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Double Jeu
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 15, 2018
I don’t know whether I have read too many of these crime/detective novels but I had guessed the first twist since the start and that ruined it for me. I was just adding pieces to a puzzle I had seen and knew by heart. I’d be unfair to Thomas though if I didn’t recognize he had another twist for me but that was also familiar.
I give it 3 stars because I realize how many authors have done the same …after him.
(Irrelevant comment: I doubt the Robert Thomas who wrote Double Jeu is the same person who according to Goodreads wrote Lifestyle and Cancer The Facts )
I give it 3 stars because I realize how many authors have done the same …after him.
(Irrelevant comment: I doubt the Robert Thomas who wrote Double Jeu is the same person who according to Goodreads wrote Lifestyle and Cancer The Facts )
October 20, 2025
Double Jeu by Robert Thomas
Excellent and gripping story, 8 out of 10
There are quite of few surprising events in this detective story.
The husband abuses his wife and even worse he is taking money from her, gambles accumulates debt and creates the very profile of the male pig.
The game appears to be up when Richard- the husband comes home with yet another huge loss, to be paid from the wife’s fortune.
The maid reveals that she has an affair with Richard’s twin brother, who was sent to jail by the ruthless blood relative.
An idea comes to the creative mind of the beaten wife.
She wants to use Mitchell, the twin brother in order to obtain a divorce that Richard would not agree to.
Unfortunately, Mitchell seems to be the opposite of his brother and shy and timid as he is, the plot does not appeal to him.
With a few million francs on the table, mindsets change pretty quickly.
Sartoni, the man who comes to collect money from the gambling husband is conveniently a notary and he could authenticate a divorce.
It all falls into place and it is too good to be true and in a detective story suspense is necessary to keep readers interested.
Richard calls to say that he will be home early.
What to do, after the fake divorce was all but effective, the operation has to be aborted and a new plan put in place.
Tranquilizers would be placed in a whiskey shot and Richard has a glass whenever he comes home, which would be his downfall in this occasion.
Alfred Hitchcock was interested in the works of Robert Thomas, and met with the author to buy the rights for a cinema adaptation.
When Richard arrives home early, he refuses the drink and forces his wife to have it, suspecting foul play.
In the kerfuffle there is even a shot from a pistol and bodies have to be thrown into a well, in the courtyard.
In one of the best plots that I know, we have to keep looking for the mastermind, the real villain and masks keep falling.
But just when the reader says
- I get it
Another angle and a new surprise come from the big store.
Even the police are called to the crime scene, but I already hide what is happening from before the middle of the story.
To keep you interested and avoid any spoiler, I use no names and reveal no element of the script, except by saying that it is damn clever.
Just when you say it is the B plan, it will be like this from now on, there are yet another turn and an alternative route.
The fact that Sartoni was played by the marvelous George Constantin added immensely to my pleasure.
This outstanding actor transforms any play he is in into a masterpiece and had amazing gifts.
They say that professionals from something like The Grand Theater of Moscow –or was it Saint Petersburg- came to Bucharest.
They saw George Constantin and were taken aback even if he had no line.
The same thing happened when Jack Nicholson was discovered- talk of giants.
Excellent and gripping story, 8 out of 10
There are quite of few surprising events in this detective story.
The husband abuses his wife and even worse he is taking money from her, gambles accumulates debt and creates the very profile of the male pig.
The game appears to be up when Richard- the husband comes home with yet another huge loss, to be paid from the wife’s fortune.
The maid reveals that she has an affair with Richard’s twin brother, who was sent to jail by the ruthless blood relative.
An idea comes to the creative mind of the beaten wife.
She wants to use Mitchell, the twin brother in order to obtain a divorce that Richard would not agree to.
Unfortunately, Mitchell seems to be the opposite of his brother and shy and timid as he is, the plot does not appeal to him.
With a few million francs on the table, mindsets change pretty quickly.
Sartoni, the man who comes to collect money from the gambling husband is conveniently a notary and he could authenticate a divorce.
It all falls into place and it is too good to be true and in a detective story suspense is necessary to keep readers interested.
Richard calls to say that he will be home early.
What to do, after the fake divorce was all but effective, the operation has to be aborted and a new plan put in place.
Tranquilizers would be placed in a whiskey shot and Richard has a glass whenever he comes home, which would be his downfall in this occasion.
Alfred Hitchcock was interested in the works of Robert Thomas, and met with the author to buy the rights for a cinema adaptation.
When Richard arrives home early, he refuses the drink and forces his wife to have it, suspecting foul play.
In the kerfuffle there is even a shot from a pistol and bodies have to be thrown into a well, in the courtyard.
In one of the best plots that I know, we have to keep looking for the mastermind, the real villain and masks keep falling.
But just when the reader says
- I get it
Another angle and a new surprise come from the big store.
Even the police are called to the crime scene, but I already hide what is happening from before the middle of the story.
To keep you interested and avoid any spoiler, I use no names and reveal no element of the script, except by saying that it is damn clever.
Just when you say it is the B plan, it will be like this from now on, there are yet another turn and an alternative route.
The fact that Sartoni was played by the marvelous George Constantin added immensely to my pleasure.
This outstanding actor transforms any play he is in into a masterpiece and had amazing gifts.
They say that professionals from something like The Grand Theater of Moscow –or was it Saint Petersburg- came to Bucharest.
They saw George Constantin and were taken aback even if he had no line.
The same thing happened when Jack Nicholson was discovered- talk of giants.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews