D'estate i gatti si annoiano

Gilles Sebag #1

by Philippe Georget, Silvia Manfredo (Translator)

È estate, fa caldo, i turisti sono arrivati e, al commissariato di Perpignan, Sebag e Molina, poliziotti disillusi divorati dalla routine, si occupano dei casi in corso senza grande entusiasmo. Ma all'improvviso una giovane olandese viene brutalmente ammazzata su una spiaggia ad Argelès e un'altra sparisce tra le viuzze della città senza lasciar traccia. Serial killer o no, la stampa si scatena in un batter d'occhio! Ritrovatosi suo malgrado al centro di un gioco diabolico, Sebag, alla mercé di uno psicopatico, metterà da parte preoccupazioni, problemi di cuore e interrogativi esistenziali per salvare ciò che ancora può essere salvato. «Aspetta senza gioia, pazienta e si abbandona. La casa di pietra diverrà la sua tomba. Chi fa cosa, chi acchiappa chi? Chi è il gatto e chi il topo?».

Genres: Mystery, France, Fiction, Crime, Procedural, Noir, Mystery Thriller

416 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2009

About the author

Philippe Georget was born in Épinay-sur-Seine in 1962. He works as a TV news anchorman for France-3. A passionate traveler, in 2001 he travelled the entire length of the Mediterranean shoreline with his wife and their three children in an RV. He lives in Perpignan. Summertime All the Cats Are Bored, his debut novel, won the SNCF Crime Fiction Prize and the City of Lens First Crime Novel Prize.

Reviews

[Kristine Brancolini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why did I read this book?

#1 The title: Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored. Just loved it.
#2 Related to the title: It's late spring and I'm ready for summer.
#3 The setting: The French Riviera, near the border with Spain. Who wouldn't want to spend the summer there? Or a few days reading about crime there?

This book features yet another interesting detective, Gilles Sebag, and his laconic partner, Jacques Molina, who work in Perpignan. This is part of the old Catalonia, so many of the people speak Catalan. I spent some time in Barcelona, so I really liked this element. Back to the detectives: They are hoping to do very little work and yet seem as though they are oh so busy. They go along in this fashion until a young Dutch woman is kidnapped. And the kidnapper begins communicating directly with Sebag. At first it appears that the abduction may be related to the violent murder of another young Dutch woman whose body was left on the beach nearby. But this book has a number of red herrings. Will this be one of them?

Georget also creates a subplot revolving around Sebag's wife. It looks as though she may be having an affair. His two children finish school and go off on holiday to a camp and with a friend. His wife goes on a cruise. Alone. Really?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Georget is an evocative writer and I was immediately plunged into summer. He also did a nice job of unraveling the mystery. Mysteries, actually. He left a nice series of hints, but I wasn't quite sure what was going on until the very end. Just the way I like my mysteries.

I'll be looking for more books by Philippe Georget.

[D.A. Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not often you read a detective book where the detectives are spending all their time trying NOT to work, looking for relaxation, really not driven at all. Usually the detective is hard-bitten with a past that drives him or her to exhaustion before they catch the bad guy...
So Gilles Sebag, bored detective, family man, parent to teenagers who find him dull, is a surprising treat to read about. He's Catalan, in an unusual setting, Perpignan (on the French Mediterranean), and the environment around him is as much of a character as he and his colleagues are.
So so far this all sounds like a slow, lolling book, filled with middle aged angst, but it isn't. The mystery develops quickly and despite himself and his doubts of adequacy, Sebag is pulled into a first rate thriller.
I truly enjoyed this book, from the title to the last page. Every character is well-drawn, and though this is a translation, the slightly awkward phrasing makes the Catalan/French distance acute.
Maybe it's because I'm over 50 and feeling my limitations, too, but every once and awhile I get sick of detectives who are all-knowing and street wise and the top of their fields and incapable of self-knowledge. Muscle men and women. They tire me out. Whereas Gilles Sebag and I could go into a pub and discuss the finer things in life and I'd love every minute.

