Genre: Comic mystery

Publication: Steerforth Press, September 1, 2020

The delightful first title in a new collaboration with Channel 4’s Walter Presents: a fast-paced comic mystery enriched by a deep love of books

In the small town of Crozon in Brittany, a library houses manuscripts that were rejected for publication: the faded dreams of aspiring writers. Visiting while on holiday, young editor Delphine Despero is thrilled to discover a novel so powerful that she feels compelled to bring it back to Paris to publish it.

The book is a sensation, prompting fevered interest in the identity of its author – apparently one Henri Pick, a now-deceased pizza chef from Crozon. Sceptics cry that the whole thing is a hoax: how could this man have written such a masterpiece? An obstinate journalist, Jean-Michel Rouche, heads to Brittany to investigate.

By turns farcical and moving, The Mystery of Henri Pick is a fast-paced comic mystery enriched by a deep love of books – and of the authors who write them. (from Amazon)

My thoughts

In a word: irritating.

It’s not so much that the book irritated me (though it often did) as that I’m irritated with myself. If I had read the blurb carefully enough, I would have seen the word farcical and never requested it. Farcical rarely, if ever, works for me. It didn’t here, either.

The premise sounds intriguing. Insights into the publishing industry, a sensational masterpiece found in obscurity, and a library of rejected manuscripts! What could pique the interest of a writer more than that?

The observations about publishing and writing ring true even as they are inserted into otherwise absurd situations. I liked the commentary on writers, especially failed ones.

But the characters themselves irritated me. I knew the situations were supposed to be absurd, the characters were intended to be quirky, etc. But so many things irked me. For example, when a character jokes that her parents being a French teacher and a math teacher is the reason for her “schizophrenia,” it’s not funny. It’s irritating and in bad taste, if not downright offensive, and there were more things like this.

Sure, it’s supposed to be a joke. Sure, humor is in the ear of the hearer. Sure, some people are touchy and too easily offended. But still, these little things add up over time and can harm just as much as amuse. I recently read something along the lines of, we’re free to write what we want, but free does not mean that anything goes.

Literary references

There are multiple references to literature. Normally, I love this sort of thing. But I wasn’t really familiar with the authors; most appeared to be French. (Despite my literature degree, my classes focused on British and American writers.)

So the implications of these particular references puzzled me, just as references to Bleak House or Pride and Prejudice would bewilder those unfamiliar with Dickens and Austen. I didn’t understand if the references are humorous or not. When the author describes someone as looking like “someone who would adore The Lover by Marguerite Duras,” I had no idea what he meant. What does that mean for this character? I have no idea.

(I could google it, of course. But I’d have to interrupt my reading, and whatever results the search engine gave me might or might not help.)

Unfortunate. This is a translation, of course, so perhaps the author assumed the French audience would pick up on the implications. But the references felt like insider jokes, with me, the reader, stuck outside, wondering if the joke was worth understanding.

Plot

The plot ambles along, pleasantly enough, never really gathering energy or making much of an impact. When the final plot twist comes, it’s not that interesting. It’s supposed to be making a statement, rather too obviously. But it felt so listless that I merely shrugged my shoulders and felt as though I’d wasted my time on a book with a trick ending.

Overall

In short, this book wasn’t what I expected, which is my fault for not reading the blurb carefully enough. Even so, I did my best to like and understand the book. But while it had some interesting thoughts on publishing and writers, that wasn’t enough to compensate for my problems with it.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from Steerforth Press and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. I was not required to write a positive review.