When your legs and intellectual capabilities have been obliterated by a summer stomach bug, there's nothing more suitable than this kind of fast-paced, playful, atmospheric policier. The book’s framework consists of small stones that gather bits of moss as they roll on, page after page. The Man Booker Prize finalist (for His Bloody Project, 2015) spins another tale within a tale in this “Historical Thriller by Raymond Brunet, Translated and Introduced by Graeme Macrae Burnet. It is actually a very short little book but it supplies endless amounts of commentary both for and against it. Raymond, son of the lawyer killed in the accident decided to do some investigating of his own after finding a strange address in his father’s office.

This method was also used by Margaret Attwood in The Handmaid's Tale where the plot was revealed by a series of tapes where the experiences of the protagonist were recorded and listed to in retrospect.I thought His Bloody Project was amazing, and really liked Adele, but although this was a reasonable enough read, it lacked the spark and originality of the two previous books. After reading "The Accident on the A35", I decided to throw literary conceit to the wind by admitting I sure as hell don't understand what Graeme Macrae Burnet is trying to do here, and just judge the book by its literary merits.

One autumn evening he’s disturbed in his routine of solitary drinking when Bertrand Barthelme, a respected solicitor, ploughs his Mercedes fatally into a tree on the road from Strasbourg. The plodding Chief of Police, Inspector Georges Gorski, looks into the fatal car accident of solicitor Bertrand Barthelme only at the behest of his pretty widow.Meanwhile, Raymond Bethelme, the accident victim’s 17-year-old son, is conducting a sort of enquiry of his own, based on a scrap of paper found in his father’s desk drawer. If asked how one’s business is doing, the customary response is: ‘Could be worse,’ or ‘Just about surviving.

The 60-ish year-old driver, Bertrand Barthelme, a successful solicitor, appears to have fallen asleep at the wheel, rolled down a slope, hit a tree, and instantly died. Graeme is also the author of two French-set novels inspired by Georges Simenon and featuring Gorski, a detective: The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau (2014) and The Accident on the A35 (2017), with a third Gorski novel set to appear soon. Sir Michael Caine knows a thing or two about gangs: whether that’s joining one as a kid, or playing them in movies for over 50 years. It is seedy, very French in a lot of ways and the flipping between the police investigation and the life of Raymond keeps the interest level up for most part.Readers in the habit of skipping the Foreword and Afterword are strongly advised not to do so in this case, as these oft-ignored incidentals constitute an essential part of this novel.