The Executioner Weeps

Romans de la nuit / Novels of the Night

by Frédéric Dard, David Coward (Translator)

WINNER OF THE 1957 GRAND PRIX DE LA LITTÉRATURE POLICIÉRE

It was fate that led her to step out in front of the car. A quiet mountain road. A crushed violin. And a beautiful woman lying motionless in the ditch.

Carrying her back to his lodging on a beach near Barcelona, Daniel discovers that the woman is still alive but that she remembers nothing - not even her own name. And soon he has fallen for her mysterious allure. She is a blank canvas, a perfect muse, and his alone. But when Daniel travels to France in search of her past, he slips into a tangled vortex of lies, depravity and murder. The Executioner Weeps is a macabre thriller about the dangerous pitfalls of love.

Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career. Dard's Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush, The Gravediggers' Bread and The King of Fools are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Noir, Crime, France, Thriller, French Literature

161 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Frédéric Dard (né Frédéric Charles Antoine Dard le 29 juin 1921 à Jallieu (Isère), France - 6 juin 2000 à Bonnefontaine, Fribourg, Suisse) était un écrivain principalement connu – dans une production extrêmement abondante – pour les aventures du commissaire San-Antonio, souvent aidé de son adjoint Bérurier, dont il a écrit cent soixante-quinze aventures depuis 1949. Parallèlement aux "San-Antonio" (l'un des plus gros succès de l'édition française d'après-guerre), Frédéric Dard a produit sous son nom ou sous de nombreux pseudonymes des romans noirs, des ouvrages de suspense psychologique, des « grands romans » des nouvelles, ainsi qu'une multitude d'articles. Débordant d'activité, il fut également auteur dramatique, scénariste et dialoguiste de films. Selon ses dernières volontés, Frédéric Dard a été enterré dans le cimetière de Saint-Chef, en Isère, village où il avait passé une partie de son enfance et où il aimait se ressourcer. Un musée y est en partie consacré à son œuvre.

Reviews

[Fran · Rating 5 out of 5]

Native Frenchman Daniel Mermet is vacationing near Barcelona. As a painter with an up and coming gallery exhibition, he views the world with artistic intensity. When a beautiful, young woman walks into the path of Daniel's car, he focuses on her broken violin case. Redirecting his attention to the woman, she seems unharmed, however, he decides to take her to his hotel and send for a local doctor. The woman has no papers or passport, no money and a case of amnesia. Who is she?

Daniel embarks upon a quest of discovery. A handkerchief in her possession is embroidered with the letter "M". Her clothes have a label from Saint German-en Laye, a Paris clothing shop. She speaks French. As Daniel tries to unravel her past, he falls deeply in love with "Marianne" and will circumvent the law to be with her. Daniel's love and cunning will be tested as snippets of Marianne's past slowly emerge and Daniel enters a dark, life changing nightmare.

"The Executioner Weeps" by Frederic Dard was originally published in 1956. Dard, a French crime writer, has written a novella which is both a mystery and a love story. It is fast paced, intense and dark. I was mesmerized.

Thank you Hanover Publisher Services, Steerforth Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Executioner Weeps".

[Glenn Russell]

The Executioner Weeps - an off-kilter love story where the tale's suspense builds and builds, picking up momentum chapter by chapter, surging to a jolting, completely unexpected end. Wow. What a novel.

Frédéric Dard once again proves himself a master of existential noir. Driving on a dark road at night along the coast near the Spanish town of Castelldefels where he's vacationing, French artist Daniel Mermet is dreamily reflecting on his boyhood when a supine figure, a young woman, leaps in front of his car. He slams on the brakes but can't avoid the inevitable. Fortunately, she doesn't appear to be seriously injured and Daniel places her in his car and drives back to the inn where he's staying. One image from the scene makes a deep impression on him: a smashed violin case with the violin's black pegs still attached to their strings strewn over the pavement.