[Deb Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

Subtle is the first word that comes to mind when considering this read. Subtle yet effective in building suspense.

Gillis Sebag is a husband, father and police detective -- in that order. His valuing of family over job had harmed his career advancement, although that doesn't pose a concern for Sebag. A slow starter, Sebag finds he will need all his skills and intuitions to solve the kidnapping of a young Dutch woman.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow burn literary thriller with an underlying noir feel and a real sense of place.

Sebag, a detective, spends one long shot Summer investigating an interlocking set of crimes that may or may not indicate a serial killer and he will take you with him all the way. This is not a book that rushes to judgement or goes for the cheap shock, it unfolds in what feels like real time and has a perceptive sense of routine both investigative and domestic. Everything happens in it's own time and it is utterly compelling throughout.

Beautifully crafted and brilliantly translated, this is an immersive and contemporary novel that feels like an instant classic.

Recommended.

[Emma Kennaugh-Gallacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read ‘summertime, all the cats are bored’ last night and enjoyed it. Sebag was an interesting guy without relying on the usual dark past back story for a crime story! His career had stalled (read, been ruined) when he took paternity leave and shared parental leave when his daughter was born, which was an interesting spin! There was an emphasis on this being down to the traditional values of the French police but it seemed like a wider comment on the French attitude to fathers taking a more equal role in parenting. The relationships with his children and wife were super vivid and genuine - but kind of painful at times to be honest. Deffo recommend.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I took it on vacation to Spain and read it in 2 days. It reminded me of when I read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series there a few years ago. I thought about the book when I couldn't read and looked forward to getting back to it.

Several people have given summaries so I won't do that. I did like the characters, the plot, and the theme. As soon as I finished this book, I began one someone had given me,"The 12th of Never" by James Patterson. While I read the first 85 pages quickly, it reminds me of the writing advice "show, don't tell." "Summertime" was showing while "The 12th of Never" is telling. I enjoyed "Summertime" so much more.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was drawn to this by the premise of discovering a new police procedural series set in an interesting location. Although I liked the characters, I didn’t feel the riviera was presented to optimum effect and thought the mysteries pretty cookie cutter in execution. Also, it was over 100 pages too long.

[Antonomasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5] A police procedural set in the South of France, this has a great title to pick up of an August Bank Holiday. Although it doesn't have precisely the setting and atmosphere I imagined, the word 'cats' and the faux-vintage shades of the cover photo conjuring the idea of "meanwhile, elsewhere along the coast..." around the time of And God Created Woman and Bonjour Tristesse: stylish and sexy as well as overheated. Rather it's 2005 and - whilst there's a little more flaunting than would go on in similar modern north European crime fiction - this simply has the feel of those weeks at work when it's too hot to do anything. Langourous, sticky, can't wait to get home to do nothing.

This relative lassitude is perhaps the biggest way in which Inspector Gilles Sebag and his Perpignan colleagues differ from the obsessive detectives typical of crime novels, who put in as much solitary overtime as is physically possible and then a bit more. Sebag spent several years part time when his children were young, as he loved being at home with them so much, his career never regained its former momentum, and he's not really bothered about this. (There are quite a few potentially cloying paragraphs about his family, similar to those in Scandinavian thrillers - but no doubt readers' response to these differ depending on their own household situation.) His teenage daughter says he doesn't have anything he particularly wants to do "apart from running and loafing around", which seems like an entirely fair assessment.

Apparently there are very few female police detectives in French crime fiction, because there are fewer in real life than in Anglo-American and Nordic countries - I don't have stats, that's from a couple of articles. Sebag is entirely plausible as a man but in contrast with the standard police procedural template, seems to have been created with a number of stereotypically female attributes: his detection relies on intuition - reading people astutely, 'clicks' similar to solving crosswords, or subconscious hunches for which one has to find the reasons before they can be presented to superiors - he has no wish to be anything other than faithful, and it's his wife who's the adventurous one who's always going out and might be having affairs.

