Under the Channel
Gilles Pétel; Emily Boyce (translator)
and Jane Aitken (translator)
Gallic, Mar
17 2015, $15.95
ISBN 9781908313669
While Great Britain struggles with the impact of the financial
crisis, Scottish estate agent John Burny decides to escape by train to Paris
for an upper class getaway weekend vacation though he feels the strain of the
failing economy. He struggles to make it
to the last train of the night on time and becomes further frustrated when
inside the Chunnel his train breaks down for ten minutes before continuing on
to the French station. All the passengers disembark except John;
someone on-board murdered him.
French Police lieutenant Roland Desfeuillères leads the
investigation into who garroted the visitor.
Getting nowhere and seizing an opportunity to escape his personal life
tsuris temporarily, Desfeuillères heads to London to learn more about the
victim. Checking in with his British
counterparts, Desfeuillères is taken back by their irrelevant attitude, but remains
motivated to find who had the motive and opportunity to kill John Burny.
This is a captivating French police procedural as the protagonist
walks several kilometers in a dead man’s shoes, but learns as much about whom
he is as he does the late Burny. Filled
with dark satirical humor, fans of offbeat crime investigations will want to
join Desfeuillères’ tour of London.
Harriet Klausner
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