A minor masterpiece from a French novelist whose other recently reissued works include Fatale and The Prone Gunman.
A young beauty sprung from an insane asylum, a hired killer with a bad case of workplace anxiety, a calculating philanthropist and his orphaned nephew create nonstop havoc in this 1972 French novel, translated into English for the first time.
The opening scene might lead you to expect the grisliest kind of pulp fiction: The killer, Thompson, overcoming severe stomach cramps, shoves a hacksaw blade into the heart of a suspected pederast. And there certainly is no shortage of extreme violence. Right up until the end, people are getting shot, stabbed and bonked in the head with heavy objects, a department store is left in flames, and the French countryside is at risk from speeding vehicles. But this is at heart a merciless comedy in which every violent act and utterance carries the potential of hilarity. Julie, the beauty hired to care for the increasingly unstable young orphan, is a piece of work the likes of which we've never seen—lethal and maternal. Manchette, who died in 1995, was a master of control. The fierce deadpan tone of the novel never wavers even as its gang of criminals demonstrates its inability to shoot straight. As in a Jacques Tati film, sheer lunacy propels the story, one outrageous mishap triggering another. Set in the '70s, the book is on one level a sendup of classic noir, but it's no spoof, existing in its own perverse universe.
A minor masterpiece from a French novelist whose other recently reissued works include Fatale and The Prone Gunman.Pub Date: July 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-59017-720-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: New York Review Books
Review Posted Online: July 1, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.
Too much free time leads a New Hampshire bookseller into yet another case of murder.
Now that Tricia Miles has Pixie Poe and Mr. Everett practically running her bookstore, Haven’t Got a Clue, she finds herself at loose ends. Her wealthy sister, Angelica, who in the guise of Nigela Ricita has invested heavily in making Stoneham a bookish tourist attraction, is entering the amateur competition for the Great Booktown Bake-Off. So Tricia, who’s recently taken up baking as a hobby, decides to join her and spends a lot of time looking for the perfect cupcake recipe. A visit to another bookstore leaves Tricia witnessing a nasty argument between owner Joyce Widman and next-door neighbor Vera Olson over the trimming of tree branches that hang over Joyce’s yard—also overheard by new town police officer Cindy Pearson. After Tricia accepts Joyce’s offer of some produce from her garden, they find Vera skewered by a pitchfork, and when Police Chief Grant Baker arrives, Joyce is his obvious suspect. Ever since Tricia moved to Stoneham, the homicide rate has skyrocketed (Poisoned Pages, 2018, etc.), and her history with Baker is fraught. She’s also become suspicious about the activities at Pets-A-Plenty, the animal shelter where Vera was a dedicated volunteer. Tricia’s offered her expertise to the board, but president Toby Kingston has been less than welcoming. With nothing but baking on her calendar, Tricia has plenty of time to investigate both the murder and her vague suspicions about the shelter. Plenty of small-town friendships and rivalries emerge in her quest for the truth.
An anodyne visit with Tricia and her friends and enemies hung on a thin mystery.Pub Date: Aug. 13, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-9848-0272-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019
A murder is committed in a stalled transcontinental train in the Balkans, and every passenger has a watertight alibi. But Hercule Poirot finds a way.
**Note: This classic Agatha Christie mystery was originally published in England as Murder on the Orient Express, but in the United States as Murder in the Calais Coach. Kirkus reviewed the book in 1934 under the original US title, but we changed the title in our database to the now recognizable title Murder on the Orient Express. This is the only name now known for the book. The reason the US publisher, Dodd Mead, did not use the UK title in 1934 was to avoid confusion with the 1932 Graham Greene novel, Orient Express.
Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1934
ISBN: 978-0062073495
Page Count: -
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1934
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