چمن

Romans de la nuit / Novels of the Night

by Frédéric Dard, عباس آگاهی (Translator)

چمن ماجرای رابطه ژان‌ماری والز (مردی فرانسوی) و مارژوری (زنی انگلیسی) است که خیلی اتفاقی در ایام تعطیلات در سواحل جنوب فرانسه با هم برخورد می‌کنند. این برخورد کوتاه و غیرمنتظره بدون آنکه با بروز احساسات عاطفی مستقیم همراه باشد، در ادامه به عشقی سوزان بدل می‌شود. مرد به دنبال زن به اسکاتلند می‌رود اما در آنجا با حوادث و اتفاقاتی غیرمنتظره روبه ‌رو می‌شود که این رابطه عاشقانه را به ماجرایی جنایی بدل می‌سازد که پای پلیس را به میان می‌کشد؛

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

164 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

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]

Jean-Marie Valaise, an adding machine salesman, was vacationing at the Cote d'Azur. His life was ho-hum. Having spent six years with girlfriend Denise in a relationship going nowhere, he was alone having weathered their latest break-up. When exiting a restaurant, he found to his surprise, an attractive woman in a wet bathing suit, sitting in his auto. A possible mistake? Her car was a facsimile of his. After her apology she vacated, but alas, she left her beach bag under the dashboard. The stage had now been set by Marjorie Faulks, femme fatale.

How convenient that Jean-Marie and Marjorie found themselves at the same roulette table at a casino. He informed her that she left her beach bag in his car and arranged for its return. She seemed to have a troubled look, an aura of discontent. After one hour with her, however, he felt like a new man. When Jean-Marie's on again- off again girlfriend surprised him by arriving at the Cote d'Azur, Jean -Marie was already smitten with Marjorie. Leaving Denise behind, he took a train to Edinburgh, Scotland where Marjorie would be staying, sans husband Nevil, for a few days. Despite vague feelings of apprehension, a fatally attracted Jean-Marie had followed her to Edinburgh. Jean-Marie's obsessive thoughts about her ensnared him in a dangerous game he was unable to escape. He was a king of fools, entranced by a seductress with a deadly agenda.

Jean-Marie was bewitched by Marjorie. He was a perfect subject and fall guy for her wicked scheme. She was a drama queen appearing to be vulnerable and fragile but slowly morphing into a manipulative, cold and calculating woman. "The King of Fools" by Frederic Dard was a short, atmospheric crime fiction read of murder, mystery and manipulation.

Thank you Steerforth Press, Pushkin Vertigo and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The King of Fools".

[Glenn Russell]

French master Frédéric Dard wrote nearly 300 novels combining existentialism and crime noir, all with a particular flair for the beauty and poetry of language. Why, oh why, are not more of his novels available in English? After all, Georges Simenon, Dard's longtime friend and kindred literary spirit, had hundreds of his novels translated. There is, however, a grand first step: Pushkin Vertigo recently included six Dard novels in their crime series: Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush, The Executioner Weeps, The Gravediggers' Bread along with the novel under review. Count me in as a new enthusiastic Dard fan. I look forward to posting a review for each.

The King of Fools is a gripping page-turner, a short novel (153 pages) where a love story is added to the existential/crime noir mix. Delicious!

Originally published in 1952, Frédéric Dard begins his first-person thriller thusly: Jean-Marie Valaise, a salesman of adding machines, relates an unusual happening: returning to his MG after lunch at a restaurant in the resort shore town of Cote d'Azur where he's on vacation, he discovers a strikingly attractive blonde in a wet bathing suit sitting in the passenger seat. Ah, an understandable mistake she informs him, since, after all, her own car parked right in front of his is also an MG. She apologizes and gets out – but neglects to take her beach bag. This is the first of several encounters Jean-Marie has with Englishwoman Marjorie Faulks in Cote d'Azur. Little does our handsome, somewhat naive adding machine salesman know he's dealing with a femme fatale.

