The Murdered House by Pierre Magnan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another book that I got from Grandma. And another murder mystery. This one is set in France, though. And deals with a twenty-year old murder.
It feels like it is an older murder than that, though, because of how everything is framed. Which is a little strange. The twist at the end is interesting, and predictable if you know what to look for. As well as why someone keeps beating the main character to his intended victims.
Setting: Rural France. Which makes this kind of fun to read for that. In fact, this was translated into English from French. So it is authentic as far as that goes.
Plot: Basically, it is the main character’s intention to find and then kill his parents’ murderer (or murderers). He is also erotically haunted (perhaps subconsciously, perhaps just in his mind) by his mother’s ghost. This part is just weird.
Conflict: Just between the main character and his would-be targets. Who mysteriously end up dead before he gets the chance to.
Characters: There is some meat here, with lots of different kinds of characters. I didn’t really find myself caring for any of them. Maybe Rose. But the author implied that she lived to be old, so the tension there was lost and it seemed obvious that she never married the main character, so tension there was lost too. I still don’t understand why he left or why the ending happened the way it did. Very strange. Perhaps to set up another book? It was definitely not an uplifting book, in any case.
Text: I liked the French feel, with the turns of phrase and the words used (translated in footnotes as appropriate).
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