A consequence of the accident: this stunning blonde who knows only French has lost her memory; she's surprised she's in Spain; she can't even recollect her own name. Steps are taken to make everything official. The old town doctor examines the young lady, cleans and bandages her wounds, tells Daniel there's no serious damage and all she needs is rest. The Doc then asks to be paid fifty pesetas which Daniel hands over without objection. And after the inn's proprietor speaks with the police, Daniel is made to understand the carabineros don't give a tinker's damn if he ran over a French woman as long as there isn't a corpse making the public highway untidy. The takeaway message on all counts: Your problem, not ours, Frenchman.

After matters are settled with his lovely charge and she's fast asleep, Daniel takes his paints and easel to the beach, setting out to capture the row of picturesque buildings that grace the length of the coast. “I started to paint. Now when I paint, nothing else in the world exists except my palette splattered with colours and the special universe which I create in two dimension.” Further along in his creative process, he reflects, “I was painting the way an athlete strives for the perfect performance. My heart was pounding and my temperature rising. It was a good feeling yet it saddened me. It was both exhausting and exalting. .. I trembled as I squeezed my tube in search of the ideal blue I was looking for... The joyless blue of Spain... an intense yet faded blue which, unlike all other blues, reflects no hint of peace.”

I've included these quotes to emphasize Daniel is no dabbler, he's an accomplished professional with the drive and dedication vital for a true artist. Sidebar: There's a film similarly capturing the fury and passion of an artist at his canvas: Martin Scorses's Life Lessons starring Nick Nolte, the first of three short films in New York Stories. If you haven't seen this outstanding flick, watch the trailer available on YouTube - a truly amazing glimpse of what it means to be an artist on fire.

Following a car drive with his new charge to Barcelona in order to explain the situation to the French consulate where they tell him she's in a fix but it's not their issue and there's nothing they can do, the pair return to Castelldefels and our impassioned artist has the blonde beauty pose for him on the beach (some days ago she watched, fascinated, as he painted his landscape and was most agreeable when he asked her to sit for him). Daniel becomes infatuated with his portrait. “She was almost more real than her real self. There were her features, her high cheekbones, her deep, inquisitive eyes, her slightly mocking mouth...and also her air of quiet melancholy, her gentle disillusionment.”

Is it any surprise shortly thereafter we're reading about an artist on fire where the scorching flames are fanned by love for a beautiful woman? What a conflagration! Daniel eventually even gets her to remember her name – Marianne. Yet there's something unsettling gnawing at the edges. When he looks carefully at his portrait of Marianne, he can detect a bizarre, disconcerting glint in her eye, a sparkle that doesn't seem to belong with the rest of her, something that borders on disturbing in its intensity.

Recall I mentioned suspense builds chapter by chapter. This is hardly overstatement. Certain future scenes are not only disturbing but downright shocking. One thing I'd suggest: after you finish the novel (the pages seem to fly by, the story is that spellbinding), give the novel a careful second read. You'll surely catch a number of clues of what this drama is leading up to. And what a humdinger! Thank you, Pushkin Vertigo for publishing six of Frédéric Dard's "novels of the night" translated into English. For me, it's three down and three to go - every novel so worth it.


French crime novelist Frédéric Dard, 1921-2000

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If you should ever leave me, Daniel, I want you to kill me first!"

An artist's life is turned upside down when a woman carrying a violin case steps in front of his car. She survives with minor injuries, only she has no clue who she is, or where she came from. So, naturally . . . the pair falls instantly in love, and they live happily ever after. (Well, the first part is true, anyway.) Oddly enough, Marianne, as she decides to call herself, likes being a blank slate, and has no interest in finding out about her past. "I have no wish to know who I am," she claims. Daniel, though, can't help poking around, and what he discovers about the new love of his life is pretty shocking.

This is a slam-bang, terrific story, marred only by some awful dialog, and occasionally hokey, overly dramatic writing.

I threw myself on her like a wild thing. I tore off her skirt, her blouse...and crucified her there, on that bed.

Groan.

Since Dard is one of the best loved French crime writers, with more than 300 works under his belt, I'll blame it on the translation.

Don't miss this shocker!

This is the July read for the Pulp Fiction Group - https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

Please join us, if you'd like.

[Algernon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wanted to save her. It wasn’t her fault if she’d been dumped on a dung heap with a violin for a soul.

