Too Close to the Edge: Shocking, hilarious and poignant noir
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
A widow’s quiet retirement in the foothills of the Alps is turned upside down by the arrival of a mysterious stranger. Recently widowed grandmother Éliette is returning to her home in the mountains when her micro-car breaks down. A stranger comes to her aid on foot. Éliette offers him a lift, glad of the interruption to her humdrum routine. That night, her neighbours' son is killed in a road accident. Could the tragedy be linked to the arrival of her good Samaritan?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
liette V lard, the 64-year-old heroine of this sly noir from Garnier (Boxes), has sold her flat in Paris and moved to the country house in the south of France that she used to share with her late husband. She has two grown children to look after her, as well as solicitous neighbors, Rose and Paul Jaubert. Then the Jauberts' son Patrick dies in a car accident, and it's liette's turn to console her neighbors. Meanwhile, a stranger in his 40s, tienne Doilet, comes to her aid when her mini-car has a flat. liette takes tienne, who claims he too has had car trouble, back to her house, where the sex-deprived widow is thrilled to have male company. Unbeknownst to her, tienne has a criminal past and a connection to the crash that killed Patrick. Not even a surprise visit by a drunken Paul that leads to shocking violence can stop the determined liette from seeking happiness with tienne. Some fine prose hints at the doom that awaits them ("They fell peacefully asleep, like two prisoners on death row clinging to the tiny hope of a presidential pardon").