- Paperback: 160 pages
- Publisher: Serpent's Tail; 5-star Ed edition (11 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1852427957
- ISBN-13: 978-1852427955
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 385,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"'Murder in Memoriam is the kind of book that begins to restore one's confidence in the detective story. Not only has Daeninckx produced a particularly intriguing narrative, but he has found a way to give this narrative a satisfying significance... A touch of moral vision and a pinch of righteous anger work wonders' Nick Hornby, The European; 'How many detective stories have helped a country confront its past? Murder in Memoriam has certainly done that' Guardian; 'Didier Daeninckx is a novelist, magician and archaeologist prince... a frightening book' Jerome Charyn; 'Serves as a tap on the shoulder - a necessary reminder that what is dead is not buried, and what is buried is, unfortunately, not dead' Derek Raymond"
Product Description
Didier Daeninckx?s chilling novel created uproar when it was first published in France in 1984. It is set against the backdrop of a demonstration in Paris in 1961, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Algerians at the hands of the police. In Daeninckx?s story, Roger Thiraud, a young history teacher, is also mysteriously killed during this demonstration. Twenty years later, Bernard, his son, is murdered in Toulouse while on holiday with his girlfriend. To find the connection between the murders, Daeninckx?s hero Inspector Cadin must delve into the secret history and devastating compromises of wartime politics. Murder in Memoriam is a tense and unsettling indictment of France?s hidden past.
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- Well, Said, I'd say you're making them up! Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
- Well, Said, I'd say you're making them up! Read the first page
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is 1984 and young Inspector Cadin is based in Toulouse. He must use all his charm and brass neck to solve an apparently random street shooting. His only clue is the rather strange circumstances of the death of the victim's father who died in riots in Paris in 1961.
This detective story cum police procedural is really cover for a twin-pronged, searing attack on post-War France. It attempts to redress the dubious concensus of silence that fell over both Vichy and the Algerian War.
The description of events at a pro Algerian demonstration in Paris in 1961 were so shocking that I dismissed them. It is understandable why this novel was political dynamite in 1984, yet the events portrayed are now largely officially recognised.
This is an unsettling, provocative read. Shortish and very difficult to ignore from the first page. Not the greatest of pure crime novels if that's what you're after. Is this the sub-genre of 'political crime writing'? Whichever, it did act as a catalyst for further reading.
This detective story cum police procedural is really cover for a twin-pronged, searing attack on post-War France. It attempts to redress the dubious concensus of silence that fell over both Vichy and the Algerian War.
The description of events at a pro Algerian demonstration in Paris in 1961 were so shocking that I dismissed them. It is understandable why this novel was political dynamite in 1984, yet the events portrayed are now largely officially recognised.
This is an unsettling, provocative read. Shortish and very difficult to ignore from the first page. Not the greatest of pure crime novels if that's what you're after. Is this the sub-genre of 'political crime writing'? Whichever, it did act as a catalyst for further reading.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Didier Daeninckx wrote Murder in Memoriam in 1984 and caused a sensation in France. The French have a long history of self-analysis, even if little concrete comes out of it. The collaboration with the Nazis is something that was hidden in bureaucratic archives soon after the Liberation; the brutal suppression of the Algerian independence movement is another blot on their history. The French like to claim that once someone is French, their origins are irrelevant - a fine theory but much remiss in practice. So when crowds of Algerians decided to demonstrate in 1961 against French policy in North Africa, the police clubbed them to death in their hundreds; the ensuing news embargo ensured that the population at large remained ignorant of the truth, and continued to believe that the protestors had been violent (what else to expect from those uncivilised Beurs?). A French teacher on his way home is shot during the demonstrations; twenty years later, his son meets a similar death. Inspector Cadin, an iconoclast if ever there was one, pursues the investigation with single-mindedness, and uncovers dirt on monumental scale suppressed by the powers-that-be. Because it is France, justice can often be denied in favour of power. But Daeninckx is as left-wing an author as they come, and makes no apologies for his revulsion for this kind of national anomie; small wonder that his revelation of the terrible truths of 1961 and earlier created so much angst and outrage among his countrymen. This is a book well worth a read.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Daeninckx is apparently a very prolific mystery writer in his native France, and this book won the "Grand Prix de littérature policière" in 1984. Unfortunately for the non-French reader, much of it depends on a knowledge of-or at least a strong interest in-domestic French politics and infighting following WWII. I had originally picked this up because I had liked another of his books in translation, A Very Profitable War, and this one revolves around a murder that takes place during pro-Algerian demonstrations in 1961 (which sounded intriguing). When the murdered man's son is himself murdered some 20 years later in Toulouse, a local police inspector starts trying to figure if there's a connection between the two killings. Mostly this is an excuse for Daeninckx to highlight some of the lowlights in French civil history, mainly bureaucratic zeal in assisting German occupiers with rounding up Jews, and later the massacre (and subsequent cover-up) of unarmed Algerian demonstrators on October 17, 1961 by French paramilitary police. There's actually quite a lot of interesting political history here, but there are no well-drawn characters, nor decent writing to carry it along. A noble effort at exhuming history that many French, one suspects, would rather leave forgotten, but not the most engaging story.
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