Rough Trade (Eurocrime series) [Paperback]

Dominique Manotti (Author)

Book Description

Series: Eurocrime series | Publication Date: September 1, 2006

Set against the backdrop of the seedy districts of Paris, this mystery unfolds alongside actual events of a 1980s garment workers' struggle. In the neighborhood of Le Sentier, where sweatshops turn out the haute couture of the well-heeled, foreign workers keep inhuman hours under repressive management and the constant threat of police brutality. When a young, Thai worker is found dead in a factory and an erotic video club's membership is threatened with exposure, investigators are lead into the immigrant slums, the heroin trade, and a morally ambiguous world of informers, prostitutes, and laborers.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Dominique Manotti teaches 19th century economic history in France.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Arcadia Books (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190085046X
• ISBN-13: 978-1900850469
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,013,870 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Confusing at times, but good, October 21, 2002

By 

A. Ross (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rough Trade (Eurocrime series) (Paperback)

As one might surmise from the title, this French procedural starts with the discovery of a young Thai girl who has been raped and tortured to death. Set in 1980, this murder sets in motion a stunningly complicated investigation by Inspector Dacquin and his team, which winds its way through immigrant worker politics, the international heroin trade, French-Iranian relations, child prostitution, Turkish domestic politics, police and government corruption, a private club, blackmail, the CIA, front companies, and most of all, the grimy Sentier district in Paris.

The somewhat choppy narrative takes place over a month, with lots of cutting between different locations and perspectives. It's a bit off-putting at first, but by the second half of the story, there have been enough new murders and complications so that one isn't so distracted. There book does suffer from a lack of distinction amongst all the cops. Other than the lead inspector Dacquin, the other cops are interchangeable and unmemorable, which is a bit of a problem since there are at least four of them running around at any one point. Manotti treats them more as Dacquin's pawns than real characters, which is a bit of a shame. Similarly, there are a huge number of people interviewed and interrogated, and they too, tend to run together. To keep everything straight, I recommend readers keep a running list of whom everybody is as they read.

It should be said that the book is unrelentingly grim and cynical, which some may not care for. The French cops don't mess around, beating suspects, blackmailing informers, and generally operating by whatever means necessary. It has one of the better climaxes I've come across recently though, very realistic I felt. And there's a fun little epilogue which really ends thing on just the right note. Manotti has written at least two other Dacquin books, but they've not been translated into English.

FYI, this book is also known as "Dark Path", which is the more literal translation of the original French title. Also, Manotti is a pseudonym.

3.0 out of 5 stars A Good Story that gets too Complicated at the End, November 30, 2011

By 

Grey Wolffe "Zeb Kantrowitz" (North Waltham, MA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rough Trade (Eurocrime Series) (Paperback)

This novel is 266 pages, and for the first 240 it's an intense unnerving story of the drug and smuggling trade between Turkey and France. The dialogue (which is choppy at some parts because I think of the use of two translators) is very straight forward and sounds the way people in a country not of their birth would speak a language that was self-taught. The Cops and others talk the way you would expect people who have been among the corrupt for too long and have become blase about the whole enterprise.

The problem with the book (and once again this could be the problem of the translation), is in the last 26 pages, things begin to happen that have not been presented earlier in the book as possibilities and the people involved, were previously minor characters and are now front row. This is not a good way to end a book because it makes the rest of it implausible. This ending is also rushed as if we were coming to the end of a 'one-hour drama' and have taken to long with the prior narrative. There is also the introduction early in the book of an 'historical' figure for (to me) no other reason than name recognition.

The book was written in 2005, but placed in 1980 and from time to time characters make statements that will prove true in 'their future' but had occurred by 2005. So what. If I write a book set in 1980, I can make a statement that America will elect a black President in the early years of the 21st century. Wow, wouldn't that be a brilliant guess, except we all know that Barak Obama was elected in 2008.

So nice try but no cigar.

Zeb Kantrowitz

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible translation, July 26, 2010

By 

SpringHill (Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rough Trade (Eurocrime Series) (Paperback)

As I read I could see how it might have been written in French. The English just doesn't read quite right. The book could've used a more skillful translation.