A number of Frédéric Dard novels have been turned into films - and for a good reason: the author's writing is highly cinematic. Accordingly, here's my rendition of a King of Fools trailer:

Know Thyself - “I am not a gambler, but I enjoy the atmosphere in the gaming halls. I find their tense, solemn mood exhilarating.” So muses Jean-Marie Valaise. Ah, dear sir, how deeply do you know yourself, really? You observe “If Hell is staffed with attendants, they are surely recruited from the deceased croupiers of the world,” since those croupiers have their unruffled insouciance, but might you be oblivious to the hellish trap set by the ravishing woman smiling at you from across the table who puts her chips down on black after you stake your claim on red? And when you recognize the elegant beauty is none other than the Englishwoman who left her beach bag in your MG, is it any surprise you are spellbound as if a deer caught in the headlights? When we read carefully, in similar spirit to existential writers like Georges Simenon and Albert Camus, we can detect Frédéric Dard probes into the deep recesses of the his characters' psyche.

Surprise - When the hotel proprietor asks if he saw a lady waiting for him on the terrace, our handsome Romeo wannabe rushes out only to find not Marjorie but his on-again, off-again girlfriend Denise. Of course, Denise immediately detects her man has a new flame. Initially hesitant, Jean-Marie tells Denise all about Marjorie Faulks, including the fact she's married to an odious cur and Marjorie requesting he join her in Scotland. Denise asks in a somewhat mocking tone, “Do you need to be an Ivanhoe, chéri? Go on, admit it! Don't all men? That's why little girls like her are always half right, to start with. What will you do, go to Scotland?” Not long thereafter Jean-Marie does indeed announce he's off to Scotland, to which Denise replies, “Poor Ivanhoe. You have no idea what fools heroes can be.” We eventually discover the depth of Denise's wisdom and willingness to help a man she knows just can't avoid playing the dupe.

Edinburgh – In the teeth of many walkouts and a pending nationwide transportation strike, a much haggard Jean-Marie eventually arrives in the Scottish capital. Following Marjorie Faulks's instructions, he checks into the Learmonth Hotel but he's in for a shock: Marjorie is nowhere to be found. Where is she? The plot quickly thickens, so murky it's as if Jean-Marie has landed himself in the middle of a Kafka novel. At one point he reflects: “A nightmarish day! Lost and bewildered, I wandered past the shop windows on Prince Street, gazing indifferently at their meagre displays. Everything looked ugly and grim: the items on show, the passersby, the buildings, the weather. The ran fell in sudden, sporadic bursts, but there was no brightening of the sky in between.” Frédéric Dard portrays the many faces and facets of Edinburgh, enough telling detail we as readers feel we're right there walking the pavement with Jean-Marie.

Chilling Climax – When Jean-Marie does spot Marjorie, she's strolling along a city street with her husband, Nevil Faulks, and surreptitiously drops a note telling him to meet her on a lawn in a park next to an open-air theater at 5:00. Jean-Marie does just that and Marjorie takes him by the hand and leads him to a remote section of a garden. They sit down, gaze into each other's eyes and embrace. Then the unexpected: Jean-Marie looks up and can see the white, ice-cold face of Nevil Faulks. “His nose resembled the sharp beak of a bird of prey, and his dark eyes, sunk deep beneath prominent brows, had the look of some malevolent ape. A thoroughly poisonous and dangerous creature.” And (gulp!) Nevil Faulks is holding a gun.

What happens next? You'll have to read this Frédéric Dard noir jewel for yourself.


French crime novelist Frédéric Dard, 1921-2000

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 3 out of 5]

really, between 3 and 3.5

The King of Fools is the story of a man who entangles himself in something well beyond what he was expecting, and comes to realize that in all that has happened, he's "followed the path of madness at every turn." I've read several books by this author, and sadly, I have to say that so far this one is my least favorite. However, while in my opinion this is not his best book, is still quite good, and definitely one not to miss for Dard fans.

A definite noir page turner for sure, but the thing is that I figured out (in part) what was going to happen, so it was a bit of a letdown. That's certainly not Dard's fault; you can blame it on my years of crime fiction reading. It also moves very quickly, which in this case isn't a plus since there's very little time to really become invested in either the characters or the storyline. At the same time, there were still a couple of surprises in store, especially with happens at the end of the novel, which actually made me laugh. It is clever indeed, but not as well written as his Bird in a Cage, which in my opinion is one of his best books.

http://www.crimesegments.com/2018/07/...

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant first-class psychological noir. Even translated into English, the prose captures the obsession, the unending dreamlike quality of infatuation and romance, the enchantment and bewitching in her eyes and her smile. And the scenery fits the moods of the story from the sun-baked beaches of Southern France, the cold rain-soaked melodrama of Scotland. Like Woolrich's work, it's the slow descent into hell that is the real story, the twisted mystery of what really happened, and the question of who is really tilting at windmills.

