Translated from the French by
Nick CaisterPublished by MacLehose Press,
19 June 2015.
ISBN: 978-0-85705-216-2
A French lawyer has been found
horribly murdered. He worked for a shadowy fixer named ‘Mister Africa’, a
facilitator in the arms trade with links right up to cabinet level... and
Mister Africa’s determined to stop the investigation, by any means.
This
sequel to The Dark Angel brings
retired police commissioner Lola Just back onto the warpath. The lawyer’s death
mirrors that of her former assistant, Toussaint, whose death was never solved.
Lola is a wonderful character: drinker, jigsaw-puzzler and grumpy old woman par
excellence. Her sidekick, Ingrid Diesel, is an American masseuse with an
interesting sideline (I won’t give details as it’s one of the surprises of The Dark Angel), and the wise-cracking
dialogue between them is a delight. Their sleuthing is helped by Sigmund, a
Dalmation on loan from a psychologist. The plot moves so fast it makes your
head spin, and the final perp is a real surprise. Sylvain’s descriptions of the many faces of
Paris are particularly evocative... in short, I was really enjoying this book
until the final pages, when Sylvain went for a fashionable cliff-hanger instead
of a ‘proper’ ending.
If
you fancy a cross between Chandler and Simenon, go for this one – I’d recommend
starting with The Dark Angel, and
you’ve been warned about the ending...
-------
Reviewer:
Marsali Taylor
Dominique Sylvain
was
born in 1957. Se worked as a journalist in Paris before relocating to Asia
where she lived for spells in Japan and Singapore. She is the author of
thirteen crime novels and now lives once more in Paris where she writes
full-time.
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