Bright Shining as the Sun: An ?mile Cinq-Mars Novel (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781990773303)

The legendary detective ?mile Cinq-Mars must unravel a conflagration of events triggered by a series of murders involving a triple gangland homicide that goes down at a bikers' " bank" where an alleged killer, wounded and in custody, stole no money. The accused, Douglas Sykes, reminds investigators that no gunshot residue is evident on his person, and he will talk no more... except to Sergeant-Detective ?mile Cinq-Mars. A day later, despite lying handcuffed to his hospital bed when the officer guarding him is murdered, Sykes is deemed to have carried out that crime, too. Meanwhile, Cinq-Mars, who is also lying in a hospital bed recovering from a gunshot - although he is supposed to now be retired - determines that matters have landed to reclaim his criminologist's attention. And to do so requires ruminating on a former case that has perplexed him throughout a long career. Did he previously err? As a young detective he caught sight of the adolescent Douglas Sykes wandering the streets of Montreal, lugging a sack on his back. For no particular reason beyond a hunch, he nabbed him and discovered human feet in the sack. Having already seen a torso lacking body parts that day, he asked the boy what he' d done with the head. Odd then, that Cinq-Mars did not work to convict the youth of a crime. Instead, his reasoning saw better to contrive facts to get him off. And then he helped him escape a second murder rap, which left the detective questioning his own judgement. Now, decades later, Sykes is accused of killing three bikers and a policeman, and the detective is once again asked to secure the man's freedom. ?mile Cinq-Mars must disentangle lies from truth, deceit from loyalty, racing to find the truth while biker gangs seek their own warring justice. Penetrating one gang's hierarchy to discern who betrays whom and why, becomes vital. At its core, Bright Shining As the Sun unearths a profound tale of distorted brotherly love that has brokered the lives of men ensnared by an inflamed familial dysfunction.