The Accident on the A35 (The Gorski Novels)

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Raymond, son of the lawyer killed in the accident decided to do some investigating of his own after finding a strange address in his father’s office. It was also used by Jack London in The Iron Heel where the events of the novel were exposed by documents read after the events of the novel took place. Clever, meandering and oh, so French… Burnet really has — a rare thing nowadays — a novelist's eye… I confess myself seduced by the atmosphere of provincial ennui.

He wanders around the town's bars, cafes and restaurants, drinking whilst trying to avoid being perceived as a drinker. He meets the wife and only child of the dead man, and is asked by the wife to look a little into the circumstances of the accident.

The conceit that the novel wasn’t actually written by Macrae Burnet pays off less happily in stretches of prose that it’s hard to believe really were composed by a Man Booker prize-shortlisted author. This novel is for those who enjoy character driven psychological studies and interested in small town French society and its workings. Although, I haven't read any of Simenon's books I have seen the TV series Maigret based on the books and can see that the this novel captures the shadowy detective and the dark, smoky scenes in cafes and nightclubs of Maigret's world.

A word of warning – don’t expect a thriller with a few curve balls or twists with this book, it’s more of a leisurely paced character-driven journey in which the setting also plays a prominent part. Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online at Crimestoppers-uk. Macrae paints a masterly picture of small town life, the disappointments, bar brawls, angst, humiliations, teenage sexual forays, social class, disintegrating marriages, secrets and petty behaviours that typify the everyday in Saint Louis for the main characters.After all, Burnet’s Maigret-influenced debut, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, went unnoticed outside his native Scotland. In The Coldest Case: A Black Book Audio Drama, homicide detective Billy Harney sends his new partner, Kate, deep undercover in a notorious Chicago drug ring. Two people have been treated for minor injuries and a third person is being treated for injuries that are not believed to be life-changing or life-threatening.

The Man Booker Prize finalist (for His Bloody Project, 2015) spins another tale within a tale in this “Historical Thriller by Raymond Brunet, Translated and Introduced by Graeme Macrae Burnet.

Set in Saint-Louis, France, very close to the Tripoint, where France, Germany and Switzerland meet, the main characters are the Chief of Police Georges Gorski, and the Barthelme family – husband and wife Bertrand and Lucette and their 17yo son Raymond. Lucette had understood that he dined at a club every Tuesday after work, and had done so for as long as she could remember. When I read an author for the first time one obvious question I always ask myself is “Would I read another of his/her books? Being with your partner may feel like rainbows and unicorns, but that doesn't mean you have a healthy, functioning relationship. His dazzling second novel, His Bloody Project, was shortlisted for the Booker prize in 2016, and in 2022 his 'brilliant, bamboozling' (Telegraph) fourth novel, Case Study, appeared on the Booker longlist.

Not sure I will read this dude again (well I might read reviews, and if some GR friends like the book, then I might try it 😉). The audiobook reflects Rhonda’s own journey and shares the most direct way out for those experiencing hardship and the path to end pain and suffering endured by so many, and it shines a light on a future without anxiety or fear.With its nostalgic echoes of crime fiction of the past and elegant, economical prose, it affords a variety of quiet and satisfying pleasures. He assumes everyone is paying attention to him and his paranoia really does feel misplaced most of the time.