Book Title: The Accident on the A35
Author: Graeme Macre Burnet
Total Number of Pages: 272
Publisher: Bee Books
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Genre: Crime Fiction / Literary Fiction
BLURB
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 Adele 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.
REVIEWED BY SOHINEE DEY
I have previously read Graeme Macre Burnet’s The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau and loved it immensely. When I was presented with an opportunity of reading his another crime fiction, I didn’t want to miss out and here I am writing this review after reading The Accident on A35.
One thing which is common in these two books is that each one of them have this prominent french environment in the plotline. This story is again set in Saint Louis like that of The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau. So, the French feeling adds up to place and also gave a real-life feeling of the place. The main protagonist is Georges Groski who also made appearance in the the first book of this series and the story revolves around the Berthelme family.
As for the central story, it’s pretty simple for a crime novel. Bertrand Berthelme who happened to be a lawyer dies in an uneventful road accident and Georges Groski follows up with the investigation thereafter. Bertrand’s wife is seemingly unaffected with the whole ordeal, instead she asks chief inspector Georges Groski to find out what his husband was doing traveling down that road when he was not supposed to be there. The 17 year old son of the Berthelme family carries out his own set of investigation in finding out what his father was up to. On his investigation, many new secrets and mysteries are uncovered and turns out that the accident on road A35 is so much more that what it appeared to be which I did see coming.
The central plot isn’t that twisted or dark in any manner as it was in case of the first book in this series. Here, the sub-plots make the story more complex and creates an illusionary effect of a plot which is twisted and dark. The good thing is that it doesn’t distract you from the main story by diverging into another set of actions where you would think that this person could be behind the incident while that character is only brought up to confuse you. Good thing that Burnet doesn’t use that trick because I get really irritated when authors tend to pull out that trick. The story heads in the direction it should and there aren’t any unnecessary characters cluttering up the the story.
Each character has its own contribution to the plot which progresses the story. Again I loved the writing style of the author just like I did in Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau. The narration was also great.
Even though I liked most part of the book, I noticed that I wasn’t really into the story as I was in the first book. It didn’t seem that interesting that I couldn’t close down the book and take a stroll because I was tired sitting in one position. I wasn’t completely hooked to the storyline. It could be the simple central story because I did get an idea of what was going to happen, so, I wasn’t anticipating anything new or something surprising. It was only a matter of time that everything was spilled out. I won’t say that I didn’t like the story, I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Still, this was a good crime fiction that I liked.
MY FINAL VERDICT
For crime fiction lovers, I would definitely recommend this book. People who have read The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau might find this book a tad bit lacking in the interesting department but still there’s no denying that Burnet takes crime fiction seriously.
POESY IN CHRYSALIS RATING : ⭐⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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