Graeme Macrae Burnet is best known for his second novel, His Bloody Project, which saw huge commercial success in 2016. A dark anatomy of a 19th century Highland murder case that devastated a crofting community, it seemed a world away from his debut novel, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau in 2014. The latter began the author’s Georges Gorski trilogy and, following on from The Accident on the A35, A Case of Matricide completes the set and has me thinking that maybe these stories aren’t so different from His Bloody Project after all.
While the Gorski tales are pure fiction and His Bloody Project reimagined a real historical crime, A Case of Matricide has similar psychological depth and shares a great deal of insight into the people and community involved.
There is a playful layer of metafiction to get your head around. The novel purports to be a posthumous fiction written by Raymond Brunet, but translated and introduced by Graeme Macrea Burnet. It’s like an intellectual game, something that can often distance the reader, but here it seems to make things more real and there’s a sense of intimacy throughout the story.
Tragically, we learn that Raymond committed suicide in 1992 and the novel is set shortly before that. He spent his whole life observing the people of Saint-Louis, the small town in France where he lived, including Chief Inspector Gorski. The policeman makes his rounds, talking to people and occasionally calling into a bar for a drink. This could be any village but clearly the author loves France and French crime writing, and you might detect the influences of Pascal Garnier, Jean-Patrick Manchette and Georges Simenon.
When a stranger is deemed to be suspicious by the hotel manager, Gorski investigates. The man, who looks familiar to the detective, is a foreigner, a Slav. Is he worth keeping an eye on? We shall see. Housebound Madame Duymann’s son says she is ‘quite gone in the head’, nevertheless she tells Gorski that Robert wants to kill her and she believes he is poisoning her. She says he killed her dog but Robert claims cancer necessitated the pooch being put down. So here we have the starting point for the investigation into a matricide. Then Marc Tarrou, owner of one of the factories in Saint-Louis, drops dead of an apparent heart attack. Is it simply a matter of fate, or was there a helping hand?
All the while Gorski has his own demons to deal with, the past and his relationship with his wife. Céline is currently away in Nice enjoying a holiday at her father’s expense, a source of tension. Their daughter, Clémence, is enjoying time with her grandparents. If he joined them, Gorski would feel lost.
So how does A Case of Matricide manage to be as dark and penetrating as His Bloody Project? Ultimately, because it’s about character, the make up of people and their relationships, the light and very dark shades. It looks at what we’ll show in public and what we hide from others. It’s about our prejudices, foibles and transgressions. The novel opens in a flurry of ordinary events, the living of daily lives. Among others we meet the florist, the hairdresser, a man reporting a stray dog and a waitress all going about their business. It’s a typical bourgeois town. The scene-setting is reminiscent of Dylan Thomas’ opening to Under Milk Wood. The same sense of mischief lurking behind curtains and closed doors.
However, one marked difference is the humour in this novel. Even when it feels a bit near-the-knuckle you can’t help but savour it. A dark wit that reflects the absurdity of life through the little, meaningless and embarrassing things we do that cause us shame and regret. And yet we give these trivial things such weight that they are skewed out of all proportion.
This novel is the denouement of a profound character study of the detective and his creator, Raymond Brunet. We might ask just how much Gorski is in control of his own life. That said, it is a mystery too; Graeme Macrae Burnet doesn’t neglect that and this is a solid detective story told with panache. Enjoyable and enduring, Macrae Burnet is a skilful and thoughtful writer.
The author selected his five favourite classic crime novels on our site here.
Contraband Books
Print
£14.75
CFL Rating: 5 Stars