And like a lot of people of whatever sex, he can be a clockwatcher at times - yes he works some weekends and is often on call, but it's obvious he works to live, not the other way round. This has a surreal realism: many, perhaps most, people are that way at least some of the time, yet it feels out of place in crime fiction. I found the attitude highly convincing - although possibly not the way the press weren't on the police's backs to get on with solving the crimes in question. I know very little about the French media, but in crime series from other countries, being dogged by papers and TV to get results is a major part of the plot: here it's only on two or three days of the investigation that the media has any kind of pressurising presence.

Sebag also isn't a lone hero - breakthroughs are made by other colleagues as much as by him, there are no geniuses, plenty of gruntwork, some mistakes; and everything takes a while. A few GR reviewers have found this frustrating, but I liked it as a change from the usual, and a realistic one given how things often are in the news. The author is a French newsreader - perhaps the pace of his first novel reflects the slowness and waiting that often accompanies murder and abduction cases as we hear of them through news.

After the clunky writing and translation of some Nordic crime writers (e.g. Asa Larsson, Anne Holt), this was great. Delighted by the comparatively good style, I've rounded the rating up to 4 stars rather than down to 3. It's not as good as Ian Rankin, but it's more than decent; the reflective bits never get excessively flowery and they fit the pace and weather beautifully. A personal favourite was: "The birds, indifferent to his torment, were chirping their eternal hymn to life." My only doubts about stylistic quality came from occasional clumsy translationss, as if the translator had forgotten some English idioms (high rises/tower blocks was one we could have done with several times) - and also the continual Americanisms became annoying. Europa is a small publisher; no doubt they can't pay an editor to go through replacing terms like 'faucet' and 'sidewalk' for the British market. Interesting material about French Catalan almost made up for that, however.

The other big minus was that the crimes themselves are a cliche of fiction, victims being attractive female undergraduates, and then there's a culprit who toys with the police. (Those to whom it matters may want to know that there is, however, no rape in the book.) I wondered if the young Dutch women are being stereotyped, as sexually forthright. One has a name, Ingrid Raven, that sounds Scandinavian, and some of her actions recall the 60s-70s sexually liberated and flirtatious stock character 'Ingrid from Sweden'. (Recently I read some research saying that Dutch teenagers link sex significantly more closely with love than do British ones - quite contrary to the simplistic idea of what less stigma and better sex education might lead to - though having lost my browser history can't now find the reference.)

Whilst not quite living up to the promise of its intriguing title, and featuring a type of crime and criminal that will be over-familiar to anyone who's read a dozen or so contemporary procedurals, Summertime All the Cats Are Bored was still better than plenty of translated crime fiction, its drawn-out slowness, attentive writing, wealth of picturesque local detail that could plausibly inspire a holiday, and lethargic protagonist suiting hot weather perfectly.

[Three · Rating 3 out of 5]

un po’ anche i lettori…..

(non è neanche malaccio, con le descrizioni della Catalogna francese, delle cittadine nella calura, della crisi - affrontata con intelligenza e sensibilità - del rapporto del protagonista con la moglie, ma è pieno di ripetizioni e di dialoghi vuoti. Senza contare che l’indizio per trovare l’assassino è lì, plateale, a metà del libro e la polizia ci mette un secolo a capirlo, e se lui non fosse stato un criminale totalmente fuori di testa poteva andare a finire molto male)

[Danny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am pretty sure I was the only bored person in this altogether lackluster book. Summertime managed to group together every cliche it could think of and make it slightly worse by having a translator who, unwilling to take any artistic license, created clunky, unnatural sentences. Our kidnapper is a poorly drawn Norman Bates without any attempt to give him any unique qualities. The close 3rd person narration for Sebag( main character) contains the confusing double-standard of commenting on how lame and creepy the other male characters are for their one track minds and pathetic mooning over any pretty woman yet then describes every woman he sees in this same light. It didn't match the image of the character we're given and instead makes him seem like the strange family friend who makes increasingly inappropriate comments.
The story itself, as stated above, is just sorta lame. The connections are so threadbare that the reader can't even enjoy the fun of trying to piece together who the killer is through context clues, because instead of clues the author provides screamingly blatant plants. it served as a decent beach read in that it was mindlessly easy to burn through.

