The Accident on the A35

There does not appear to be anything remarkable about the fatal car crash on the A35. But one question dogs Inspector Georges Gorski: where has the victim, an outwardly austere lawyer, been on the night of his death? The troubled Gorski finds himself drawn into a mystery that takes him behind the respectable veneer of a sleepy French backwater. Dazzling. Publishers Weekly (US), star review; “An engaging tale of domestic intrigue in backwater France with two appealing detective figures.” “Extravagant talent.” "Simenon fans will feel at home in the claustrophobic and petty-minded atmosphere of the French provinces." "Skilfully written and neatly executed…elegant and aesthetically pleasing. Gripping and intelligent. "Highly accomplished, The Accident on the A35 works on several levels… The narration has the simple momentum of classic crime writing… It has a denouement like something out of Greek tragedy but delivers as a proper police procedural too… Burnet''s cleverness doesn''t get in the way of your enjoyment but playfully adds levels of meaning." “Very much a novel of skillfully drawn characters… With its nostalgic echoes of crime fiction of the past and elegant, economical prose, it affords a variety of quiet and satisfying pleasures.” Both a classy detective story and a stylish meditation on agency and existence.If Roland Barthes had written a detective novel, then this would be it.” “Reads like a lavishly detailed, psychologically accurate, intelligent, well-plotted, unsimple Simenon… Burnet has proved himself to be the literary games-master.” “Intriguing… distinctive… atmospheric, often surprising, with a denouement which is beautifully under-played.” [A] truly superlative tale… fascinating… one of the most clever and compelling novels to be published this year "As steeped in the works of Simenon as a good boeuf bourgignon is in red wine. The characters'' pretensions are mercilessly exposed in frill-free prose… What matters, of course, is whether a novel''s characters seem to the reader to be alive. Burnet''s do." There are so many echoes of French writers in this book… [Raymond] is a fantastic depiction of the typical alienated teenager. "Graeme Macrae Burnet''s best book yet. A unique and compelling novel…[It] works perfectly as a page-turning crime fiction, but it''s also moody and Gallic and wittily deadly serious." "Fans of His Bloody Project will [enjoy] familiar themes including questions of authorship, betrayal, family, love, death, truth and lies (or rather, what can be said to be true, if anything, and what is false?), and the possibilities of youth versus the reality of adulthood." Elegant, craftily written and frequently funny "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. I longed to shrug gallically at a detective through a haze of cigarette smoke, to pour myself a drink from a cut-glass decanter, to drive to the next town to make acrobatic love to a beautiful…I''m getting carried away." “A crime novel with post-modern flourishes… Beautifully observed…with understated humour… Wry, intelligent and a lot of fun.” From the author of “His Bloody Project”, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016. There does not appear to be anything remarkable about the fatal car crash on the A35. But one question dogs Inspector Georges Gorski: where has the victim, an outwardly austere lawyer, been on the night of his death? The troubled Gorski finds himself drawn into a mystery that takes him behind the respectable veneer of the sleepy French backwater of Saint-Louis. Graeme Macrae Burnet returns with a literary mystery that will beguile fans of “His Bloody Project” and “The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau”. Darkly humorous, subtle and sophisticated, “The Accident on the A35” burrows deep into the psyches of its characters and explores the forgotten corners of small-town life.

• | Author: Graeme Macrae Burnet
• | Publisher: Saraband
• | Publication Date: Apr 05, 2018
• | Number of Pages:
• | Language:
• | Binding: Paperback / softback
• | ISBN-13: 9781912235131
• | ISBN-10: 1912235137