This is a fairly short work, reprinted sixty years after first publication, and it is rich, deep, poetic and great from the first page. It makes sense that the French would write first-class noir. And just as in classic American noir, the enchantress waltzes into the main character's life effortlessly, dropping her beach bag into the wrong car. What else did this guy write?

Many thanks to Pushkin Vertigo for this review copy.

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

The works of Frederic Dard are a constant source of delight for me, and The King of Fools is one of the best I have read to date. With its compelling blend of the suspense of Hitchcock, and the psychological claustrophobia of Simenon and Highsmith, this is a taut and tense tale of infatuation and murder played out on the Cote D’Azur, and the grim, dark streets of 1950’s Edinburgh. Jean-Marie is a wonderfully flaky man, ruled by his baser instincts, that lead him to pursue the pale, and lets be honest, quite unprepossessing Marjory from sensual France to down at heel Scotland. Dard delights in painting a dark and depressing picture of Scottish life, and its environs, that causes the reader to question further the indefatigable will of Jean-Marie to wrest the seemingly hapless Marjory from a loveless marriage. But Dard being Dard, you know that there will be dark deeds afoot, that will explode in a moment of madness, but which of our loved up pair will be caught in the crossfire? That would be telling, and I’m sure you will accrue as much pleasure from finding it out as I did. Dard once again shows his knack for ordinary people being put in extraordinary circumstances, with all the psychological darkness and violence that became his trademark. Highly recommended.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reaffirmed my love of the crime genre. It isn’t as dark as other of Dard’s books that I have read, but it is beautifully written, has great settings and a clever denouement.

Set in the 1950s (it was originally published in 1952) in (quirkily) Juan-les-Pins and Edinburgh, it is the story of some days in the life of Jean-Marie Valaise who becomes infatuated with a British woman on the beach one day and follows her to Scotland. Jean-Marie, who narrates, lives the high-life of the day, as may be expected from him frequenting such a part of Nice, and is less than enamoured by his change of environs, but this is a crime mystery, so as one might expect, it isn’t long until things go wrong.

I have read 5 of the 6 books by Dard that have been translated into English so far and published by Pushkin Vertigo. Though he died in 2000, the good news is that there are another 270 odd of his books awaiting translation.

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

This starts out as a Romance. Yes, capitalized. Jean-Marie, the first person narrator, steps outside his hotel to find a strange woman sitting in the passenger seat of his car. He is not smitten until he sees her again that evening, across the roulette table. But this is Frédéric Dard, and I felt certain this was no romance, but something about to turn dark, very dark.

I admit with the opening Romance, I was unprepared. Being unprepared is perhaps the best thing about reading. In school, they would always ask "what do you think will happen next?" I never got the answer to that question right, and I certainly would never have gotten it right in this novel. (And anyway, if you always knew what would happen next, why would you bother reading?) I would be hard-pressed to find another book with so many twists and turns. The book is short and I suppose I could go back and count them, but certainly more than could be counted on one hand. There are minor twists and major twists. Even when I thought I knew what was happening/had happened, another page turn would reveal something different.

I'm so glad I stumbled on Dard and I think there are more titles in translation. Yippee! This comes close to 5-stars.

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading internationally wouldn't be complete without something Gallic, of course. This novel, randomly found on Netgalley, is a terrific example of French noir set in a post WWII Europe on both sides of the pond, from Côte d'Azur to Scotland and back. To call Dard prolific would be an understatement, the man put out something like 3 to 5 novels a year, amounting to something like 300 in total, written under something like 17 pseudonyms. This is my first read by the author, it's one of his stand alones, my preferred format, and it was a very auspicious literary introduction. Put me in mind of a European James M. Cain. All the classic trappings of noir, atmospheric thriller with a proper femme fatale, a naïve easily drawn in man, murder, etc., so basically the main protagonist pursues an alluring woman he thinks he's in love with and gets entangled in a messy web of her making. Consequences of romance can be brutal in the world of noir and any man who follows his passions can be made a king of fools. Beware the damsel, but what a fun world to visit via a book, especially in the right mood. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.

[Paul Madonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love how some books come into your life and you can't remember how. Someone's review, or a mention in an article. Who knows. But this was one. I'm a big noir fan, and whatever it was inspired me to seek this book out. I loved it. Succinct, taut, easy to read. A clean and satisfying story.

[Melisende · Rating 4 out of 5]

".. what was better? to be a murderer or a gullible fool?.."

A mix-up of of cars and an encounter with an Englishwoman, Marjorie, sends Jean-Marie Valaise's world into a tail-spin. After a brief liaison, she returns home - he writes to her, he goes to her - is she there or not? A jealous husband, a dead body, an arrest.

"... every mystery is an illusion..."

Can Jean-Marie find his way out of the nightmare that follows.

Yet another outstanding tale from Dard.

[Rubina G Gomes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 150+ page book was a fun, thrilling page turner. I understood where the story is going but the writing and its way of making situations happen kept me hooked. It was an absolute delight reading this book over one quarantine weekend.
The back cover has a praise saying, "Worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best". I concur. :)

[Géraldine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5*

Un peu ancien mais agréable lecture entre deux livres plus conséquents.

Par un qui pro quo, Jean-Marie rencontre une jeune femme. Comme il est en vacances au soleil et en pause avec son amie, et a un peu de vague à l'âme, il la remarque. Ils se recroisent brièvement et, sans qu'il ne se passe rien de plus entre eux, promettent de s'écrire.

Il est un peu flatté, un peu héro, un peu amoureux, un peu lassé parfois de son amie de longue date.

Sans le savoir encore, Jean-Marie va s'accrocher à une chimère, une araignée tissant sa toile. Il n'en sera pas la proie cependant, mais bien pris aux fils de soie et ensuqué tout de même.

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommended by my husband, this book was a fun read. I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery. I'd definitely reading another by this author.

[Mary Picken · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a delightful day it was when Pushkin Press and Virago teamed up to publish newly translated works of some of the greatest, most iconic crime fiction from around the world together with Pushkin Vertigo Originals which are exciting contemporary crime writing by some of today ’s most accomplished authors. Frédéric Dard is the master of French Noir and The King of Fools is a lovely read.

Originally published in 1952, The King of Fools begins in Juan-les-Pins, but most of the action takes place in Edinburgh which was a delightful surprise for me as I had not been expecting that at all.

Jean-Marie Valaise is an adding machine salesman (you can tell that Dard has not troubled to make him interesting or mysterious from this fact alone.)

He is in Nice on holiday following one of his sporadic break ups from his on- off long-term girlfriend, Denise. He muses to himself that his life is going nowhere “Like the water, my life bore the traces of rust in the pipework”.

Then, by chance he meets a young Englishwoman, herself on holiday and the two exchange a few words over a mistaken car.

Later, idling away his time in the local casino, he sees a rather beautiful woman and discovers, much to his surprise, that this is the same woman who earlier had mistaken his car for her own.

The two are drawn together and though nothing seriously untoward occurs, this is the start of a mutual infatuation that engulfs them both. But Marjorie is married and about to set off for a holiday in Scotland with her husband. It is clear to Jean-Marie that hers is not a happy marriage and when he asks if he might write to her, he is thrilled by her enthusiastic response.

Correspondence ensues and on impulse, driven by his passion and romantic feelings, he sets off for Edinburgh in the midst of a major travel strike to find Marjorie and try and persuade her to come away with him.

What follows is a nicely drawn portrait of a man who considers himself to be worldly, but who is in fact both naïve and hopelessly romantic. The tale has tension, duplicity, murder and a degree of mayhem as Jean-Marie and Marjory conspire to enable her to escape the clutches of her husband, Nevil.

The portrayal of 1950’s Edinburgh is fascinating in itself – Dard sees it as a bit of a granite grim place, full of badly dressed people, usually raining and with tourist coaches being met by tartan kilt wearing pipers. (I think he had visited). His description of the Learmonth Hotel is pitch perfect. I enjoyed too, the dour Scottish policeman, Brett who is charged with unravelling the heinous crime committed in Princes Street Gardens.

Not a lengthy read, The King of Fools is a beautifully told tale with a dark underside and a witty ending. I really enjoyed it.

[Vertika · Rating 3 out of 5]

broke my reader's block, a straight 3.75

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short review for a short work? Why not.

Frédéric Dard was a prodigious creator, a Frenchman who was a prolific creator of crime novels, often taking elements of his own life to fuel his works. (The kidnapping of his daughter ended up in a book, and he said his biggest regret about dying was that he wouldn't be able to write about it.) He wrote under a number of pseudonyms (Cornel Milk, anyone?) though this is the first time I've encountered his work.