I have NO idea why Europa translated this and it makes me question their taste judgement, as I've always blindly bought books by them on the basis that they took on the best of the European Continent's lit.

[aPriL does feral sometimes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Inspector Gilles Sebag, the narrator of ‘Summertime, All the Cats are Bored’ is a family man first, detective second. He is also houseproud and adores his wife Claire. His two children are growing up, to his regret, not wanting the hugs and kisses he wishes he could give them as he did when they were younger. He works in Perpignan, a French Mediterranean town full of tourists during the hot summers.

I have copied the book blurb:

”It’s the middle of a long hot summer on the French Mediterranean shore and the town is teeming with tourists. Sebag and Molina, two tired cops who are being slowly devoured by dull routine and family worries, deal with the day’s misdemeanors and petty complaints at the Perpignan police headquarters. But then a young Dutch woman is found murdered on a beach at Argelès, and another disappears without a trace in the alleys of the city. Is it a serial killer obsessed with Dutch women? Maybe. The media senses fresh meat and moves in for the feeding frenzy.

Out of the blue, Inspector Gilles Sebag finds himself thrust into the middle of a diabolical game. In order to focus on the matter at hand, he will have to put aside his cares, forget his suspicions about his wife’s unfaithfulness, ignore his heart murmur, and get over his existential angst. But there is more to this case than anyone suspects.”

I did not think Sebag was very angsty until he suspects his wife might be having an affair. But the case of the missing Dutch woman, Ingrid Raven, is a really big case as far as the media is concerned and they are demanding answers. His boss wants her found now! But Sebag was involved in tracking down a missing cab driver before the police were notified about Ingrid being missing. He can’t explain it, but he still wants to work on finding José Lopez. He is still following clues on the cab driver when he is supposed to looking for Ingrid. As time goes on, he realizes the two cases may be linked. Did Lopez kidnap the Dutch girl?

The novel is a procedural, but one with a lot of unexpected cozy warmth! It is a story involving a detective who is as interested in family life as in solving crimes. The mysteries, although dark, and not graphically described. The chapters alternate between Ingrid, a retired gentleman who finds a neighbor’s body, the kidnapper, and Sebag’s point of view. So far, there are two other books in the Sebag series, all translated from French into English.

[BookBully · Rating 3 out of 5]

This languid French mystery set around the disappearance of one Dutch tourist and the murder of another is roughly 50 pages too long. I give it 3.5 stars and recommend it to fans of Andrea Camilleri and Donna Leon. Or to anyone like myself who couldn't resist the title.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summertime All the Cats Are Bored is the first book in the Inspector Sebag trilogy of books by French author Philippe Georget. I had previously read the 2nd one but finally managed to find the 1st in the series. I have the 3rd book on my bookshelf and plan to finish the series off this year.

Anyway, in this mystery, Inspector Gilles Sebag and his colleagues in Perpignan, southern France are trying to solve the disappearance of a Dutch woman who was there on vacation. At the same time, just down the road, another Dutch woman has been found murdered on the beach. The detectives must ascertain if the two events are related, is there a serial killer around? As well, a young wife reports the disappearance of her husband, a taxi drive, to Sebag. As the investigation continues, it becomes apparent that the taxi driver may have been involved with the Dutch girl as a pimp.

At the same time, Sebag is beginning to wonder if his wife Claire is having an affair. Little things are making him have doubts. Their two children each head off on vacations with friends and Claire eventually goes on a cruise. This situation is an ongoing theme in this story and adds an extra dimension to an interesting story.

The mystery is told from varied perspectives, Sebag's, that of the purported murderer and that of the Dutch woman. It's an interesting way to proceed with the events. There isn't a lot of forensics in the story, although they do play a role. The story focuses more on the detectives, their investigation and their gatherings to pass on information and try to solve the murder and disappearance.

