Blake Knox, a young Australian working on his novel in France, finds himself in a police cell, caught up in a crime that echoes scenes from his own manuscript. As Inspecteur Sauveur pores over the details of the case, the facts ceaselessly point to the author. Blake’s secret liaison with an Icelandic beauty and the intimate familiarity of the Provence setting of his manuscript are only the beginning…
Will Blake be jailed for a murder he believed was just part of a good story? And what will his fiancée make of this?
From the author of A Ticket for Perpetual Locomotion, this story will dazzle adventurers and armchair detectives alike.
IP (Interactive Publications Pty Ltd) –
It is, sometimes, the case that crime stories end before they quite get going. We work them out half-way through and will only read the second half to confirm what we already know. The crime is the hook and the exciting murder/drama should begin at the beginning of the book and like any good affair, keep us on our toes till the final line. And location, location, location – the more ordinary the setting the more shocking the crime – when a pair of tramps fight a territorial battle in the foyer of a five-star hotel, we sit up.
These are the challenges asked of Australian author, Geoffrey Gates, who sets his crime novel in a village in the south of France. Blake Knox, like many young Australian English teachers, heads for London with the bones of writing in his head – but only the bones. The author takes us into the uncertain world of a London classroom where he portrays Blake as a positive if somewhat immature young man from Sydney. He, naturally, has to fall in love and does so with the beautiful, privileged Elizabeth – to his surprise, she falls for him. He hasn’t written a line but introduces himself as a writer. She is suitably impressed to the extent that she gets engaged to him, supports his dream and encourages him to take his talent to a village, Piegon, in the south of France. We have a perfect setting.
The novel begins, here, when the would-be author finds himself being woken, by a policeman, on a gravestone slab after a night of alcoholic indulgence during which he, somehow, suffers a blow to his head. This might not have been all that dramatic, except for the fact that the name on the headstone was that of the artist, Genet, who’d, recently, been murdered. Blake’s difficulties are compounded by his involvement with the beautiful language student, Birna, from Iceland, as well as the discovery that the murder in his crime-story manuscript is a carbon copy of the method used to murder Genet. How could he not have done it?
As is usual, a good deal of questioning ensues and Blake’s situation become more precarious. The truth of his involvement with Birna and his blueprint for murder would seem to portray a very fragile, volatile personality. He is, naturally, gutted: publicly humiliated and exposed as an unfaithful cheat in the presence of the loyal Elizabeth and his overwhelmed parents. Days must seem eternities to a confused teacher with aspiration to be a writer, incarcerated in a foreign land without language; in a different legal system facing an inevitable conviction and sentence – a seemingly hopeless situation.
Geoffrey Gates has a beautiful writing style employing prose and dialogue to convey facts and information while, at the same time, holding our attention as the story thunders along. The reader is never ahead of the action. My only reason for reading some sentences more than once was to admire the distinctive style and mastery of language everywhere in evidence.
The characters are compelling. Inspecteur Sauveur is a gentleman, at all times, with an assistant of limited intelligence and big muscles. We feel for and with Blake in his seemingly hopeless situation and process of maturation. The young women in the story are lovely. The novel is not without its sad moments but it is, above all, hugely exciting – a great read.
– Terry McDonagh, author of The Road Out and A Song for Joanna
The Copyart Murders by Geoffrey Gates