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4.0 out of 5 stars
Confusing at times, but good, Oct 22 2002
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.
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