Description
When the night train pulled into Paris, she was dead. And the riddle began . . .
A beautiful young woman lies sprawled on her berth in the sleeping car of the night train from Marseille to Paris. She is not in the embrace of sleep, or even in the arms of one of her many lovers. She is dead. And the unpleasant task of finding her killer is handed to overworked, crime-weary police detective Pierre ‘Grazzi’ Grazziano, who would rather play hide-and-seek with his little son than cat and mouse with a diabolically cunning, savage murderer.
Sébastien Japrisot takes the reader on an express ride of riveting suspense that races through a Parisian landscape of lust, deception and death. With corpses turning up everywhere, the question becomes not only who is the killer, but who will be the next victim . . .
Reviews
‘A strongly plotted story of murder with a clever ironical ending . . . Remarkable’ Daily Telegraph
‘It becomes more sensational with each chapter’ Sunday Times
‘Japrisot writes with warmth, and has a gift for rendering almost every character instantly likable’ New Yorker
‘The surprising murder motive is worthy of Agatha Christie herself, and the twisty plot contrasts nicely with the prosaic, appealing sleuth’ Publishers Weekly
‘A kaleidoscopic, captivating narrative’ Foreword Reviews
‘Sébastien Japrisot’s talents as a storyteller have something of magic about them. You have to wait until the last page to be liberated from his grasp’ Quotidien de Paris
Praise for Sébastien Japrisot
‘With an instantly recognisable style and great story-telling techniques, he might be called the Graham Greene of France’ The Independent
‘The most welcome talent since the early Simenons’ New York Times
‘Utterly captivating’ The Guardian
‘A cordon bleu mixture of suspense, sex, trick psychology and fast action’ Publishers Weekly
‘Diabolically clever’ Anita Brookner
‘Japrisot holds a unique place in contemporary fiction. With the quality and originality of his writing, he has hugely contributed to breaking down the barrier between crime fiction and literary fiction’ Le Monde
‘A marvellous storyteller’ Télérama
Francis Price is a translator. His translations include God’s Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembène.
