THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADELE BEDEAU by Graeme Macrae Burnet
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ADELE BEDEAU, a dark and elegantly written literaray crime novel, is set in a small Alsatian town as drab as the book’s protagonist. Here Manfred Baumann plods through his never-varying daily routine: lunch at the Restaurant de la Cloche, bridge game with the boys on Thursdays, a surreptitious visit to a brothel once a week, where he manages to accomplish his mission fully clothed while his ‘partner’ remains almost motionless.
Burnet’s attention to detail and the precision with which he builds the character of Manfred and his nemesis, Detective Gorski, make for a fascinating and compelling read. Skillfully, Burnet pits them against each other, the unstable loner Manfred and the dogged Gorski, still tormented by the murder case he was unable to solve years ago.
The novel is also a cautionary tale about the perils of spending too much time immersed in one’s own dark thoughts, and Baumann’s mind is clearly a dangerous place to dwell. Adrift in an ocean of beer, wine, and paranoia, he fancies the world is watching. Should he deviate from even the smallest detail of his routine – say, ordering a different dish on the day he habitually orders something else – he frets that this will elicit gasps of amazement from the restaurant’s other patrons and soon become town-wide gossip. Comical at first, it becomes more sinister as we learn more about Baumann’s early life, his controlling and contemptuous grandfather, and the dreadful secret he carries with him.
Where the novel falls short is in the lack of attention paid to its female characters. Alhough Adele Bedeau’s disappearance provides the catalyst for all that follows, in her brief appearance in the book, she’s a cipher, a sullen young woman who apparently dislikes her job and has a secret boyfriend, but little else. Even Baumann, who obsessively observes her, acknowledges he’s never given any thought to what her life is like or who she is. There’s also a brief and rather puzzling love interest for Baumann that, given his personality, goes about where you’d expect it to, and a look at Gorski’s snobbish and unpleasant wife who regrets her marriage to a lowly law enforcement officer.
Although once the mystery is solved, some readers may be tempted to skip the Afterward, don’t do this, for Burnet isn’t done with us yet. He provides an entire history of the novel’s supposed author, one ‘Raymond Brunet” who had a life oddly similar to Manfred’s.
Altogether a gripping little mystery, both stylish and macabre!
Burnet’s attention to detail and the precision with which he builds the character of Manfred and his nemesis, Detective Gorski, make for a fascinating and compelling read. Skillfully, Burnet pits them against each other, the unstable loner Manfred and the dogged Gorski, still tormented by the murder case he was unable to solve years ago.
The novel is also a cautionary tale about the perils of spending too much time immersed in one’s own dark thoughts, and Baumann’s mind is clearly a dangerous place to dwell. Adrift in an ocean of beer, wine, and paranoia, he fancies the world is watching. Should he deviate from even the smallest detail of his routine – say, ordering a different dish on the day he habitually orders something else – he frets that this will elicit gasps of amazement from the restaurant’s other patrons and soon become town-wide gossip. Comical at first, it becomes more sinister as we learn more about Baumann’s early life, his controlling and contemptuous grandfather, and the dreadful secret he carries with him.
Where the novel falls short is in the lack of attention paid to its female characters. Alhough Adele Bedeau’s disappearance provides the catalyst for all that follows, in her brief appearance in the book, she’s a cipher, a sullen young woman who apparently dislikes her job and has a secret boyfriend, but little else. Even Baumann, who obsessively observes her, acknowledges he’s never given any thought to what her life is like or who she is. There’s also a brief and rather puzzling love interest for Baumann that, given his personality, goes about where you’d expect it to, and a look at Gorski’s snobbish and unpleasant wife who regrets her marriage to a lowly law enforcement officer.
Although once the mystery is solved, some readers may be tempted to skip the Afterward, don’t do this, for Burnet isn’t done with us yet. He provides an entire history of the novel’s supposed author, one ‘Raymond Brunet” who had a life oddly similar to Manfred’s.
Altogether a gripping little mystery, both stylish and macabre!
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