While the United States is blithely flouting women’s right to abortion, the American Douglas Kennedy offers us a punchy novel.
With this new title, we are told that Douglas Kennedy has returned to the noir novel. True, but up to a point. Because the reality it depicts translates so well what is currently happening in the United States that it would probably be more accurate to speak of a social novel. We let you judge for yourself.
For nearly 30 years, Brendan was a sales manager at a company specializing in optical transport networks. He would still be there if he hadn’t been fired. And as it happened when he was already both feet deep in his 50s, he couldn’t find better than an Uber driver. A demanding job, poorly paid, which requires him to spend more than 60 hours in the congested streets of Los Angeles.
Boom
One day, Brendan will have a certain Elise as a passenger, who must go to Van Nuys. It is just after that his life will change: the building in which his client has entered will indeed explode before his eyes. Not by accident, but because someone threw a Molotov cocktail at it. The reason? This building housed an abortion clinic.
Pro-life, pro-choice, we are in the midst of a debate. For Brendan and Elise – yes, she was able to escape the building in time! – the question does not arise. Except that in a city where anti-abortion activists and Christian extremists are increasingly threatening, the worst can happen at any moment.
Not as great as Bridal Trap or The Man Who Wanted to Live His Life, but good nonetheless. And terribly topical.
About my daughter
If you don’t travel, you can always take refuge in books. This one, which takes place in South Korea, will therefore be able to totally disorient us. Especially since he confronts us with a mother who is a little retrograde, even retro for short: when her only daughter comes to live with her for a while, she will have a lot of trouble understanding – and accepting – her relationship with another woman. . An interesting read that lifts a small veil on Korean society.
The capital serpent
This noir novel, Pierre Lemaitre wrote it in 1985, at the age of 34. And we must admit that it is quite jubilant because it features a 63-year-old professional hitman who should perhaps consider retiring. While she has always been known in the industry to lead things smoothly, her assassinations are indeed starting to be much less careful…
The Backpacker Paris 2022-2023
With its new update, this guide will allow us to discover all the coolest things in Paris: restaurants, bistros, cafes, wine bars or nightclubs that are really worth a visit, the best addresses where sleeping, monuments, museums or places to visit absolutely, etc. The editorial favorites section will also be particularly appreciated.
Cooking on the barbecue with Anne Alassane
To try all the recipes in this book, you should ideally have a Traeger barbecue, which can grill, smoke, roast, bake and braise. You can taste pork ribs with orange (you have to see the picture, it looks so good!), smoked duck breast, tandoori chicken or stuffed veggie cabbage. The little extra? A few dishes that are more French than American, such as semi-cooked smoked foie gras or beef parmentier.
Isle of the Damned
Imagine an island that alternately hosted plague patients – it is said that more than 160,000 people died there over the centuries – and a vast psychiatric hospital abandoned soon after it was built for reasons worthy of a movie. ‘horror. In short, the kind of place that has absolutely nothing idyllic… and that we tend to avoid like the plague! But as part of an experimental project, the French government has decided to send its worst criminals there, those who no longer have the slightest chance of being rehabilitated one day because they are so aggressive, twisted and dangerous.
In the mouth of the wolf
Warrant Officer Joy Morel and her colleague Hoche will be sent to this land of nightmare in the greatest secrecy. Their mission? Mingle with the psychopaths of the island in order to find an undercover psychocriminologist and the cop in charge of her protection, of whom we have not heard from for two weeks already. Which, of course, will be far from easy.
If you like stories full of violence of all kinds (sexual assault, murder, cannibalism, etc.), you’ll be served! The advantage is that it also comes with its share of adrenaline: there are so many twists and turns that it’s hard to get bored!