Boy meets Girl.
Well, sort of ...
This is a noir novel inspired by the hard novels of Frederic Dard’s friend Georges Simenon, whose work I perused only last month.
Let’s try again:

Boy hits girl with his car on a dark road in Costa Brava – the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona. Alternate viewpoint: Girl jumps in front of a speeding car at night.
In both versions, the girl is left unconscious, with her clothes in disarray, revealing her beautiful body.
... and a broken violin is left in the middle of the highway.

What is Daniel Mermet supposed to do? After he discovers that the victim is still breathing, he loads her into his car and takes her to his holiday motel instead of to a hospital or a police station. There, a local doctor is summoned and verifies she is not gravely hurt, but has lost her memory from the hit to the head.
Daniel, a painter from Paris who came to the south of Spain for the light and the vibrant colours, is fascinated by the beauty of the amnesiac girl, who speaks French and seems to respond to the name Marianne. Efforts to announce the incident and identify the girl to the local police and to the French consulate lead nowhere so, left to their own devices, Boy falls in love with Girl – muse and mystery and danger transforming her into a femme fatale for the sensitive painter.

In an effort to arrange for Marianne to return to France with him, Daniel Mermet leaves alone in his car for Paris, where he hopes to obtain a fake passport in her name. A clue from the label of one of Marianne’s shirts leads Daniel to a little village in the countryside, where terrrible revelations await.

>>><<<>>><<<

Even Zola never dreamt up a story more sordid than this.

Frederic Dard puts down enough clues in book to inform the reader that these two young people are battling an implacable Fate. Even the title could be considered a dead giveaway that the ending is already set in stone from before the Boy meets the Girl.
The only thing left to discover is the nature of the doom that haunts them and how far from the sane, trodden path Daniel will stray.

I felt I’d reached the very bottom of the sink of human depravity.

It was enough to make you want to scream. It was like a simplified version of Sartre’s ‘No Exit’, but rather more tragically banal.

For all these French literary references offered by the author, and for all the self-confessed admiration for George Simenon, I found the template for the current novel in the works of another author of noir, James M. Cain : the doomed love affair and the tortured souls that struggle in vain to escape their predetermined path, even the first person narration from the point of view of the ‘executioner’, reminded me of ‘Love’s Lovely Counterfeit’ ‘The Postman Always Rings Twice’ and ‘Serenade’.

The real surprise for me is the fact that I actually think Frederic Dard did an excellent job with the template, enough to consider calling it an homage instead of fan-fiction.
The surprise comes also from the fact that I read two of his San Antonio thrillers as a teenager and thought they were trash, hack jobs: lowbrow, crude and terribly misogynistic. It took me more than four decades to give San Antonio / Dard another chance, and for this I have to thank my friends in the Pulp Fiction group for voting it the book of the month.

[sarah]

This may be a bit ambitious considering I have only been learning French for a few years at school but it was $3 secondhand. Considering I kind of struggled with the blurb I'm a little scared, but lets see how it goes!

English title: The Executioner Weeps

[Rebbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published in 1956, The Executioner Weeps is a refreshing blast from the past with its difficult-to-define novella about the complicated relationship between two souls who find each other amidst a downright strange accident.

He, a successful, young and carefree artist has a chance encounter with a strikingly beautiful but mysterious young woman when he hits her with his car. They defy the odds and nurture a passionate relationship, despite her amnesia.

As the events start to unfold and as light is shed upon the dark undercurrents of the woman's past, will their love survive? Is she who and what he desperately wants to believe, or is there something shocking waiting for him to discover?

Overall, this is a strong 3.5 star book, and I recommend it for people who enjoy noir-type novels. I also recommend it for those who appreciate the simplicity of a straightforward mystery accompanied by a sweet love story, the kind of love which is no longer written today the way it was written here.

There was a certain kind of magic that was a natural side effect of an openly-emotional young man as he falls in love. Too bad we seem to have lost that special naivete, because I firmly believe it still has a relevant place within modern writing.

I kept thinking, "how beautiful," when I poured over the words of a loving testament from a man to a woman. He threw caution to the wind and had no idea just how beautiful he was because of it.

