Review: Carnage by Maxime Chattam

Carnage by Maxime Chattam, tr. Isabel Reid and Emily Boyce (102 pages, March 2012, Gallic Books, ISBN: 1906040419)

CARNAGE is a novella length detective story set in New York City by French author Maxime Chattam. The prologue describes the mass-shooting by a student of his fellow pupils at East Harlem Academy.

Enter, Lamar Gallineo, a giant of a man, an African-American who has risen to the rank of Lieutenant. He is called to the scene at the Academy where the shooting has now ceased and the perpetrator, believed dead by suicide. A witness is found who saw the boy kill himself. The tragic case is closed.

However the following week another mass-shooting occurs at a school, outside of Gallineo's jurisdiction this time and then a third, all the shooters are dead. What is going on? Then a link appears between the guns used at the crimes and a deeper evil is revealed. Gallineo uses a combination of intuition and going through files and paperwork to reveal the cause of these shocking events.

Being a short book, there isn't much room for character development but I would love to see more of Gallineo and his diminutive partner Doris in a full-length novel. The author plays fair with the reader, the clues are there to be spotted though there is still room for a twist. Good use is made of the New York setting and wintry weather. Overall, a quick read with intriguing main characters and a good puzzle but with occasionally unpleasant descriptions, especially in the prologue.

Win a copy of Carnage (UK only) closes 31 March 2012.

New Reviews: Becker, Chattam, Hudson, James, Montalban, Wilson

This is my 1000th post on the blog, hard to believe!

Here are this week's new reviews and details of the current competition:

Latest Reviews:

Amanda Gillies is very taken with James Becker's The First Apostle calling it an "utterly spellbinding book" and one you should seek out;

I was very disappointed with The Cairo Diary by Maxim Chattam which has both logistical and linguistical faults;

Guest reviewer Rik Shepherd takes a look at Death Comes by Amphora by Roger Hudson which is set in Ancient Athens; he finds the background information can swamp the plot at times;

In the first of a two part look at the latest from Baronesses James and Rendell, Fiona Walker reviews The Private Patient by P D James; check back next week for her review of The Birthday Present by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell);

Mike Ripley reviews Tattoo by Manuel Vazquez Montalban the second in the Pepe Carvalho series which has just been published in English for the first time

and Maxine Clarke reviews Laura Wilson's Stratton's War which she calls "an excellent book: a fully rounded novel of London in the Blitz in the summer of 1940".

Current Competition:

Win a copy of Our Lady of Pain by Elena Forbes*

* restrictions apply (ends 31 August)

The Cairo Diary by Maxim Chattam

One to look out for in June. From Minotaur's Spring catalogue:

A bestselling historical thriller from France, set in meticulously researched locales with a healthy dose of mystery and intrigue.

Cairo, 1928: Several children disappear and are found horribly mutilated in the tombs just outside the city. Has a ghoul from the Arabian Nights come to life? British inspector Jeremy Matheson follows the trail of the monster while grappling with his own past as well as with the charged political situation in British-occupied Cairo.

Mont-Saint-Michel, 2005: Marion has been spirited away from Paris and brought to a remote monastery by the French Secret Service.When she finds a diary dating from 1928 in the monastery library hidden inside an Edgar Allan Poe jacket and penned by Jeremy Matheson, she is inexorably pulled into the past as she follows his investigation.The two stories intertwine and culminate in an absolutely baffling climax and will leave the reader questioning his sense of the truth.

“One of the best contemporary thriller authors…there is a toughness to his stories, a truth to his characters and a writing style that, even though it flirts with the fantastical, always stays realistic. Chattam knows how to make the most of his readers’ fears and phobias.” —LE MONDE

After stints as an actor, night watchman and bookseller, MAXIM CHATTAM studied criminology in Paris. He is also the author of several plays and a well-received trilogy (The Soul of Evil, In Darkness and Evil Spells). He lives in Poissy, France.

Update: Read the Euro Crime review of The Cairo Diary.