The King of Fools is not part of Dard's San-Antonio series - it's standalone. And though it's a murder mystery, it opens with a would-be romance. Despite its main character being French, and the action beginning in France, the meat of the story takes place in Edinburgh's mists. Its lead character, Jean-Marie Valaise has chased Marjorie Faulks to the city after a little romantic encouragement.

It's here things become sticky. You know the drill: there's a husband, and eventually there's a murder. But who will be left to carry the can?

Is it predictable? Yeah, sure. I had figured out what was going on before it was confirmed in the text. But I think that's part of the appeal of this kind of mystery - the reader pits themselves against the characters and the authors and is either pleasantly surprised, or is able to pat themselves on the back for their sleuthing prowess.

I found this work to contain elements of strangeness that echoed films such as Vertigo or even Don't Look Now. There's a feeling of otherworldliness to the setting, though that could perhaps be simple Gallic disdain for the wet-weather environs. Regardless, it pulled me through the work, livening up something that could be considered a little mystery-by-the-numbers.

I came across the book during a brief wander through Amazon's Kindle section. The King of Fools is a release in the Pushkin Vertigo series, that provides short crime reads (including the book which inspired Vertigo) for a couple of bucks. It's proved a good investment in this case, and has encouraged me to seek out some of the other entries in the catalogue.

[Fania4books · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prato all’inglese

Sole e spiagge dorate, l'incontro inaspettato tra un uomo e una donna, ecco il raggiante preludio a questa storia nera. Jean-Marie Valaise e Marjorie Faulks sono in vacanza a Juan-les-Pins. Lui è un ordinario agente di commercio, lei un'inglese di una bellezza discreta. Una mattina un bizzarro equivoco li avvicina. Quella stessa sera si ritrovano al casinò, di nuovo per caso, e l'uomo è presto vinto dal fascino della misteriosa donna. Entrambi hanno a casa qualcuno che li aspetta, ma ora sono in Costa Azzurra e il senso di libertà e la bellezza spingono le persone oltre la soglia di ciò che è lecito dire o non dire. Così, quando la donna riparte per Londra, si lasciano con la promessa di scriversi. Marjorie invita Jean-Marie a raggiungerla a Edimburgo, dove sta per recarsi. Arrivato in Scozia, mentre vaga per la città l'uomo si ritrova in atmosfere e circostanze molto diverse dal previsto. Marjorie è introvabile e inafferrabile. Fino a quando giunge la proposta di un incontro, ai giardini di Princes Street, in un pomeriggio affollato. Sarà qui che l'incubo assumerà i contorni più torbidi dove l'uomo si troverà stretto nella rete di un piano machiavellico tanto folle quanto perfetto.

Un buon giallo, avvincente quanto basta per solleticare la curiosità del lettore. Mi aspettavo però il sole e l’incanto della Costa Azzurra ma la maggior parte del romanzo si svolge in realtà tra il grigiore e le nebbie di Edimburgo.

Un autore che non conoscevo che per stile narrativo si avvicina al nostro Scerbanenco, motivo che me lo ha fatto apprezzare molto.
Le atmosfere sono piuttosto cupe e i personaggi ben strutturati pur nella loro esiguità perché ciò che balza alla ribalta è l’inganno perpetrato , quindi quella follia machiavellica che rischia di colpire un innocente e sprovveduto credulone.Il caso correrà comunque in suo aiuto. Brillante la conclusione con un finale inaspettato! Ci sono donne e donne ma qualcuna ha veramente una marcia in più.

[Theediscerning · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having sort of split up with his partner, Jean-Marie is on holiday alone on the southern French coast, when he chances to meet a married English woman, Marjorie. They meet in the most unusual ways – with two identical cars parked next to each other, she gets in the wrong one by mistake, then leaves her beach bag behind. Lo and behold they find each other at the casino, and the following day, when she arrives at his hotel to reclaim her bag, they meet heart to heart. Jean-Marie sees her to be a very unhappily married woman, and not even the arrival of his partner and make-up sex can convince him he is not in love with Marjorie. But finding her again will take him to Edinburgh – and into no end of trouble…

Please click away to see the rest of my review at:- http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/i...

