To The Last Page

In any good continuing series there are often some unresolved matters, some with the potential to be time-bombs that could go off at any time. There has been a few such open threads left throughout Ambrose Parry's Raven and Fisher series, mostly in the romantic tension between Raven and Fisher which has been complicated by their differing backgrounds, personalities and their experiences in the medical profession. Since this is set in Victorian Edinburgh, those experiences would have been markedly different for a man and a woman. And then there is the fact that, in the three year gap between the events of The Way of All Flesh and The Art of Dying , both got married to other people.  It's fair to say however - in keeping with the general tone of the series as a whole - neither of those marriages were conventional and certainly didn't resolve the feelings that they had for each other. As we reach what is expected to be the final episode in the five part series, time is runni...

There are a number of features that give Si la bête s’éveille ('If the Beast Awakens') a somewhat unusual character for a crime thriller, much of them likely to do with the author Frédéric Lepage having an extensive CV in film, essay writing, TV and documentary outside of his crime fiction writing. Whether you think there is maybe too much emphasis on subjects not directly related to the crime, or whether this is an advantage that lifts the novel above the average - the novel won the Prix Cognac for the best French language crime novel in 2021 - it does raise some interesting philosophical, psychological and behavioural questions that are worth considering outside the context of the crime thriller. In the first chapter of Si la bête s’éveille  we are introduced (in italics in the past) to Adam Leaf as a young man being brought up by grandmother Ariana. It's hinted that he has a strong sense of justice, preparing to attack a store that short changed his grandmother. He lear...