Pack in your hand luggage as you'll want to get started as soon as you arrive at the airport!

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair - Joel Dicker

What the media say….

'A global phenomenon' Le Monde.

'All the ingredients of a world bestseller' Die Zeit.

'A great noir' Corriere della Sera

What The Word’s Shortlist says….

Joel Dicker’s novel is a slick literary crime thriller that brilliantly weaves together two story lines. The novel was so successful in French language markets that not only was it lauded with awards but can even claim to have knocked Fifty Shades off the best seller list!

Celebrated writer Harry Quebert is the only suspect in the murder, some 33 years earlier, of Nola Kellergan. There are echoes of Nobokov's Lolita in both the nature of the relationship between the two and the New England setting. Central to the plot, and the case against Quebert, is that the body of the 15 year old Nola is found buried in his own garden along with a manuscript copy of the novel he was to become famous for.

Marcus Goldman is Quebert’s protégé and a successful young novelist living in New York. Suffering from serious second novel writer’s block Goldman commits to travelling to New England to help clear his mentor’s name. Both characters are hugely self-absorbed and indulgent but the perfect ingredients for a crime fiction page turner!

The novel is fast paced with enough twists and turns to keep you reading to the end and finely plotted throughout. The story is packed full of insight into the writing process and the angst of living up to the expectation of being a critically successful literary genius. Whilst this might border on pretentious in places it certainly makes a great read for bibliophiles.

Characterisation is good and the dialogue is natural and believable, with the possible exception of Mrs Goldman who is drawn from every Jewish matriarchal stereotype you’ve ever come across. We can forgive however, given that the character of Marcus is so well penned.

The plot isn’t as gritty as Steig Larsson or monumental as Roth, although the promotion around the novel suggests otherwise, but the story does end with the brilliant twist you’d hope for. 

This isn’t a masterpiece but the idea of a famous and much loved work of fiction being linked to a real life (fictional) murder is brilliantly compelling. Well worth a holiday read, pack in your hand luggage as you’ll want to get started as soon as you arrive at the airport!