You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
An ingenious thriller, set in Edinburgh, from the master of French noir. Jean-Marie can't believe his luck when he has a passionate triste with a beautiful young Englishwoman, Marjory, who is holidaying in the C te d'Azur. However, when he discovers his lover is married he is crestfallen, and when she returns to her home in rainy Edinburgh he is heartbroken. He takes a fateful decision: to follow her. He arrives in Scotland. but soon the jealous husband appears, and a deadly encounter is only the beginning of a nightmarish, disorienting drama.
A chilling 1950s suspense story of youthful naivety, dark obsession—and the slippery slope to murder Bored with her mundane factory job, her nagging mother, and her alcoholic father-in-law, 17-year-old Louise Lacroix is captivated by a glamorous American couple who moves to her industrial hometown in Northern France. The Roolands' home is an island of color, good humor, and easy living in drab 1950s Léopoldville—a place straight out of Louise’s dreams. Louise is thrilled when she successfully convinces the couple to hire her as their maid. But once she is under their roof, their model life starts to fall apart. Painful secrets from their past emerge, cracks in their relationship appear, and a dark obsession begins to grow . . .
Four pitch-dark, twisty thrillers from Frédéric Dard, France's greatest noir writer 'The French master of noir' OBSERVER Frédéric Dard is the undisputed king of French noir. Authentic French Noir contains four of his most electrifying novels: riveting, disturbing thrillers that propel you into dangerous worlds of obsession and murder. INCLUDES: THE GRAVEDIGGERS' BREAD - Blaise is out of work and down on his luck when a chance encounter with a beautifulblonde has him hooked. He'll do anything to stay by her side, even if it means workingfor her husband, a funeral director. But as everyone knows, three's a crowd. BIRD IN A CAGE - Returning to the Paris neighbourhood where he was raised, Al...
A man becomes entangled in a dangerous web of death and deceit in this “hallmark of classic French noir” set in 1960s Paris (The Guardian) Trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Traveling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother’s death, he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian quartier unbearable. Until, that evening, he encounters a beautiful, seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie, and his spirits are lifted. Still, something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment, Albert thinks he’s in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them, and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better judgment. Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare, Bird in a Cage melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making.
A fiendish tale of passion, betrayal, and murder in Edinburgh, Scotland—from the master of French noir Jean-Marie can't believe his luck when he has a passionate triste with a beautiful young Englishwoman, Marjory, who is holidaying in the Côte d'Azur. But when he discovers she is married, he is crestfallen. When she returns to her home in rainy Edinburgh, he is heartbroken. He decides to take the biggest gamble of his life: he follows her. No sooner has Jean-Marie arrived in Scotland than his luck runs out. Marjory’s husband is a jealous man—and a deadly encounter is only the beginning of a nightmarish, disorienting drama in the grey-granite labyrinth of the city.
An undercover cop and a prison inmate play a tense game of cat and mouse in this brilliantly original thriller by the master of French noir At one of France’s toughest prisons, an undercover cop is attempting to trap an enemy spy by posing as a fellow inmate. So Frank and Hal find themselves holed up together in a grimy, rat-infested cell, each warily eyeing the other. As they plan a daring escape, an unexpected friendship ensues—but which is the cop and which is the spy? Gritty and hard-hitting, The Wicked Go to Hell is a tense, paranoid 1950s thriller about duty and conscience, deception and loyalty, and about what it means to be human—whether you’re the good guy or not.
AN IMMERSIVE, DEEPLY AFFECTING NOVEL ABOUT COERCIVE CONTROL AND SURVIVAL THAT TURNS ON A KNIFE EDGE – THE PERFECT LITERARY SUSPENSE FOR FANS OF LULLABY, MY ABSOLUTE DARLING AND PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Sandrine knows she is unlovable. So when Monsieur Langlois makes space for her in his heart and in his home, she feels certain she has found someone to hold on to. When his first wife shows up one day with accusations of abuse, she ignores them. Just as she ignores the way he's starting to look at her, and the way she always feels like she is walking on eggshells. But the atmosphere is starting to suffocate her – and soon Sandrine realises that she desperately needs to find a way out. 'Has th...
Shortly after Albert Cohen left France for London to escape the Nazis, he received news of his mother’s death in Marseille. Unable to mourn her, he expressed his grief in a series of moving pieces for La France libre, which later grew into Book of My Mother. Achingly honest, intimate, and moving, this love song is a tribute to all mothers. Cohen himself expressed, "I shall not have written in vain if one of you, after reading my hymn of death, is one evening gentler with his mother because of me and my mother."
Winner of the Prix Renaudot 2019 ‘Extraordinarily beautiful… a long last loving glance at the planet.’ Carl Safina, author of Becoming Wild The Art of Patience sees the renowned French adventurer and writer set off for the high plateaux of remotest Tibet in search of the elusive snow leopard. There, in the company of leading wildlife photographer Vincent Munier and two companions, at 5,000 metres and in temperatures of -25ºC, the team set up their hides on exposed mountainsides, and occasionally in the luxury of an icy cave, to await a visitation from the almost mythical beast. This tightly focused and tautly written narrative is simultaneously a dazzling account of an exacting journey, an apprenticeship in the art of patience, an acceptance of the ruthlessness of the natural world and, finally, a plea for ecological sanity. A small masterpiece, it is one of those books that demands to be read again and again.