The story moves along nicely. Gilles and his co-workers are all interesting and the mystery unravels nicely. Sebag relies on his insight and sudden bursts of inspiration to resolve the events and come up with a very satisfying solution. It's unfortunate that Georget only wrote 3 books in this series as, while I look forward to reading the 3rd book, it would also be nice to continue with the series. (4 stars)

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this, but I think the translation lets it down at times. it's nice to read something set in the area I am currently staying (even if it is about kidnapping and murder!).
I've the next in the series as well, and will give it a go too.

[Tina Tamman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why is it annoying in some books when you can predict the ending and in others, not? I really enjoyed this book although I could see far ahead: the clues were all there, visible to me, yet the reading was a pleasure all the same. Excellent story so well written. The author has managed to put so much humanity and even humour into it! The only things I did not like are to do with reviews, i.e. extraneous aspects. The cover calls the novel "perfect deckchair entertainment". In my limited experience deckchairs are uncomfortable and I would not read anything in them. Reviews also mentioned that it was "a police procedural". Why has this category (genre?) been invented? Police by definition investigate crimes, so the novel is about a particular investigation - that is all. I used to think English was a concise language, but obviously no more.

[Rob Kitchin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Summertime, All the Cats are Bored is a police procedural set over a few hot weeks of early summer in Southern France and the local police’s attempts to save a young woman who has been kidnapped and two murders. The strength of the story is the sense of place and characterisation. Georget firmly places the reader in the Perpignan region during tourist season and captures the team dynamics and interactions of the investigative team. The narrative mostly focuses on Inspector Gilles Sebag, a cop who’s slipping into a midlife crisis as the case starts - he’s prioritised his family over his career, but now his teenage kids are making their own way in life and his wife is spending increasingly more time with friends and holidaying on her own and he suspects she’s having an affair, and his boss wants him to apply for promotion. His basis of his sense of self seems to be on shifting ground and now he’s trying to deal with a case where the life of a young woman is under threat. The intertwined scenarios of Sebag’s crisis and the perplexing investigation provide a nice hook and plot. However, the telling unfolds at a too leisurely pace, with a little too much unnecessary explication. The cats might be bored, but the reader veers towards that state a little too often until the final third of the book. Overall, an interesting character study and investigative case that too often lacks pace and edge.

[Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the character of Gilles Sebag - he's a good cop, steady and somewhat intuitive, dedicated but not driven. His career has been stalled slightly because he took parental leave when his second child was born, but his son and daughter are teenagers now and he is trying not to regret the loss of their childhoods. He's still in love with his wife, and she seems happy, but he is afraid she may be having an affair - something seems just a bit off and it worries him at occasionally inopportune times. He's kind and reflective, he and Claire are both good parents and the kids are happy young people. Not your typical dysfunctional crime fiction cop family.

Sebag and his partner are landed with two crimes - the disappearance of a Catalan cab driver, and the kidnapping of a young Dutch woman. Not long before these happened, another young Dutch woman was murdered, and that crime has not been solved. Then there is an attempted kidnapping of a third young Dutch woman, and the press runs wild. Sebag is not sure. The cabbie and the kidnap victim may be connected, but is someone really preying on Dutch tourists in the middle of a Perpignan summer?

I very much like the setting - the Perpignan area where French and Catalan cultures meet. The characters are nicely developed, as is the plot. It's not action packed, but it unfolds nicely with a bit of a twist at the end.

[Laura Hoffman Brauman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title just grabbed me on this one -- and I'm not quite sure why. Then the intro from the author made me smile. French mystery -- at times the translation felt a little stilted, but I really enjoyed the novel. Somewhat sparse like some of the Scandanavian crime novels. It seems like in the European crime fiction, the detectives, police, etc are more like regular people with their own faults, normal lives, and everyday challenges vs the American "super cops". The mystery piece was good, but what really intrigued me about this one was the domestic tension as the detective wonders if his wife might be having an affair. Seeing this described from a male characters point of view was different -- and European perspectives on this can be very different than in the US. All in all, a good read.