Thanks to netgalley for giving me a copy of this book.

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a 4.5 around there somewhere, rounded up.

I started this book very late last night and very much unlike me, I actually tried to fight sleep to finish it, but alas, it was not to be and I had to wait until today to finish it. It's probably a good thing, since there is a sort of nightmarish aspect to the story as it comes down to the end. Frédéric Dard has to be one of the darkest writers whose work graces the pages of these reprints by Pushkin Vertigo, putting his novels squarely in my wheelhouse. I defy anyone who reads this book to not feel the slightest bit of adrenaline pumping through his or her veins while doing so -- by the end my guts were twisted in knots. Far from being any kind of whodunit, it falls more into the psychological zone; I've seen it described as a thriller, and while I get why, I'm not sure that description quite fits. It's one of those novels where you just have a feeling in your bones that something terrible is coming down the pike so you brace yourself for it, but in my case, I don't think I prepared myself enough. Holy crap -- this is a good one!

When the main character, whose head we are in for the duration says that "Even Zola never dreamt up a story more sordid than this," he wasn't kidding -- this is a truly nerve-wracking tale of one man's journey into deepening despair and desperation, and you are there in his head as things become dark,darker, and move on into the territory of bleak before all is said and done. I thought it was great and what ends up happening came as a true shocker. So don't blow it off because it was written in the 1950s -- this is a great story.

for more (including plot with less of a synopsis than what's on the back-cover blurb), you can go to my reading journal:

http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/07/...

[Elizabeth (Alaska) · Rating 4 out of 5]

... it was the sight of the smashed violin case on the road with the strings poking out of it that got to me most. It summed up the accident more completely than the young woman lying by the ditch, with her fingers dug into the dry soil and her skirt rucked up over her superb thighs.

And so it begins. You will be relieved to learn that the woman with the superb thighs was very much alive. But she has amnesia and doesn't even know her name. This man who has both run her over and has rescued her falls in love. Does he want to learn her past or accept her present and create her future?

There is a short biography of Dard included at the back of the edition I read. It is said that Dard was greatly influenced by the renowned Georges Simenon. Dard was very prolific and had his own series of "a James Bondesque French secret agent", while Simenon's series was of the French policeman Maigret. But both had their harder novels - Simenon his roman durs and Dard his "novels of the night". I have not read any of Dard's series, but I suspect, again like Simenon, the non-series novels may be better.

In other places this is the only book mentioned as having won an award, so I assume it is the only one. Is it his best work? I simply don't know but am happy to look for others. This is a strong 4-stars.

[Brian Fagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'd been caught up in a macabre vortex. With every step I took I became more entangled in invisible threads." A line that could reflect the conflict at the heart of nearly all noir stories.

Frederic Dard was one of the most prolific and best known French crime writers of the 20th century. The Executioner Weeps, a one-day read for many readers, came out in 1956. It is set primarily in Spain, and opens with a strange occurrence: a young woman jumps out of the darkness in front of a car. The horrified man gathers her up and takes her to the inn where he's staying. She isn't seriously injured except that the blow to her head leaves her amnesic. We watch as Daniel and Marianne, as she believes herself to be, develop a relationship that is both tainted and blessed by her handicap.

He falls in love with her, which is understandable considering the winning combination of dependence, innocence and beauty. She seems to love him, but we probably shouldn't try to assess her true feelings considering her bizarre situation. Daniel thinks, "I felt that the Creator had entrusted me with the role of beginning the world afresh with this woman... I had the amazing good fortune to rediscover my adolescent innocence. I had become brand new again with her." Daniel is a painter, which actually comes into play later as he strives to understand "the real Marianne".

I generally steer clear of amnesia novels, because I don't like the premise, I don't like the freedom it gives to the writer and it isn't very applicable to reality - probably the same reasons I don't often read fantasy or sci-fi. But I'll gladly say Dard wrote a compelling and enjoyable novel with Executioner, and in particular created a realistically flawed and lovable and memorable character in Marianne.

One way to look at The Executioner Weeps is as a philosophical morality exercise - How would you behave if you loved someone amnesic and then you discovered a horrible secret in their past, one that they have no memory of ?

