THE MANIFESTO

Kingston offers a political thriller, set in modern-day Canada, involving the fraught politics of Quebec.

As the story opens,Etienne Dumas, “a man of secrets he hopes to reveal,” is attempting to flee Quebec City. He’s an analyst for the Parti de l’independence, a group that seeks to make Quebec an independent and solely French-speaking nation. Etienne has information that troubles him, regarding “a secret, well financed underground organization” that had “gone too far.” If he can just get out of Quebec, he can pass on his knowledge to handlers in Ottawa, but his attempt gets him shot and killed. Enter Marcel Vanier, assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s counterterrorism and counterintelligence unit, who believes that radicals like the Parti de l’independence are modeling their strategy on an obscure document known as the Quebec Manifesto, which outlines a long-term plan. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Alex Archer, from western Canada, is on a mission to foster a more unified country. In an effort to understand and address problems within different provinces, he goes on a sort of listening tour—and every local leader, whether they’re in Nova Scotia or Saskatchewan, seems to have a gripe about Quebec. They argue that Ottawa has been too soft on the province, allowing it to become a “fiefdom within Canada’s borders.” It’s a curious narrative shift from the novel’s more thrilling beginning, and spy-fiction fans may not find what bothers, say, the premier of Prince Edward Island to be particularly enthralling. However, this narrative technique helps to paint a realistic picture of day-to-day government, and Archer effectively becomes an empathetic figure as he looks for the “mood of the nation.” That said, the scenes of politicking have drawbacks; for instance, an app for polling constituents called True North Talks (which poses direct questions about such topics as provincial separation) is no more exciting than it sounds. Still, the potential for violence is always near in this uniquely Canadian thriller.

A northern adventure that dives deep into a country’s inner turmoil.