Murder novel based in Centretown
By Mike Barry
Murder mystery novel published, set in Centretown
Centretown is a hub for conspiracy and murder in author Gerald Lynch’s latest mystery novel, Omphalos. Second in a planned trilogy, Omphalos is the story of Detective Kevin Beldon’s quest to solve the murder of Eugene DeLint, leader of a corrupt NGO based in Ottawa.
The book was published Oct 17.
“I believe in the importance of place in fiction,” said Lynch. “I usually have to live in a place for a good while before I can write about it.”
Lynch, who has been a professor at the University of Ottawa since 1985, moved into Centretown four years ago. He says he now feels adequately acquainted with the community to use it as a setting for his storytelling.
Previously, Lynch used a fictional Ottawa suburb as the setting for two of his novels, but Omphalos represents a shift to a real locale.
“It just is an excellent setting for any kind of fiction. It’s varied,” said Lynch. He finds inspiration on walks along the Rideau Canal, musing about plot twists as he takes in views of historic buildings.
“You stand on the Corktown Footbridge and look North, it’s like Disney’s Magic Kingdom,” said Lynch.
Lynch is inspired by the beauty of Centretown — and in some cases, the lack thereof; he says the “exceptionally ugly” architecture of the DND buildings, which can be seen from the footbridge, made for an ideal setting for the “headquarters of Omphalos itself,” the evil international charity the book is based on.
Lynch, who was born in Ireland and grew up in Canada, teaches Canadian and Irish Literature and has a passion for creative and satirical writing. He paints a dark picture of near-future Ottawa in his series, a worldview he said stems from an aptitude for humorous pessimism that satirical writers tend to share.
His version of Centretown is home to a collapsing economy, deteriorating Parliament Buildings and overt poverty in the streets.
“For me, fiction depends on the local, it depends on the real, it depends on the concrete,” said Lynch. “People like to read about the place they live in.”
Familiar landmarks and neighbourhoods featured throughout the book help the Ottawa reader relate to the story. There’s even a reference near the end of the book to the still-unfinished light rail line.
“The setting’s a kind of mirror for people, for reader, to come and know themselves in the real place that they live,” he said.
The book is intended for adult readers who enjoy an atypical mystery and are “not looking for happy endings,” noted Lynch. The epigraph of the novel features a quote by the late Leonard Cohen that perfectly captures the darkness to come: “I have seen the future, brothers. It is murder.”
Omphalos is available at Amazon.ca.