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in 1956, The Executioner Weeps is a psychological thriller that poses the question: how far would you go to protect the person you love? When Daniel encounters the unknown woman, he is drawn both to her beauty and, in a strange way, to the fact that she remembers nothing of her past. In fact he contends: ‘I was living the dream that all men have: of loving woman without a past. A woman to whom we represent a new start’. In contradiction is his assertion that ‘There’s nothing more terrifying for a painter than a blank white canvas. It’s like a window that opens onto infinite possibilities. A window from which the most disturbing metamorphoses may emerge.’

This is the first of many links between the act of creating art and the uncovering of the mystery woman’s identity. Significantly, it is in the act of painting the woman that Daniel gets the first sense of something dark behind the attraction of her beauty and grace.

‘I had succeeded in capturing [her] most unguarded expression so well that I could read her character better in my painting than in her face. Now…I detected a bizarre glint [in her eye] which quite disconcerted me.’

Later he reflects that ‘It was strange how my artistic eye unconsciously picked out what had escaped my plain man’s eye.’

When Daniel starts to detect hints about the woman’s past and more worryingly, her memory shows signs of returning, he feels compelled to find out where she came from and how she came to be on the road on the night of their encounter. What he discovers will draw him into a ‘macabre vortex’ and a web of deceit that will have tragic consequences. You may never want to open a door in an empty house again!

I really enjoyed this dark, noir-ish thriller and introduction to the work of Frederic Dard.

I received an advance review copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Pushkin Vertigo, in return for an honest review.

To read this and other reviews of great books, visit my blog: https://whatcathyreadnext.wordpress.com/

[Holly Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Barcelona, a beautiful amnesiac woman carrying a broken violin case steps in front of a car. After hitting her, the driver, artist Daniel Mermet, takes her to a local doctor at the Mediterranean waterfront hotel where he is staying on holiday. Aside from the memory loss, her injuries are minimal. As she and Daniel connect, surprises, lies and suspicions abound. Is it safe to fall in love when you know nothing about a person's past?

Crime thriller in novella form, The Executioner Weeps stuns first with its title. Slow burning at first, the book moves into romance until it takes off as a roller coaster ride. Highly recommended.

I thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing the advance copy for my unbiased opinion.

[Andy Weston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dard's story of the narrator's infatuation with a young woman whom he hits with his car and is suffering from amnesia is classic French noir. There is something engrossing about a person who has lived a crime-free life who has temptation to go astray. Dard's writing makes it seem so possible that the reader glances around them and wonders who else may stray similarly. In this case it's a famous Parisian artist, Daniel Mermet, who is on vacation near Barcelona. Such detail as the guest house where he is staying, the proprietors and the other guests are addressed so carefully, and with that necessary dark edge.

I've now read 3 Dard, and by my reckoning just another 281 to go. Bring them on.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this is what "French noir" is, then I'm all in. Amnesia, a woman with a past shrouded in secrets, the Spanish coast, casual misogyny, a love story, and devastating stills of a broken violin, this book is so bad in such a fun little 1950's way.

And though it's dated, Frédéric Dard obviously had a knack for that thriller style and pacing. The plot is predictable as hell, but the novel really is a touching and affecting little story. I shudder at the term, but this is a perfect beach read. Just don't read it through a modern lens.

[P.S. I try not to mention this, but this Pushkin Vertigo edition has a lot of obvious typos. What the hell, guys?]

[Franky · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Executioner Weeps really hooked me from the get-go and beginning, and at 150 pages plus, if the reader is even a little bit interested at all, this book just flies by. The basic premise is that a French artist Daniel Mermet is suddenly thrust into a rather odd situation when a young woman jumps in front of his car, and he hit her. To his shock, she has no recollection of her past and former identity.

I think one of the interesting aspects of this novel is the various questions it asks: To what lengths should we search out the past of someone of whom we are fond? Would some things be better left alone? To what lengths should we go to protect someone from their past?

Daniel, consumed with love for this woman and feeling responsible for the accident, suddenly becomes an investigator and detective into her past, to find her identity, her name, the various secrets that she could be holding. However, sometimes as we all know, there is a price for looking for the truth.

