Murder in Memoriam (Mask Noir) [Paperback]

Didier Daeninckx (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mask Noir | Publication Date: January 1, 1992

Recipient of the French "Detective Fiction Prize" in 1984, this novel features the laconic Inspector Cadin in his attempt to solve the puzzling double murder of a father and son. The trail of clues he must follow leads to the time of the German occupation of France during World War II.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bernard Thiraud has been murdered in Toulouse, France. Glib Inspector Cadin senses a connection between Bernard's death and that of his father, Roger Thiraud, two decades earlier. Though killed during a police riot, the elder Thiraud, a history teacher, seems to have been murdered to stop his research into a matter regarding Vichy France. Cadin's investigation is hindered by 20 years of history and a French bureaucracy that would rather forget that embarrassing period of collaboration with the Germans. While Daeninckx offers a masterful weave of political history in this debut novel, he is so intent on unfolding this elaborate tapestry that he neglects to develop characters. Dialogue falls flat without tags to identify what characters are doing or thinking as they speak, and the romantic interest appears to be an afterthought: Cadin makes a clumsy, ill-timed move on the victim's girlfriend, and she then drops almost completely out of the picture until she falls for the inspector at the end. Similarly, other peripheral characters appear once and are never heard from again.

Copyright 1992 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"'Murder in Memoriam is the kind of book that begins to restore one's confidence in the detective story. Not only has Daeninckx produced a particularly intriguing narrative, but he has found a way to give this narrative a satisfying significance... A touch of moral vision and a pinch of righteous anger work wonders' Nick Hornby, The European; 'How many detective stories have helped a country confront its past? Murder in Memoriam has certainly done that' Guardian; 'Didier Daeninckx is a novelist, magician and archaeologist prince... a frightening book' Jerome Charyn; 'Serves as a tap on the shoulder - a necessary reminder that what is dead is not buried, and what is buried is, unfortunately, not dead' Derek Raymond" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (January 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852422068
• ISBN-13: 978-1852422066
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,125,746 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting History, Bad Mystery, September 18, 2001

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Murder in Memoriam (Mask Noir) (Paperback)

Daeninckx is apparently a very prolific mystery writer in his native France, and this book won the "Grand Prix de littérature policière" in 1984. Unfortunately for the non-French reader, much of it depends on a knowledge of-or at least a strong interest in-domestic French politics and infighting following WWII. I had originally picked this up because I had liked another of his books in translation, A Very Profitable War, and this one revolves around a murder that takes place during pro-Algerian demonstrations in 1961 (which sounded intriguing). When the murdered man's son is himself murdered some 20 years later in Toulouse, a local police inspector starts trying to figure if there's a connection between the two killings. Mostly this is an excuse for Daeninckx to highlight some of the lowlights in French civil history, mainly bureaucratic zeal in assisting German occupiers with rounding up Jews, and later the massacre (and subsequent cover-up) of unarmed Algerian demonstrators on October 17, 1961 by French paramilitary police. There's actually quite a lot of interesting political history here, but there are no well-drawn characters, nor decent writing to carry it along. A noble effort at exhuming history that many French, one suspects, would rather leave forgotten, but not the most engaging story.