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Max O'Brien Mystery #1
CACHEMIRE -NE
Pour l'escroc professionel Max O'Brien, le cauchemar recommence. Onze ans après l'assassinat de son frère Philippe, alors ambassadeur en Amérique centrale, c'est au tour de son neveu David, diplomate lui aussi, d'être victime d'un attentat à New Delhi.
Cette fois, Max a décide de démasquer les auteurs de ce crime atroce... Pourchassé par la police, il débarque dans une Inde en pleine tourmente, et sur le point d'entrer en guerre contre le Pakistan. Une situation explosive, d'autant plus que les deux pays possèdent l'arme nucléaire...
Sa quête de vérité mènera Max jusqu'au cœur de la société indienne... et au plus prpfond de lui-même.
Cette fois, Max a décide de démasquer les auteurs de ce crime atroce... Pourchassé par la police, il débarque dans une Inde en pleine tourmente, et sur le point d'entrer en guerre contre le Pakistan. Une situation explosive, d'autant plus que les deux pays possèdent l'arme nucléaire...
Sa quête de vérité mènera Max jusqu'au cœur de la société indienne... et au plus prpfond de lui-même.
459 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Mario Bolduc
12 books17 followersMario Bolduc has been working in film and television for nearly two decades. The Kashmir Trap, his first novel featuring Max O’Brien, was published in French in 2004. Mario lives in Montreal, Quebec.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 12, 2016
I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Dundurn, for sending me this ebook in return for an honest review. This book has many different elements: terrorism, murder, corruption, coverups, and buried family secrets. I enjoyed reading it and give it 3.5 stars out of 5(rounded up to 4). It started slow but then moved along about halfway through(my kindle version did not have page numbers, but GR lists it at 424p). This book was originally published in Quebec in French. The translation was excellent.
The central character is Max O'Brien, a professional con man who has swindled millions of dollars over the years from various people and organizations. One of these is the Quebec police pension fund, causing a determined policeman, Luc Roberge, to dedicate hinself for years to apprehending Max.
At the beginning of the book, Max finds out that his nephew, David, a Canadian diplomat in India, has been assassinated. Max decides to find the killer(s) and use his con man talents to do so.
What he finds is bigger than he suspects. The author ties all the various plot elements together at the end.
I thought the author did a good job at depicting life in India:
"Life flowed as a river whose course was fixed forever. There was no point in trying to alter its direction. The current brought us back, not into 'the right path' as Christians would say, but into the path, for good or ill, that had been set for us since the beginning of time"
"Max was disgusted. Behind every victim there was a family to support. Selling your body for a few rupees was better than picking through the garbage with the sacred cows."
The central character is Max O'Brien, a professional con man who has swindled millions of dollars over the years from various people and organizations. One of these is the Quebec police pension fund, causing a determined policeman, Luc Roberge, to dedicate hinself for years to apprehending Max.
At the beginning of the book, Max finds out that his nephew, David, a Canadian diplomat in India, has been assassinated. Max decides to find the killer(s) and use his con man talents to do so.
What he finds is bigger than he suspects. The author ties all the various plot elements together at the end.
I thought the author did a good job at depicting life in India:
"Life flowed as a river whose course was fixed forever. There was no point in trying to alter its direction. The current brought us back, not into 'the right path' as Christians would say, but into the path, for good or ill, that had been set for us since the beginning of time"
"Max was disgusted. Behind every victim there was a family to support. Selling your body for a few rupees was better than picking through the garbage with the sacred cows."
November 23, 2015
International thriller with con man as primary sleuth -- fun for spy thriller fans!
Did Not Finish
April 16, 2017I continued trying because this has all the elements that I love in a book. But I could not get into the book at all.
Read
July 21, 2016THE KASHMIR TRAP
The hero of the novel, Max O’Brien is a deeply tormented ex-convict.The reader meets
him in the very first chapter as he carries out an elaborate confidence scheme in New
York City, for he has been a highly successful con man for something like 30 years. The
main plot is simple: his beloved nephew, David, employed in the Canadian High
Commission in New Delhi, India, has been killed by a bomb and Max is dissatisfied with
the Canadian and Indian authorities’ lack of urgency in seeking to find out who was
responsible. Without hesitation, Max abandons his lucrative criminal career as he sets
out to discover who targeted David and why.
Our hero, wanted by police in three U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, takes
great risks during his frequent visits to Montreal and other parts of Canada in his efforts
to unravel the mystery. It is intriguing to see how he ingeniously evades police pursuits
and escapes from being occasionally captured.
The reader needs to exercise patience in following the intricacies of the plot, absorbing the overwhelming detail about the Canadian and Indian locations where Max travels, following the incursions into Indian culture along with the complications of India-Pakistan relations, and comprehending the frequent flashbacks into his formidably complicated family history. To help my understanding I made a list of the characters’ names and relationships.
The story is well told and the reader’s patience will be rewarded as the author provides a credible solution to the mystery.