As stated earlier, this book is gripping. The entire “amnesia” premise I found interesting because there is so much for the Daniel to try to unearth and identity. He goes on a scavenger hunt of sorts into the young woman’s history. As Daniel is narrating, we go on this quest with him, and are hit with the many revelations and truths, and also with some of the shocks and twists that come along the way.

This was a gripping, quick paced novel that also is able to keep the reading in suspense quite effectively until the final reveal at the end. As the narrator finds out more and more, he must make decisions that could affect his and the woman’s relationship. How much of the past does he really want to know?

This was my first read from Dard, and I understand that he was influenced by Simenon, which is very reflective in this novel, especially in terms of the psychological overtones.

If there is one issue I had, though, and others have attested to this, is that there a little bit of clunkiness to the dialogue between the characters at points. Overall, though, it didn’t distract, and I look forward to another read from this author sometime in the future.

[Thibault Jacquot-Paratte · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai pris ce livre avant de me coucher. j'aurais pas dû.

Je l'ai dévoré en moins de 10 heures (je me suis quand même forcé à me coucher). Je ne m'attendais pas à quelque chose de si merveilleusement bien écrit.

L'intrigue je m'en fous - le côté humain, esthétique, ce qui stimule la pensée, est superbe. L'intrigue, on voit un peu tout venir. Mais c'est une écriture qui nous fait réellement ressentir.

La fin... ah, fallait s'attendre à quelque chose de triste, même si on n'aurait pu qu'espérer le meilleur... même si on voudrait que ça se finisse bien. Même si la fin est un peu brusque, c'est pas mal - le roman ne traine pas. il n'y a pas de longueur. Sans que le style soit sec ou précipité, rien ne traine.

Le genre de livre, je crois, dont je relirai des passages à l'avenir, si pas le livre en entier.

[Annette Kane · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can’t beat a bit of 1950’s misogyny and stilted translation.

[Tom Mooney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jesus, that was a dark and disturbing slice of French noir.

Daniel, a French artist, is on a break near Barcelona. Driving down a road one night, a young woman throws herself in front of his car in an apparent act of suicide. When he goes to the body, however, he realises she is still alive. Fearful of the consequences, he takes the girl back to his hotel. She awakes with severe amnesia, remembering nothing of her previous life. Daniel then becomes obsessed with her, instilling himself as her boyfriend and the central character in her new life.

But, as he delves deeper into her forgotten past, he discovers the real, shocking reason she threw herself in front of his car.

Grisly, grim and weaving from noir into horror, this is a very effective and highly creepy novel. The only complaint is in the editing - it is absolutely full of mistakes and typos.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted a quick and absorbing read after the disaster of the last several books and I got it. This is French noir from the 1950s, the plot is somewhat ridiculous, the dialogue is overly dramatic and cringey, but it's a page turner and both the mystery and the psychological suspense were very well done.

[ALi · Rating 3 out of 5]

عشق، وقتی صادقانه باشد، همیشه همسایه مرگ است. زیرا عشق، قبل ازهر چیز عطش نیل مطلق است و هیچ چیزی از مرگ مطلق تر نیست.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short, fast-paced amnesia/murder noir is excellent. I'm certainly going to seek out more Frédéric Dard novels. (Thankfully he wrote about 300 of them!) This one certainly needs to be filmed if it hasn't been already.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It starts with an auto accident and amnesia. The suspense builds with twists and unpredictability.

[Crittermom · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know of no author whose novels epitomize the psychological thrillers popularized by Alfred Hitchcock more than Frederic Dard.  Each time I pick up one of his books I know to expect the unexpected.  He has a way of capturing the human psyche and taking advantage of its weaknesses allowing emotion and circumstance to trap individuals into becoming something or someone other than they were at the start.  The Executioner Weeps does just that and more posing the difficult question of whether memory is necessary for guilt.

