The Wrecking Game by Chris Forrest
A gripping crime thriller from Chris Forrest
The following quote, from later in The Wrecking Game, nicely sums up this gripping crime thriller from Chris Forrest:
“The thrust of the story had nowhere to go but exactly where it was being funnelled, a dark ending for the principal characters.” (pg. 228)
The Wrecking Game is a complex, but never confusing, multiple story-line novel that is the proverbial difficult-to-put-down read. Summarizing it is difficult due to the many story lines, but it’s a case of major insurance fraud (or frauds) all the way from Texas to Toronto.
There is the mysterious murder of rancher Big Dave Watson in Texas, who received a substantial insurance payment due to the explosion of an oil well on his property which killed off a large part of his livestock, and the involvement of a a biker gang who financed the scheme. The payoff money has disappeared and the bikers want their money back. Everyone from the local sheriff to the FBI is involved and a manhunt is on for a couple of individuals of interest. These two individuals are now in Canada, and one who goes by the name of Ray Carver is now part of a “wrecking crew” that stages traffic accidents and profits from the insurance settlements. The other, a born-again Christian (and reborn as a Comanche warrior, but who isn’t indigenous) is Blackstone, who is out to recover the biker’s money who he believes Ray has.
Aside from the two FBI agents (Beecham & Logan) who follow the trail into Canada, there is the Sûreté du Québec, the OPP, and the Toronto Police who are all involved at some point in the manhunt.
What I enjoyed about The Wrecking Game (aside from the fact that I was totally ignorant of this level of insurance fraud) is how Mr. Forrest handles all the different characters so well. None are truly righteous; the over-eager Toronto Police Constable Gabriel Kruzik being the most virtuous, and so all have their pasts weighing heavily on them, with little idea of what the future holds, although Ray, and FBI agents Beecham and Logan are hopeful for better days ahead. As the above quote says, there is a “dark ending” for the principal characters.
As a seasoned crime fiction author, Mr. Forrest maintains a steady tempo while gradually “funnelling” the plot to the point where all the characters and plot lines converge. The chapters fly by and seem to get shorter as the conclusion draws closer. Perhaps that was just my imagination, but the author has the reader so invested in every character—whether they are good or bad—to the point where you want to know what cards they will be dealt.
Mr.Forrest also gives his characters a bit of breathing space so that we get a glimpse into their thoughts, which often wax philosophical. Take, for instance, the ruminations of Beecham, the male half of Beecham and Logan, a partnership that has crossed into a relationship. At one time, they planned to establish their own detective agency:
But the years and transfers had conspired against them. There was no office, no detective agency.
There remained only the memory of those plans, and even that was fading now, forming itself into something more conciliatory than it really was. This was the gift of time; its generous ability to soften edges so that when you looked back at something, you couldn’t see the jagged parts that had cut so deep. Through it all, there was something undeniable between them that could not be broken or changed by life rolling on, other work partners coming and going, marriages, relocations. (Pg. 119)
And Ray Carver, one of The Wrecking Crew:
“Want a drink?” Calder asks.
Ray shakes his head. He does want a drink but not the kind Calder is offering. Not a drink. Ray either wants to get so drunk he forgets what it is he thought he could orchestrate here in the first place, forget who he is pretending not to be or what happened in Texas, forget how his luck has suddenly turned bad, forget the girl he drove into and can’t break away from and probably loves, or he doesn’t want to drink at all.
The description of Toronto streets as Agent Logan walks back to her hotel before dawn:
The lost and aimless shuffle along, lost to their own world, a closed and private place. But not everyone out at this hour is homeless. Delivery drivers. Diehards headed to the gym for a pre-dawn workout. Insomniacs or the grieving, those whose lives have in some way derailed and now hurtle headlong towards an unknown destination. People who have become spectators to their own calamity. These are the people she feels a kinship with this morning, those who take exception to the gall of a rising sun.
Raymond Chandler once wrote in an essay:
“Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor—by instinct, by inevitability, without thought of it, and certainly without saying it. He must be the best man in his world and a good enough man for any world.”1
Mr. Forrest has followed Mr. Chandler’s example as he imbues Agents Beecham and Logan and Constable Kruzik with these qualities. Fine characters for a sequel, please!
If you enjoy a good crime drama, or are tiring of cozy mysteries, then The Wrecking Game is just the thing. Realistic, with hard-boiled characters and a “dark ending” that screams “sequel”. It doesn’t get much better than that.
About the Author
Chris Forrest is a Shamus Award finalist whose McKelvey crime series was shortlisted for multiple literary awards recognizing the finest in crime fiction. Born in Ottawa, he now lives in Calgary where he is a partner in a communications agency.
About the Reviewer
James M. Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of The Seaboard Review of Books. He resides in Miramichi, New Brunswick, with his wife, Diane, their tabby cat, Eddie, and Buster, their Border Collie. James also works as an MRI technologist at the Miramichi Hospital.
Book Details
ISBN: 978-0-9919236-7-0
Publication Date: February 2025
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 340
Dimensions: 8.5” x 5’5”
Chandler, Raymond (December 1944). “The Simple Art of Murder”. The Atlantic.