Blood-Red Rivers (The Blood-red Rivers - Jean-Christophe Grange)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	The Blood-red Rivers - Jean-Christophe Grange
Date:	25/10/03 (101 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A page turner which sustains interest

Disadvantages: **

Although I like crime fiction, it takes more than a whodunnit to keep me happily reading a detective story. Much as I enjoy tv's Midsomer Murders I would not take an episode off the shelf. Jean-Christophe Grangé's Blood-Red Rivers has all I need to keep me turning pages as I wonder where on earth it is leading. A terribly mutilated corpse, which had been sadistically tortured before the victim's death, is found wedged behind a rock high in the French Alps above the university town of Guernon. Meanwhile 230 miles to the west a school has been broken into without any apparent theft and the tomb of 10 year old Jude Ithero has been disturbed.

Piere Niemans, a Paris Superintendent is sent to investigate the murder, while the lesser crimes are given over to a young policeman, Karim Abdouf. Although far apart in status and location, the two men are mavericks. Niemans, an ex-commando, has once again allowed his violent reactions to threaten his career and the dour and eccentric Abdouf, a second generation Arab, is a loner over- sensitive to his ethnic birth. As Karim, against his superior officer's wishes, digs deeper into what appear to be two routine local enquiries his dogged insistence leads him to other seemingly connected happenings since the death of the child 14 years ago. Who was the mysterious nun remembered only by her sweet voice who arrived suddenly in the locality so many years before, called upon the parents of the primary school and then disappeared? Why have all records of the pupils of 1982/3 been removed?

In Guernon the murder victim is identified as university librarian, Rémy Callois and a guoulish clue left on the body takes Neimans on a hair raising trip high upon and within a glacier, guided by the extraordinary young lecturer Fanny Ferreira. When another body is found Neimans is convinced that these are not random killings, but either ritual or revenge. But why or for wh
at?

Grangé's book contains so much on which to ponder including the fact that the lecturers, followed by their children, have taken all the top honours at the university. This would not seem unusual given their rarified academic upbringing if it were not that these awards are also those for sporting activities. Here there seems an elite, a clan of perfection despite an inbred genetic pool in this remote area. The impressive Fanny is part of the fellowship as is the beautiful, aggressively unco-operative and frightened Sophie Callois, widow of the original murder victim. In Sophie's apartment written in blood is the inscription "I shall reach the blood-red rivers". What can this mean and what significance does it have for the investigation? Could it be something to do with the fact that Rémy, as head librarian, had placed students in strictly regulated study areas? Of what had he been guilty? How was the second victim, hospital auxiliary Philippe Sertys, connected to the silent and introverted academic Rémy Callois? What had a respected eye consultant to do with all this and what was he hiding?

Meanwhile, Karim's convoluted trail from a school to a convent and finally a reclusive mother pursued by demons brings him closer to the truth about a child's death and a startling revelation. As he steadily draws closer to Guernon, he unwittingly brings with him the missing segments of the mystery in the Alps.

This is a book the conclusion of which cannot possibly be guessed by the reader. The plot is intricate and imaginative yet never muddled. As we join Niemans in his investigation of present day crimes and follow Karim as he delves into the past we are smoothly taken from one to the other and back again without any feeling of disjointment.

Our two detectives, one already a legend among his peers and the other at the beginning of his career have much in common. Both are tough
capable loners yet do not lack compassion and, as I became familiar with their personalties and thinking, appreciated the opportunity to accompany them as we drew closer to the slayer and became aware of an abominable conspiracy.

I shall not tell you more as this would spoil for you a detective story which I could not put down. The lack of innocence of the victims helped me view their dreadful deaths without too much disturbance of my sensitivities and, although I wasn't jerked into the conclusion it came as a complete surprise. At first I felt a vague disappointment that the ending should be just a little far-fetched. Then, mulling back over the book, realised that all of the parts had led to a believable whole and we shouldn't knock originality.

I highly recommend Blood-Red Rivers which is available from Amazon. The French may send us horrible apples, but they do write superb crime stories.


Note. There appear to be two titles to this book. The one I have reviewed and another with "The" preceding. Possibly a difference in translation and I am recommending the title which I used.

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