Daniel is a successful painter whose life is transformed when his car collides with a beautiful young woman.  Her injuries are minimal but her memory is nonexistent.  She retains her knowledge of the world, but not of her own identity or history.  They fall in love, but having no identity, no papers is a problem.  Naturally Daniel seeks to learn who she is, despite her admonitions that she does not wish to know her past.  The truth is gut-wrenching, but how far will Daniel go to protect her from it?  Is she really the woman he fell in love with?  

Dard masterfully manipulates both Daniel and the reader.  You can’t say that you enjoy this type of novel.  Is it powerful? Yes. Does it strongly affect the reader? Yes.  Is it well written? Yes.  Is it unforgettable? Absolutely.  The emotional impact on the reader lasts long after the final page is read.  

5/5

I received a copy of The Executioner Weeps from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

—Crittermom

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

As good as I have often found this publisher's Vertigo crime imprint to be, this is one of the best. What is it with the French that they can give us Dard, Garnier and perhaps more yet to come, all in the way of brief visits to compellingly dark worlds? This one is the brightest of those dark worlds, wherein a French artist on a working holiday south of Barcelona falls in love with a woman who he runs over – a woman that has no memory. It boils down to a definitely Hitchcockian tale of obsession, but there's no real boiling down – it's a simple little tale but never too abruptness for its shortness, never at all flimsy for its brevity. It's a whole encapsulation of the criminally-in-love in a fully realised world, and it's really quite brilliant. (Awful proof-reading on my netgalley, mind – let's hope the finished work has been processed properly.)

[Cathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.

Excellent crime thriller read that was first published in 1956 by Frederic Dard and now has been translated so that more can enjoy his suspenseful noir-like writing. He really knows how to write a book steeped in psychological suspense. Think of Dard as a French Alfred Hitchcock; just as good, if not better.

The story takes place in Barcelona between a vacationing Frenchman and a beautiful woman. I will let you know there is an accident, amnesia, a relationship and excellent excellent tension and suspense.

This one is worth reading.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Executioner Weeps by Frederic Dard was a Goodreads win.

Daniel is an artist living in Spain. One night a woman steps in front of his car, he cannot stop and hits her. At first he is more upset by the crushed violin she was carrying, then he turns his attention to her. She is not dead and he decides to take her back to the hotel where he is staying.

This is the beginning of a love affair. She recovers physically but has lost her memory, even her name. They both decide to live in the present, and in a bubble of love, desire and isolation, they discover each other amongst the colour and warmth of the Mediterranean. He finds her physically beautiful and paints her portrait, but is unnerved by a strange malevolent glint in her eye that the portrait cannot hide. What is the mystery of her past? Will they have to confront it before they can truly be together.

Following clues from the language she speaks and labels in her clothes, he travels to France and gradually pieces together her identity and life – a story of abuse and violence, which probably caused her to escape through amnesia, not the car accident.

He buys her a violin, which she starts to expertly play. It is evident that music has been an escape for her too, now she plays and begins to remember her past. Daniel is desperate to protect her, to find a solution before she remembers the horrors of her former life.

In the end she slips back into partial amnesia – but which bits are retained, and what is lost?

I found this a moving book, a cross between a love and detective murder story. What came over was a profound sense of love and loss, and a life ruined by a chance encounter.

I thought the cover picture did not portray this at all, it was rather old fashioned, was it perhaps the original one from the French 1956 edition? I think the modern translation deserves a cover update.

[Jose Ignacio · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is told by Daniel Mermet, a French painter who is spending a few days holidays in Castelldefels, a seaside village south of Barcelona. The action begins the day he’s about to run over a young woman. Fortunately the woman only receives a hard knock which makes her lost her memory. She does not recall who she is and she is carrying no documents to allow stablishing her identity. It only seems true that she is also French, since she only speaks French fluently. Daniel takes her to recover from her accident to his accommodation at Casa Salvador. Meantime neither the local authorities nor the French Consulate in Barcelona, take themselves the slightest interest in her case. Anyhow, Daniel does all that is possible to help her and soon they fall in love. The story begins to rush when Daniel’s Paris agent informs him there’s an American interested in his ‘ouvre‘ and, therefore, he needs to travel to the States. The woman, whom at this moment, will be called Marianne, won’t be able to accompany him without a proper passport. Consequently, Daniel begins to design a plan in order to get her one. What will only be the beginning of a nightmare.