[Joe Santoro · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I came upon this from one of my internet friends on the classic comics forum... seems an interesting thing to check out. It is very well translated.. not clunky at all, which is nice. The story is about an adding machine salesman named Jean-Marie that has a chance encounter with a British woman, and stuff happens... I lot of (sometimes crazy) stuff. While Jean-Marie falls in and out of love awfully quickly (perhaps a French writer living up to a stereotype? Or just the way he saw people?), but he seems a very real person, and his thoughts and emotions come right off the page to you. The mystery itself is not totally unexpected, but very clever. And it didn't even require a Holmes or a Lupin to solve.. just good, competent police work as it was in 1950s Scotland. I'll definitely see if I can find any of Dard's other books in English.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prolific French crime writer Frederic Dard’s latest book to be translated into English is a somewhat far-fetched but entertaining murder mystery and psychological thriller, an absorbing, if not always realistic, tale of romance, manipulation and murky motives. Jean-Marie Valaise is on holiday on the Cote D’Azur when he meets an attractive Englishwoman whom he instantly falls for. Thinking that his feelings are reciprocated he follows her to a damp and cheerless Edinburgh where the affair doesn’t turn out quite as he had hoped. Valaise narrates the whole sorry tale and part of the pleasure of the book is gradually realising just what a fool he is. Well worth suspending disbelief and spending an enjoyable couple of hours in his company.

[Frrni · Rating 4 out of 5]

After almost finishing this book I was wondering about the premies of the book. I was questioning where is the Detective story? Where is the discussion and suspicion between polices and the murderer? Is the innocent going to be hang? Is the murderer successful to trapped the innocent? I was seething because the ending is going to be unsatisfactory! Then Inspector Brett came to solve all the murderer attempts to ensnared the innocent King of Fool. Twist upon twist! I love how luck and Inspector Brett efficiency save the story !

[Kaye · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pleasantly absorbing story of a Frenchman who follows an Englishwoman to Edinburgh in hopes of romance. Dard successfully portrays the passionate fog that dictates the otherwise-inexplicable lengths to which the man goes in his pursuit. I enjoyed some of the sly, cross-cultural asides, and the paradox of wordly sophistication mingled with naive, retro innocence. I received an advance copy of the English translation in exchange for a candid review.

[Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3 stars, not as good as some of the earlier Dard psychologicals/noirs (e.g., Crush) but a good read nonetheless. Set in France (holiday beaches of Cote d'Azur) versus Scotland (gloomy and rainy Edinburgh). Written in the first person, allowing author to pen Jean-Marie's distraught thoughts, pinings, and motivations over of the mysterious Marjorie. A theme of the nourish escapade as signed by Denise to Jean-Marie: "Poor Ivanhoe...You have no idea what fools heroes can be."

[lina ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡]

DNF
um livro do tamanho da minha mão e com a finura do meu dedo mindinho meteu-me na maior reading slump da minha vida
super parado e aborrecido, a única ação que acontece é o que já é esperado pois está indicado no título do livro… talvez ficasse bom em algum ponto mas não tenho a mínima vontade de o descobrir
:( uma desilusão

[Andy Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flawed but enjoyable thriller in Hitchcock vein. Innocent man who is used as a pasty by a murderous couple. Not much suspense, largely due to the first person narrator being under arrest during the police investigation. Reminded me a bit of Dial M For Murder in that way I think. You could kind of see the twist coming too. Nice Edinburgh setting.

[Michael Pronko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these straight narratives from Pushkin Vertigo. They are classic, in good, and some so-so, ways, but essential to read. This one was particularly tricky, and I don't get tricked that often (getting old). One of the better in this series.

[Walton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great, especially to see Edinburgh of 1970 through an outsider's eyes. This "city of blackened stone", in a country of "despondent solemnity" is contrasted unfavourably with the Côte d'Azur .

There's no accounting for taste.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Frenchman’s strange romantic experience in Edinburgh. Lacked a certain level of plausibility to completely draw me in. The writing is good. Enough twists to make it interesting. I would read another book by this author.

[Alessandro Boriani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Racconto ben congegnato e scritto in modo agile e senza fronzoli: non ci si perde in chiacchiere inutili e si va dritti allo scopo. L’avesse avuto in mano uno come Hitchcock ne avrebbe fatto un film strepitoso.

[Oryx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely as good as 'Bird in a Cage', although I forget what I rated that... 3.88?