The hero of the novel, Max O’Brien is a deeply tormented ex-convict.The reader meets
him in the very first chapter as he carries out an elaborate confidence scheme in New
York City, for he has been a highly successful con man for something like 30 years. The
main plot is simple: his beloved nephew, David, employed in the Canadian High
Commission in New Delhi, India, has been killed by a bomb and Max is dissatisfied with
the Canadian and Indian authorities’ lack of urgency in seeking to find out who was
responsible. Without hesitation, Max abandons his lucrative criminal career as he sets
out to discover who targeted David and why.
Our hero, wanted by police in three U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, takes
great risks during his frequent visits to Montreal and other parts of Canada in his efforts
to unravel the mystery. It is intriguing to see how he ingeniously evades police pursuits
and escapes from being occasionally captured.
The reader needs to exercise patience in following the intricacies of the plot, absorbing the overwhelming detail about the Canadian and Indian locations where Max travels, following the incursions into Indian culture along with the complications of India-Pakistan relations, and comprehending the frequent flashbacks into his formidably complicated family history. To help my understanding I made a list of the characters’ names and relationships.
The story is well told and the reader’s patience will be rewarded as the author provides a credible solution to the mystery.
August 17, 2016
This is a real humdinger! The writing is well done, not always the case in translation. I got quite an insight into Indian-Pakistan affairs and Muslim-Hindu relations.
The book is fast-paced and full of twists and turns. One has to suspend disbelief in spots, but who cares when you have such an attractive, but misbehaved hero.
Poor Max, with the QPP after him all the time as he tries to straighten out the world.
Lots of fun and I recommend highly.
The book is fast-paced and full of twists and turns. One has to suspend disbelief in spots, but who cares when you have such an attractive, but misbehaved hero.
Poor Max, with the QPP after him all the time as he tries to straighten out the world.
Lots of fun and I recommend highly.
March 14, 2019
very slow and very little to the twists, very convenient plot points to save our main character. Canada is represented as a racist red neck country which I just couldn't buy into, as a Canadian of colour...maybe its a dated representation?
February 26, 2024
The Kashmir Trap (A Max O’Brien Mystery) by Mario Bolduc
426 Pages
Publisher: Dundurn, Dundurn Press
Release Date: September 6, 2016
Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thriller, French Canadian
Set during the military standoff between Indian and Pakistan in 2002, David is a Canadian official in New Delhi. His job is becoming stressful and his wife, Juliette, sees him working long hours. She found out she is pregnant but is waiting for the right time to tell him. Max is a thief and has been a thorn in the side for the Canadian police. When he starts looking into David’s work in India, he uncovers more secrets than he expected.
The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This is a solid mystery and political thriller. If you like books set in foreign countries, you may enjoy reading this one.
426 Pages
Publisher: Dundurn, Dundurn Press
Release Date: September 6, 2016
Fiction (Adult), General Fiction (Adult), Mystery, Thriller, French Canadian
Set during the military standoff between Indian and Pakistan in 2002, David is a Canadian official in New Delhi. His job is becoming stressful and his wife, Juliette, sees him working long hours. She found out she is pregnant but is waiting for the right time to tell him. Max is a thief and has been a thorn in the side for the Canadian police. When he starts looking into David’s work in India, he uncovers more secrets than he expected.
The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in the third person point of view. This is a solid mystery and political thriller. If you like books set in foreign countries, you may enjoy reading this one.
August 27, 2024
Beaucoup de personnages de lieux ce qui rend ce livre difficile à suivre.
August 23, 2014
M'ayant laissé convaincre par la critique élogieuse de M. Norbert Spehner, à l'encontre de l'écrivain Mario Bolduc, j'ai donc entrepris la lecture de ce premier roman mettant en vedette Max O'Brien. Et bien, je dois admettre qu'il m'a sorti de ma zone de confort, en ce que le sujet me fut plutôt aride. En effet, tous les passages sur les conflits indo-pakistanais et la politique au Cachemire m'ont demandés un niveau accru de concentration. J'ai souvent arrêté la lecture d'un roman pour bien moins que ça. Mais loin de moi l'idée de vouloir sous-estimer la qualité de ce livre, car il renferme les conclusions d'une recherche documentaire certaine et parlant de conclusion, mon acharnement a été payant, car j'ai été émerveillée et même, attendrie, par la fin. Assez pour avoir le goût de suivre à nouveau Max O'Brien dans sa prochaine aventure, Tsiganes. À suivre!?!
September 28, 2016
This takes a little work= the story is not straightforward, there's a lot about the history/religious difficulties/etc, of India/Pakistan/Kashmir, and the writing is awkward in spots. I almost gave up on this several times, largely because of the writing, but kept on because I was very curious where it was going. Nothing is what it seems and I definitely missed the big and ultimately sad twist. It was interesting to read from the Canadian perspective. thanks to Edelweiss for the arc. You will like this if you enjoy complex non-traditional mysteries.
May 27, 2015
Belle histoire.
July 15, 2016
I found this book started kind of slow but got more interesting as you read . I would recommend it. I received this book through Goodreads Giveaways.
September 13, 2016
Interesting
The last 30 percent was great reading. Difficult to follow much of what was happening until then. Worth the read though, was glad I stuck with it.
The last 30 percent was great reading. Difficult to follow much of what was happening until then. Worth the read though, was glad I stuck with it.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews