From Publishers Weekly
French author Benacquista (
Holy Smoke) delivers another darkly comic crime novel. His eccentric narrator, Antoine, supports his love of playing billiards with a day job hanging paintings at a Paris art gallery. When Antoine interrupts an intruder in the midst of vandalizing an abstract work by an obscure painter, Etienne Morand, the man topples a heavy sculpture on Antoine, crushing his right hand. The loss of his hand further warps Antoine's already idiosyncratic personality and leads him on a quest for his assailant that involves several corpses and suspicions that there may not have been a real artist named Morand. The author's familiarity with the European art world lends plausibility to the fraud plot, while the unusual main character makes a refreshing change from the stock hero of so much genre fiction.
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Review
"Unexpected deadly demands made in the name of friendship inspire the plot of this quirky mystery novel. The phrase "black comedy" was invented for just this kind of book. Irreverently inveighs against romantic love, cancer and the Paris suburbs. Washington Post "An iconoclastic chronicle of small-time crooks and desperate capers, with added Gallic and Italian flair. Wonderful fun." Guardian "An entertainingly cynical story. I read it in one sitting." Observer "This prizewinning novel is guaranteed to keep you up late at night, driven to discover the ending. Its exciting, funny and bizarrely even includes tips on cooking Italian food.." Coventry Evening Telegraph "Boisterous black comedy...funny and good-hearted, with much incident and expert enthusiasm for sex, food and drink." Literary Review"
