A few months ago, I chanced upon an interview of one of the greatest crime fiction writers, late P D James. Till then, I had not read a single book of hers.
But to my surprise, her interview made me look at crime fiction with a different perspective and it was much of a consolation for an ardent crime lover like me to know that unlike common perception where the so called ‘ serious readers’ brush crime noir aside as mere pulp fiction ( I believe this is a trend in India and thankfully, it is slowly changing) , the genre really has a long back history and depth. Besides, we have bequeathed rich classic crime literature that many are not aware of.
It made me delve into P D James’ celebrated book - “ An Unsuitable Job for a Woman”. Though I had been reading mysteries for quite a while, the book felt so different and new. It seemed as if I was seriously getting one with the characters in it. And for the first time, I learnt that the characters in the crime noir could have emotions . That was my first stint with the real crime noir.
Strangely, I felt the same tempo when I was reading Graeme Macrae Burnet’s The Accident on the A35 ’ too.
It all began when an acclaimed solicitor Bertrand Barthelem’s car meets with an accident and owing to this, Police Chief Georges Gorski's daily routine is disrupted. Considering the social standing of the solicitor,
Gorski believes that he himself should go and break the news to his family. But what perplexes him is that even after disclosing such a news, the solicitor’s wife Lucette and son Raymond are hardly moved by the solicitor’s death.
And also the fact that Lucette seems to be many years younger than the solicitor makes the police chief stray a bit, who has already separated from his wife.
Partly to please Lucette, he starts an unofficial investigation when she says that her husband had no reasons to be on the A35 as he had the habit of ‘supping’ with his colleagues that particular day, every week. In no time, Gorski finds out that the solicitor had used his ‘ routine supper’ as a cover up to hide something from his wife. What was it? His further investigation reveals that the solicitor had withdrawn a huge amount of money on that day when he was killed.
Besides, he also thinks the solicitor has something to do with the murder of a woman at Strasbourg which happened the same day he got killed in the accident.
On the other hand, Solicitor's young son Raymond also begins a parallel investigation when he gets a paper neatly tucked
in a table of his father's study that bore the address of some woman.
The narration has the pace of a serious classic crime literature. I also felt a strong resemblance between James’ detective Cordelia Gray and Gorski especially when it comes to their vulnerability. He has delved deeply into the characters of Gorski and Raymond. To talk more about the latter, his troubled psyche has been analysed meticulously and Raymond evolves through the story.
Will it be far-fetched if I say Raymond resembles ‘Mersaul’t from Albert Camu’s ‘ The Stranger’- You decide.
The writing is like honey dripping from the comb. But what puzzles me is that though it is called a crime fiction, it does not actually fit the description.
The real objective of crime noir is the restoration of order. Here, though some situations are straightened out, there are some more mess to be cleaned up.
The author leaves his readers midway as ‘ the Murder on the A35 has a open ending. I am perfectly fine if there’s a sequel.
So, will there be a sequel ?
PS : This is a review copy, I received from Bee books, Kolkata
by Shalet Jimmy