[Beth Brekke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up due to the title (even though I knew it had nothing to do with cats-although there was one included). This novel was originally published in French and translated which, while new for me, was neither a plus nor a minus. Knowing a bit of French and being familiar with the setting would have been a plus but not a necessity. I enjoyed it for what it was--a lighter mystery of a killer/kidnapper taunting the police force, one investigator in particular. With personal drama in his life, he still manages to focus on the case when he needs to and rescues the hostage. It was one of those endings that wrapped up the crime but seemed to leave the reader looking for their own conclusion about his personal life. Maybe it becomes clear in the sequel and I hope to read that when I can find a copy.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this police procedural novel set in present-day France. Loved the characters - well-drawn and engaging - and the excellent cat-and-mouse storyline as the detectives try to track down a culprit who has kidnapped a Dutch girl, attempted to abduct another and maybe killed a third. Good twists and turns, although I solved it before the detectives managed to, and not excessive amounts of violence. Great title too - have already borrowed the next one from the library - 'Autumn, All the Cats Return'. Nearly a 5 star read - 9/10.

[Alessandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buon esordio per Georget, ma ho trovato alcune parti del romanzo superflue, e altre invece avrei voluto venissero approfondite.
Comunque, un libro gradevole, che consiglio.

[Marion · Rating 2 out of 5]

The more I read of it, the less I liked it.

The whole plot is super obvious to the reader but clearly not to the investigating policemen - thus the story is incredibly slow moving and repetitive, it's painful.

Also really disgusted by the constant - subtle - mysogynist comments. The whole novel is told with a "male gaze" perspective. Uncomfortable and vile.

None of the characters is likable, and the story is filled with stereotypes. Prepare for some eye-rolling.

Petty but noteworthy: the English translation uses the word "interlocutor" on every other page, variety would have been nice.

I would not recommend this book.

[Darius Ostrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful debut, and a great vacation read. The characters are well-defined, the setting is exotic and different enough to be engaging, and the mood is palpable - provincial French, torpid summer, the boredom of routine.

Not perfect, the main character needs some smoothing out before he gets irritating, but a great start and looking forward to the rest of the series.

[Jackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4 stars. The translation seemed a little awkward in places but I didn't mind that as it just served as a reminder that the book is written by a French author as opposed to just being set in France. Liked the background story of the wife & children.

[Pirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great title and the book lives up to it. A veritable page-turned and the cat (the reader) will feel like it has had the cream by the end .....engrossing main plot and the principal character's private life story holds together well to boot. Some nice dry humour too despite the grim crimes surrounding three Dutch girls...are they linked or are they coincidences...the perpetrator or is it perpetrators (s) are well drawn too. Well worth a read..if your fellow beach/swimming pool guests see you grinning like a Cheshire Cat at the end then show them the title of the book......

[Tolkien InMySleep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cat and mouse French policier with a strong human angle

[gallizio · Rating 4 out of 5]

A game of Chess

[Emily :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

good but the cops pmo so bad what do u mean you couldn’t put 2 + 2 together and figure out the kidnapper

[Emmkay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A police procedural translated from the French, set in Perpignan, near the Spanish border. A young Dutch woman is kidnapped, and Inspector Gilles Sebag is on the case. I particularly enjoyed the setting - lots of drinking of pastis, and descriptions of the scenery. The story itself was absorbing enough, if cliched. I was surprised though that it was written in this century, given all the male detectives and the rotating gaggle of female secretaries, whose non-speaking roles seemed limited to handing out documents or coffee while being very conscious of the effect their miniskirt or blouse is having...

[Marina Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charming and languorous like a summer's day. A detective (Gilles Sebag) who is a family man, a blend of Catalan and French culture in the Perpignan region, melancholy psychological depth to at least two of the characters. And a suitably interesting plot, although lacking some clarity at the beginning (are we dealing with one murder, two, are events happening at the same time?). I also felt frustrated at times by Sebag's inability to spot clues that were right in front of him. Still, all in all, a rather fun holiday read.