6 July 2015

Review #264: After the Crash by Michel Bussi



My rating: 4 of 5 stars


“The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”


----Oscar Wilde


Michel Bussi, a French award-winning author, pens his latest crime thriller, Un avion sans elle, that has been translated into English by Sam Taylor and the English title is called, After the Crash. The mystery revolves around the identity of the youngest survivor of a plane crash accident among 169 passengers aboard that happened eighteen years ago, and now in the present, the detective, who was assigned to find out the identity of the girl, is now laying down his pen and have finished jotting down each and every clues of this unraveling mystery from every possible angles, is ready to take his last breath by killing himself, when he stumbles upon the last piece of that mystery which stops him from killing himself.





Synopsis:

On the night of 22 December 1980, a plane crashes on the Franco-Swiss border and is engulfed in flames. 168 out of 169 passengers are killed instantly. The miraculous sole survivor is a three-month-old baby girl. Two families, one rich, the other poor, step forward to claim her, sparking an investigation that will last for almost two decades. Is she Lyse-Rose or Emilie?

Eighteen years later, having failed to discover the truth, private detective Credule Grand-Duc plans to take his own life, but not before placing an account of his investigation in the girl's hands. But, as he sits at his desk about to pull the trigger, he uncovers a secret that changes everything - then is killed before he can breathe a word of it to anyone...



18 years ago,
A planes crashes on Mont Terri that was flying from Istanbul to Paris with 169 passengers aboard. The only survivor is a three-month old baby girl who just before landing was thrown out of the cockpit and into the snow-laden plains of Mont Terri who must have even watched her parents along with other passengers consumed by the fire. Soon a fire-rescuer rescues her from the wreckage site and is taken to a hospital where after a day or two, her grandfather comes to take her home and claims her name to be Lyse-Rose de Carville and on the very same time, another grandfather calls the hospital to know about her health and claims her name to be Emilie Vitral. The confused doctor asks both of them to contact the local authorities before claiming her, thereby opening the doors to an eighteen year old unsolved mystery about a three-month old baby's real identity. Who is she, Lyse-Rose or Emilie?

18 years later,
Credule Grand-Duc is the PI hired by Mathilde de Carville, grandmother of Lyse-Rose, to find out the baby's identity discreetly. But 18 years later, the man is giving up the unsolved mystery and just the moment when he was about to pull the trigger to shoot his brains off, he stumbles upon the very last piece of puzzle that uncovers the girl's identity. What did Grand-Duc stumbled upon that stopped him from taking his own life?

Lylie is now 18 lives and studies at University of Paris and on the day of her 18th birthday, she is left with a green notebook which is the journal of Credule Grand-Duc, on which the detective have meticulously and intricately laid out his thorough investigation regarding her real identity that the detective have promised right at the end of the journal. Reading which made Lylie distance herself from her caring and loving brother, Marc. How is he going to take the truth about Lylie's identity whom he loved like a girlfriend all throughout his life?

Before writing any further thing about this book, I would take a moment to applaud the writer for penning such a mind-blowing as well as hypnotic and thoroughly anticipative thriller that goes beyond any words to express my real feelings about this book, where the twists came like a slap out of nowhere on my face and left me with a burning feeling till another twist hit me right on my face.

Yes, this proves the author uses his intelligence and smartness to layer this heavily complex psychological as well as crime thriller and make it one hell of a gripping and edgy read for his readers. The writing is top class, very layered and the story building is quite structured like a LEGO puzzle, each piece dependent on one another. The prose is eloquent and crisp to comprehend with. The narrative style is kept engaging and free-flowing. And just right from the very beginning or right from the epilogue, the readers will feel captivated enough to stay glued to the story till the very last page.

The mystery is very enticing enough that will make the readers to keep turning the pages till the very end. And the way the author have wrapped and unraveled his mystery with a bit of emotional drama as well as based on the facts makes it a completely nail-biting read for crime fiction readers. The flaw that I faced while reading this book was that before even halfway through the story, I guessed the mind-blowing twist-filled climax, I mean, it became very obvious, and I can bet, like me, other readers too will find it easy to guess that last piece of the puzzle, but that doesn't make the book lose it's charm, since there is an almost heart-breaking love story that runs on the background of the mystery and each clue towards the truth makes it heavy upon that relationship, that the author have sensitively featured, careful not to irk up the anger among his readers with such an unusual sort of chemistry.

The characterization is done strongly, like each and every character is trying to outrun one another with their intriguing and constantly challenging demeanor towards this mystery, which have certainly ruined the minds and hearts of a lot of people. The protagonist, Marc, is very calm, calculative and kind as well as determined to finish reading the journal to know about Lylie's identity, while going through each and every piece of puzzle that the detective have pointed out in his journal. The other characters, where some are psychologically flawed or left destroyed by this war between two families to claim that little child, are strongly sketched as well as portrayed through the story, that is sure to leave an impressionistic mark after reading the book.

The backdrop of the thriller is set in Paris and the author have vividly brought out the Parisian charm and flair through his prose, thus giving the readers a first hand taste of the Parisian environment. No the cultural aspect or behavioral aspects of Paris have not been depicted into the storyline, but the location strongly smells of Paree air and with a detailed descriptions of each stations and streets in Paris, will easily transport the readers to this beautiful destination in the world, where beauty is not that significant but the roads and the houses are. The detailed descriptions about Mont Terri of Jura Mountains over the French-Swiss border plays a pivotal role in the key to this mystery, thus bringing out it's colors as well as the differences between two timelines is very distinct. There is also another location, Istanbul in Turkey, that the author have strikingly painted it in his backdrop while spinning the web of twisted mystery in his storyline.

In a nutshell, I'm really glad that I got to read this book even though the mystery couldn't challenge me give the book a 5 star rating, still, I think it's very interesting as well as enthralling thriller that is surely going to keep the readers glued like a moth to find the light in the middle of darkness.

Verdict: Must read for all the crime lovers, that evokes the sense and essence of a particular location quite strongly through it's prose.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author's, Michel Bussi, publicist from Hachette, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book. 
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Author Info:
Michel Bussi is a French author and political scientist, Professor of Geography at the University of Rouen. He specializes in electoral geography.
Visit him here


Book Purchase Links:

3 comments:

  1. I love a good crime thriller and this one sounds like it was amazingly thought of and made up. And that cover is great as well <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can definitely get behind a good crime read. I think I might actually like this one! Great review!

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