Don't walk alone on Mount Royal at night. A good rule to follow in 1950s Montreal, where this story is set. As you can guess by the title, a body is discovered on the mountain and private eye Russell Teed is on the case… sort of. He's initially not interested, but after much persuasion, his journalist friend MacArnold puts him on the trail. Joined by James Montgomery, who discovered the body, MacArnold and Teed investigate the murder and become embroiled in underworld doings while drinking dry what seems to be every tavern and dépanneur in Notre-Dame-de-Grace and the Town of Mount Royal.

Teed's voice is likeable and earnest, and while he's not afraid to be violent when necessary, he is also capable of great sympathy toward the victims of the crimes he's investigating. The pace was smooth throughout, and while there were a lot of "summing up what we know so far" moments, for the most part they were handled quickly. The only thing I found really annoying was the rendering of Detective Sergeant Framboise's "very 'eavy French Canadian hac-sent". Specifically, the rendering of "these" as "t'ese", "them" as "t'em" and so on. All the apostrophes made my eyes cross. Also, strangely, I don't recall many mentions of the Montreal Canadiens in the narration. This was the 1950s, when the Habs were in very glorious days indeed and the Rocket Richard riot was just around the corner. They would have been everywhere. Although to be fair, being shot at by violent thugs is a much more pressing concern than the hockey scores.

Overall, I enjoyed this book as an evocation of Montreal and hard-boiled detective novels and would gladly read more of Teed's adventures. ( )