French Noir with a dash of Forshaw
French Noir
There’s something very gritty about a good crime thriller set in France. I don’t know what it is, but the ones I’ve read in French or translated always seem to have that special kind of je ne sais quoi, whether it be in the setting or the characters or the gruesome crimes.
PARIS CATACOMBS (c) The booktrail
The settings of course really interest me – I had a look at the three writers who most recent works are set in Paris and what a Paris it is! I love the city and used to live there so I always get a special thrill reading a gritty thriller set in the streets I know and wandered down. Paris has that magical sense of gothic intrigue that I just love. Yet, I’m always amazed as how it can be both the city for the perfect romance novel at the same time! Walk in the maze of streets with one of the more gritty thrillers in your hand and you get quite another impression.
The Theakstons three as I am now calling them offer a really unique view of the city:
Pierre Lemaitre – BLOOD WEDDING
Now here’s a man who knows a bit of grit when he sees it. I don’t think I’ve ever quite felt as scared and chilled really as these novels are hard core. The latest one Blood Wedding, blimey even the name says a lot, is a psychological thriller about “marriage, manipulation and murder” Sophie who has quite a few problems of her own, has one more when she wakes up and discovers the child in her care has been brutally killed. Oh dear goodness, once you start reading about Sophie’s problems and her blackouts Paris suddenly looks a whole lot different. A cracking thriller but very dark so I didn’t read this one at night. Not even with a torch.
Bernard Minier – A SONG FOR DROWNED SOULS
This is the man who put Toulouse and Beziers on the literary map for me. AND he’s made up a lovely sounding town in the Pyrenees by the name of Merac with a fine university.It sounded so nice and so real that I had to check it was actually fictional. I love it when authors make up a place but in such a way it seems so real. We’ve put Beziers on the map with this one as Bernard himself was born here so his early childhood and memories are going to be wrapped up in any kind of fictional setting. There’s a victim in this one who works at the university and who also writes a lot of poetry and would you believe it. there’s a Poet’s Garden in Beziers. Ah it’s like when the stars align or something. Two novels from this man so far and lots more to come I hope.
I love an evening in winter sat beside a roaring fire reading a bit of SJ Parris. She builds up the historical world so well for me and I’ve read every one of her novels. The latest Conspiracy sees the city of Paris come alive with heretic-turned-spy Giordano Bruno. Ooh he’s a great character and to see him explore Paris in 1585 means that I got to go deep into the dirty, cobbled streets, down the backalleys lit with candlelight and hear the horses trot past whilst trying to avoid getting into a battle or a situation of political court intrigue. To walk around Paris now after having read Conspiracy is like having a ghostly film over the city where you can almost see the death and destruction of yesteryear. There’s nothing quite like it. Especially if you head down to the catacombs straight after and see all the skulls then imagine they’re the ones from the novel….Brrr
All three are appearing at Theakstons this weekend with the lovely Barry Forshaw no less. If you’re brave enough – oldpeculiercrimefestival.co.uk
