After an injury on the job, officer Chantel Pouliot of the Quebec City police force, is assigned to a white collar crime, a job she is not at all happy about especially after two RCMP officers from Toronto are assigned to work with her.. However, when this safe job quickly warps into a murder case, she soon finds herself confronted with a great deal more excitement and danger than she could have possibly anticipated or been prepared for.

Faux Friends by A.J. McCarthy starts out with a bang but quickly slows down. Not to say it wasn’t still a decent police procedural but it lacked the promise of that opening. It also was marred by the character of Chantal who comes off as both immature and dangerously reckless.

The fact that, despite these criticisms, I quite enjoyed the story is down to the twisty plot line that kept the story moving even when it slowed down as well as the interaction between many of the characters. And, if the villain and his motives stretched my willing suspension of disbelief fairly far, he certainly was interesting. I also loved the descriptions of Quebec City., a city I only visited once, a fact I will certainly remedy in the future.

So, overall, although I can’t say I loved Faux Friends, I certainly enjoyed it enough to plan to read more by McCarthy in the future and to recommend it for fans of police procedurals especially those with female protagonists,

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I received this book as part of the LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's giveaway, in exchange for an honest review. So, thanks to LibraryThing and Black Rose Writing for sending me a copy.
The synopsis sounded promising. However, the actual plot itself failed to keep me hooked.
The original white-collar case the team started working on just ended up being a side-plot-ish. The main scheme of the villain was something else altogether. And I was not convinced of the kind of plotting done by the villain, and all for what? Revenge?
Again, the team assembled was promising, in terms of the mixture of skills and personalities. But it didn't feel like it was developed to any good level.
The protagonist, Chantal, turned out to be very irritating, immature, and altogether not likeable.
Unfortunately, not one of the books I enjoyed.
The snippets about Quebec city and its architecture was the only highlight. ( )

Faux Friends was a solid police mystery novel. I would not necessarily consider Chantel a "likeable" character, and as others have pointed out, you spend quite a bit of time in her head reliving old events. Overall though the twists and turns in the narration kept me engaged and it was a satisfying conclusion.

The story in a few words:

This mystery brings Chantal Pouliot of the Quebec police force working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in a white-collar-cyber-crime. The safe, tedious job she envisioned swiftly becomes a murder case with possible link to organized crime......

Chantal undercover detective status was put on hold after her last case terribly went wrong six months earlier. She is now back on the saddle and thrown into the life she wanted.....

My thoughts:

Ms. McCarthy pens a suspenseful story with many twists one that kept my attention trying to unravel the truth behind the crime. The investigation leads Chantal and her partner Jeff Lafond on an unexpected adventure through the streets of Quebec City, deep into the criminal underworld and through a mine field of violence. This mystery is a rollercoaster ride of police procedural where no one really trusts anyone. It starts with a bang and never lets up.

In general the characterisation is good but I am not too fond of Chantal, the protagonist. In my eyes she is a spoil brat, always mad and one that doesn’t get along with her male counterpart, a frustrated b...in other words. Too bad Chantal get a grip on yourself.

As for the supporting cast, the players are well defined and play expertly their part whether they are mafia thugs or police officers. Having said this I still love how they interact with each other including all the shenanigans they bring to the table. The story is set in a French environment so a mix of the French language from time to time gives the experience a tad of flair and reality. Well-done and well timed.

“Faux Friends” is a fun and twisted read I enjoyed quite a bit.

I received a free copy of this book and I leave a voluntary review, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own. ( )

I received a free copy of this book as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviewers scheme.

This was an enjoyable book with a plausible plot. I agree with another reviewer that far too much was made of Chantel's previous experience. Perhaps a better way to get this across would be with a chapter at the beginning summarising what happened. I felt as if I was reading book 2 in a series without reading book 1.

I enjoyed reading a booked based in Canada rather than America, it made a nice change. I like a book that ties everything up and this book did that nicely. ( )