The Carnivore : A Novel

When Hurricane Hazel tore through Toronto on October 15, 1954, it left its mark on both the city and its inhabitants. In the aftermath, a young cop named Ray Townes emerges as a hero�numerous accounts detail the way he battled the raging Humber River to save those trapped in their homes�and his story is featured prominently in the newspapers, thrusting him into the spotlight as a local celebrity. Meanwhile, his wife Mary is wrestling with doubts about her husband�s heroism. While performing her own miracles the night of the storm as a nurse at a mud-filled, overcrowded emergency room, Mary met a woman�disoriented and near death�with a disturbingly peculiar recollection of events. While Mary tries to shake her suspicions about Ray as they rebuild their life in the shell-shocked city, she can't help but wonder about her husband and that fateful night. When a reporter comes knocking 50 years later to revisit that horrendous night, the truth begins to surface and threatens to destroy them. Cleverly constructed with meticulous research, this work of historical fiction includes a new section filled with author interviews, new insights in the work, and bonus work from the author. Review �Weds the pinprick domestic intimacy of Alice Munro with the flop-sweat extra-marital intrigue of James M. Cain.�� �Toronto Star �A cleverly constructed and evocatively written novel.�� �Booklist �Sinnett keeps the pages turning with many twists and turns, while peppering the text with nice turns of phrase . . . . Sinnett's meticulous research captures what the sights, sounds, and smells of 1954 Toronto might have been like . . . . This book is for those who want thoughtful prose and fallible characters with their plot . . . . A reader of any age will find lots of action in The Carnivore on which to gnaw.� � �GlobeandMail.com About the Author Mark Sinnett is the author of The Border Guards , which was short-listed for the Arthur Ellis Award; Bull ; The Landing , winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award; and Some Late Adventure of the Feelings . He lives in Kingston, Ontario. When Hurricane Hazel tore through Toronto on October 15, 1954, it left its mark on both the city and its inhabitants. In the aftermath, a young cop named Ray Townes emerges as a hero, numerous accounts detail the way he battled the raging Humber River to save those trapped in their homes, and his story is featured prominently in the newspapers, thrusting him into the spotlight as a local celebrity. Meanwhile, his wife Mary is wrestling with doubts about her husband's heroism. While performing her own miracles the night of the storm as a nurse at a mud-filled, overcrowded emergency room, Mary met a woman, disoriented and near death, with a disturbingly peculiar recollection of events. While Mary tries to shake her suspicions about Ray as they rebuild their life in the shell-shocked city, she can't help but wonder about her husband and that fateful night. When a reporter comes knocking 50 years later to revisit that horrendous night, the truth begins to surface and threatens to destroy them A wife harbors suspicions about her husband’s image as a hero cop in this suspenseful novel, a winner of the Toronto Book Award. Back in 1954, Hurricane Hazel barreled through Toronto, killing eighty-one people. Ray and Mary Townes were a young married couple, and while Mary, a nurse, performed her own small miracles that night, her police officer husband was celebrated for his heroism as the newspapers reported on his lifesaving rescues. As the two tried to resume their life together in the shell-shocked city, Mary felt some doubt about her husband’s story. But the truth remained elusive—until the day, decades later, when a reporter came knocking . . . Suspenseful and moving, The Carnivore is a tale of both a historical natural disaster, and the quiet dangers that lurk within a marriage, with “many twists and turns [and] lots of action” (The Globe and Mail, Toronto). “A cleverly constructed and evocatively written novel.” —Booklist