Married on Saturday, Thèrése Malausséne dumps her husband, the ramrod-straight, squeaky-clean councillor, and returns to her own home in Paris's Belleville quarter on Monday morning. At about the same time, the eminent but jilted husband is found dead and shoeless at the bottom of a stairwell, and a sack of money has gone missing. Thèrése's brother, Benjamin, a natural scapegoat, packs his bag and waits for the police to come for him—it's no secret that Benjamin's new brother-in-law is his least favorite man—but it is Thèrése whom they arrest. In addition, Thèrése's fairground caravan has been torched, the work of a homicidal arsonist. The chaotic Malausséne tribe and their exuberant friends slip smartly into gear to scour Paris in search of the bonafide culprits and get their beloved sister out of jail. Daniel Pennac’s “Belleville Quintet,” a cult success in France, also includes The Scapegoat, Monsieur Malaussene, The Fairy Gunmother, and Write to Kill.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
French author Pennac's fourth foray into Paris's Belleville quarter (The Fairy Gunmother, etc.) falls short of his usual high standard, though it exudes plenty of Gallic charm. Narrator and series hero Benjamin MalaussŠne, having left his job at Vendetta Press, spends his time trying to comprehend how his sister Th‚rŠse, one of his ever-growing "tribe" of half-siblings and Belleville's notoriously accurate fortuneteller, could fall for straight-arrow government councillor Marie-Colbert de Roberval and vice versa. While Th‚rŠse prepares for her impending nuptials, MalaussŠne becomes convinced that Marie-Colbert will end up murdered. Unfortunately, the buildup to Marie-Colbert's foreordained death takes too long, while the allure of the large cast of characters, many fleetingly reintroduced from the author's earlier novels, will escape those readers unfamiliar with them. Although crime solving has never played the lead role in Pennac's books, here he relegates it to a bit part. When Marie-Colbert's body finally turns up, the day after Th‚rŠse abandons their honeymoon, the crime is solved so rapidly there's little enjoyment in its unraveling. Moreover, the answer to the question that has plagued MalaussŠne why Marie-Colbert wanted to marry Th‚rŠse is so slapdash that it seems almost an afterthought. Nonetheless, Pennac's distinctive wit more than compensates for the novel's weaknesses as a mystery. (Oct.)Forecast: Unlike the previous three Pennac novels published in the U.S., Harvill has opted to release this one in trade paper, presumably to entice new readers. As self-referential as this book is, only established fans are likely to bite.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Fast-paced, stylish and hugely entertaining, a mixture of crime spoof and the stock-in-trade of fairy tale . . ." -- David Coward, The Times Literary Supplement
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