Dogs and Wolves

In this bleak slow burn from Le Corre (In the Shadow of the Fire), the life of 26-year-old crook Franck goes from grim to hellish after he’s released from prison. Having kept silent for five years about his fellow drug smugglers in Gironde, France—including his older brother, Fabien—Franck expects to get his share of the money from their last job upon his release. But he soon learns that Fabien fled to Spain with Franck’s €30,000, leaving the younger brother with no option but to move into a dismal farmhouse with Fabien’s hard-to-read girlfriend, Jessica, and her family. It’s a toxic environment, full of hostility and deceit, where Franck locks horns with Jessica’s spiteful mother and alcoholic father, and is troubled by her silent eight-year-old daughter. Unable to control his starved libido, Franck begins an affair with Jessica, whose vulnerable facade belies a dangerous recklessness. When men Jessica seems to know rape her and attack Franck one night, he seeks violent retribution, oblivious to the bloody repercussions it will trigger. Though the pace feels almost defiantly sluggish at times, Le Corre’s nuanced characters and psychologically astute prose elevate the proceedings. This bold, haunting crime tale will stay with readers long after the last drop of blood is spilled. (Dec.)