Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georget (Translator Steven Rendall)

Philippe Georget is a French television anchor and author of five crime novels. His debut, L'été tous les chats s'ennuient, published by Éditions Jigal in 2009, won the SNCF Crime Fiction Prize and the City of Lens First Crime Novel Prize. Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored (Europa Editions, 2013), the first Inspector Gilles Sebag book, was translated from the French by Steven Rendall.

It’s miserably hot on the French Mediterranean coast, as usual during the summer, and Inspector Gilles Sebag is tired of his job. The air conditioner at the Perpignan police headquarters breaks down with depressing frequency. The tedium of tourists and petty crime along with the heat have him sleepwalking through his days. His real interest is his family, and he’s consumed with the realization that his children are growing up. Both of them are spending part of their vacation away from the family for the first time and he misses them dreadfully. In addition, he’s caught his wife Claire, whom he loves deeply, in a lie and he fears she is having an affair. His anxiety is heightened when she decides to go on a cruise alone for part of her vacation, since she has more time off than he does.

Sebag’s mind is nowhere near work when a Dutch girl is found murdered on a beach. Then another Dutch girl disappears. Still a few days later a third Dutch girl is attacked with a knife during a failed kidnapping. The belief that a local serial killer has singled out Dutch tourists for his attentions has caused a slick Paris cop to be assigned to the force to serve as liaison between the police on the ground and the French authorities in touch with the Dutch police. Sebag despises him on sight and the feeling is mutual. The investigations flounder while leads dissolve one after another. Sebag is singled out by the kidnapper to receive a series of taunting messages, and his management wonders why. The team follows thorough but plodding police procedures with some success but it’s Sebag’s instincts that finally get them a true break.

The book is labelled noir but Sebag is far from the average noir character. He dislikes guns, doesn’t carry one unless he has to, and has to think to remember where he put his service weapon. He runs marathons; his practice sessions give Georget frequent reasons to describe the picturesque scenery of southern France. He enjoys housework. He feels great compassion for those caught on the wrong side of the law. The typical detective of crime fiction he is not.

I bought this book for its title and was rewarded with a fine police procedural. Intricate and well-executed plot; gorgeous writing, for which the translator must take some credit; great behind-the-scenes look at the operations of an investigative law enforcement team; powerful sense of place. A really good book!

Starred review from Publishers Weekly and a PW Pick.

·         File Size: 1077 KB

·         Print Length: 429 pages

·         Publisher: Europa Editions; Reprint edition (July 2, 2013)

·         Publication Date: October 8, 2019

Aubrey Hamilton ©2020

Aubrey Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and reads mysteries at night.