The Accident on the A35: A Historical Thriller

Man Booker–finalist Burnet’s smart, sharp follow-up to The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau offers a “lost” novel by fictional French writer Raymond Brunet (whose anagram is hardly subtle), released by his estate after his suicide. It again focuses on the sleepy French town of Saint-Louis, in particular the titular car accident, which kills local lawyer Bertrand Barthelme. While the death itself is not a crime, the question of where he was that night—and every Tuesday, when he claimed to be dining with colleagues—drives his teenage son, Raymond, and local detective Gorski into separate investigations. Gorksi’s, set against his struggles with a crumbling marriage and alcoholism, takes him to a sexually charged murder in a nearby city. Raymond, meanwhile, finds an address in his father’s desk, and soon meets a mysterious and attractive young woman. While neither investigation’s twist is a shock, the real story is the two characters’ emotional journeys, exacerbated by an afterword suggesting that the two Raymonds (teenager and fictitious author) are one and the same. Burnet elevates what starts as a Simenon pastiche into something dazzling. (Oct.)