The Executioner Weeps is both, a thriller and a love story, but it turns out to be a dark tale about the fears of a man who is unable to face up with a reality he might not like it, while holding on to a dream existing only in his imagination. It can be considered a kind of parable about machismo and jealousies. Anyway, it can be read as an interesting reflection on interpersonal relationships and to a certain extent a jealousy drama. A really interesting book that is very much worth reading. The Executioner Weeps was awarded the Grand prix de littérature policière in 1957. I would also like to take this opportunity to point some inaccuracies like, for example, the continuous reference to carabineros, an armed force of Spain that, established in 1829, lasted until 1940 when, disbanded, it was merged with the Guardia Civil. And I do believe the reference to Costa Brava, the littoral of Gerona (or Girona), is not accurate, since the action takes place in the littoral of Barcelona (Costa del Maresme) and Tarragona (Costa Dorada) which are further south.

[Nanya Srivastava · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Mermet, a French painter who has recently been "discovered", is vacationing in the laid back beach town of Castelldefels in Spain. He reaches the turning point of his life when, while returning from Barcelona one night, he hits a woman with his car. To be fair, it was the woman who had jumped in front of it.

When she recovers, they realise that she has lost her memory completely. The only thing they know is that she is French as she speaks the language and her clothes are from a shop in Saint-Germaine. But there are no documents to prove her identity. And why did she try to commit suicide anyway?

As the days pass, Daniel finds himself falling heads over heal in love with his beautiful victim-- a blank canvass, the perfect muse. He is determined to help her out, even if it means being on the wrong side of the law. But as he uncovers her past, he discovers things that he just cannot overlook.

This French thriller keeps you hooked till the very end. The story is fast paced and the narrative engaging. I would recommend this for light travel reads.

[JacquiWine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Earlier this year, I read and loved Bird in a Cage, a devilishly clever noir by the French writer Frédéric Dard. Originally published in 1956, The Executioner Weeps is my second Dard – and thankfully it’s just as intriguing as the first.

The novella is narrated by native Frenchman Daniel Mermet, a moderately successful artist who has travelled to a seaside town near Barcelona for a holiday. One night, as Daniel is driving alone in a remote part of the Spanish countryside, a beautiful young woman steps out of nowhere in front of his car – Daniel is travelling too fast to stop, so he hits the woman, crushing her violin case in the process. The incident marks a turning point in Daniel’s life, the full significance of which only becomes apparent much later in the story. Nevertheless, there is a sense of foreboding right from the start, particularly in the series of thoughts that flash through Daniel’s mind in the seconds before impact.

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[Melisende · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say - spellbinding. The way Dard writes is captivating - you are immediately captured and taken on a journey that is as long and winding as the roads of the Spanish countryside.

Barcelona - a young woman throws herself in front of a car. Immediately the driver (French artist Daniel Mermet) is captivated - not only by her form but by the damaged violin lying close by. He rescues this obvious damsel in distress and takes her back to his hotel (he is holidaying in Spain) rather than to a hospital.

Daniel narrates the story of his love for the woman - who is suffering from amnesia - which is returned in equal force. He vows to discover her past and save her from whatever it is she was escaping.

But this is not your typical love story - and Dard creates the right amount of suspense as he slowly, almost teasingly, reveals the truth behind the mysterious Marianne's past life. What will happen when she finally remembers or when Daniel discovers the truth?

[Jack Bell · Rating 4 out of 5]

God how I'm loving these really old fashioned French crime novels so far... they're all just so sexy and sophisticated and completely unafraid to veer into high romantic melodrama instead of hardboiled realism. This book in particular feels like it has a lot in common with that other classic of French noir Vertigo, in that they both play on variations of Pygmalion but as a psychological thriller -- both are about men becoming obsessed with their own psychological projections of specific women and how this leads them to spiral into tragedy. Sometimes the female characters in these books do feel pretty regressive but I think the depiction of gender roles on the whole is pretty interestingly subversive if you read it a certain way, especially in how it relates to the totally-destructive masculinity at the centre of the story.