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.

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Sleight of Hand by Phillip Margolin

Sleight of Hand by Phillip Margolin (Harper, 2013) is the fourth legal thriller with Dana Cutler, a Washington, DC, private investigator as the lead character. That she was the primary character wasn’t immediately apparent, as soon after the book opens she is sent off on a trip to the Pacific Northwest on an odd but well-paying quest for a relic of the Ottoman Empire. She leaves the stage to Charles Benedict, a smooth attorney who represents drug dealers and crime bosses if they have the money. For the very well-heeled among his clients he privately offers additional services, such as making witnesses disappear. He is known for his high success rate in winning the cases he takes on.

Benedict is doing just fine until he decides to perpetrate a little blackmail on another high-powered attorney. During the struggle over a DVD with incriminating video the lawyer does not want her husband to see, Benedict accidentally kills her. He then has the brilliant idea of framing her husband for the murder and then convincing him that Benedict is his best option for legal representation. His plans are unfolding nicely until Dana returns from her trip to Washington State and realizes one of her investigations is linked to the murder case in the news headlines.

Benedict is one of the most repellent characters I have encountered in years. I actually put the book down about a quarter way in. I picked it up again to check the ending before I returned it to the library and found enough in the plot to keep me reading. Margolin is a practicing attorney with years of experience, and it shows clearly in the detailed trial preparations and courtroom scenes. He has written seven other books in two additional legal series and about a dozen stand-alone thrillers and mysteries. Reviews suggest this one is not among his best but I eventually found it to be an entertaining read and will keep his name on my list to re-visit as time allows.

·         Hardcover: 320 pages

·         Publisher: Harper; 1st Printing edition (April 9, 2013)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 9780062069917

·         ISBN-13: 978-0062069917

·         ASIN: 0062069918

Aubrey Hamilton ©2019

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

Aubrey Hamilton Reviews: Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson

Watching the Dark by Peter Robinson (William Morrow, 2013) is the 20^th contemporary UK police procedural featuring Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks in a layered and complicated story of a missing girl, a murdered cop, and human trafficking.

A crossbow is not a common murder weapon, yet that’s what was used to kill DI Bill Quinn at St. Peter’s Police Convalescence and Treatment Center, an isolated privately run in-patient facility for police personnel. Because the victim was a police officer, Professional Services is assigned to monitor the investigation to determine if the motive for the murder affected, or was the result of, his casework in some way. Banks resents being assigned an unofficial supervisor and is quickly at odds with his new team member.

Quinn was a recent widower and both of his children are away at college, leaving no reason to believe something in his personal life prompted his murder. No clues at the scene or at Quinn’s home or office leave Banks drawing a blank. Sifting through his casework Banks keeps coming back to the disappearance of an English girl on holiday in eastern Europe six years earlier.  Quinn was part of the original investigating team and visited the city where the missing girl was last seen. Banks can’t find concrete evidence that the two events are linked but nothing else seems to provide a semblance of a motive.

In the meantime his usual sidekick DI Annie Cabot, who recently completed a lengthy recovery from injuries sustained during her last case, begins working on what turns out to be a wide-ranging case of human trafficking and forced immigrant labor that covers most of northern England.

Robinson manages to keep this series fresh, partly by using plots from current events. Human trafficking is receiving significant attention by the authorities in the western world, who are trying to limit it and the damage it does. Likewise, the disappearance of girls on vacation overseas has filled the news headlines far too often in the past 20 years.

Although this is a long-running thread of stories, I have read the books out of order or skipped some altogether and don’t have any trouble in following the personal and professional lives of the main characters. A strong entry in a strong series.

·         Hardcover: 368 pages

·         Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (January 8, 2013)

·         Language: English

·         ISBN-10: 9780062004802

·         ISBN-13: 978-0062004802

Aubrey Hamilton ©2018

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