Never Forget: A Victor Lessard Thriller

French Canadian author Michaud makes his English-language debut with this raucous crime thriller, the third in the series, featuring his brilliant but perpetually overwrought Montreal cop, Victor Lessard. First, Lessard and his abrasive partner, Jacinthe Taillon, must figure out how the torture murders of two elderly people are connected with the suicide of a homeless man who possessed both victims’ wallets. They must then unravel a tangled history of clandestine mind-control experiments stretching back to the 1960s, when a brainwashed hit man may have taken part in the JFK assassination. Finally, they need to locate the last victim of a hideous revenge plot before it’s too late. Meanwhile, Lessard’s love life is in turmoil, and his son has apparently become enmeshed in a violent anti-Semitic gang. Glimpses into events unknown to the police raise the tension as readers wonder whether Lessard and Taillon can work out how the various clues fit together. Subtle he isn’t, but Michaud does provide good, pulpish fun. Agent: Abigail Koons, Park & Fine Literary and Media (Canada). (Feb.)