor has it that Waddington has written a damaging roman a clef about his friends, and tempers are rising even as fear of the killer grips the city. When the body of Laure Duclos is found, it seems their circle has finally been touched by Jack. But Ward has his doubts and begins to wonder whether Laure was truly Jack de Paris’s latest victim, or if someone else was using the serial killer as a convenient cover to protect themselves. In a feat of literature reminiscent of Caleb Carr’s The Alienist, Howard Engel blends intriguing historical fact with nail-biting fiction to produce a thriller of the highest order. Murder in Montparnasse will delight both new readers of Engel and his long-time fans.

It’s 1940. Canadian journalist Mike Ward, fresh off assignments in Paris, London, Moscow, and Berlin, thinks he’s seen it all: the rise of charismatic dictators, the fall of governments, political intrigues too bizarre to believe. Yet despite his tenure in fascist Europe, nothing could have prepared him for his latest posting: Hollywood, where the glitz and glamour of the silver screen mingles with the grit and grime of the criminal underworld. Ward’s latest assignment, to cover the “suicide” of a studio executive, is bound to drag him deeper into the shadows of America’s bright lights. Set during a time of upheaval in the capital of cinema, and populated by a who’s who of colourful historical personalities from both the film and criminal worlds, City of Fallen Angels — the latest from Arthur Ellis Award-winner Howard Engel — is a classic period whodunit with a Canadian twist.