I have just read the latest Jacquot book Justice Done. A long gap betwee this one and the last Talking to the Sharks but the wait was worth it.
I will always be grateful to the lovely publisher who sent me a copy some years ago of The Dying Minutes by Martin O'Brien with a note saying "you will love this". I noted that this was 'A Daniel Jacquot Novel' and was all about an ex-rugby playing French detective and set in Marseilles. Gallic shrug from moi and Qui? I opened it and started to read and immediately found myself gripped (or should that be grippe...). My thoughts after reading this title are below and my comments on Daniel and the glorious food described remain the same today.
I remember that after reading a few chapters of Martin O'Brien's book I had this overwhelming desire to catch a flight and fly to Marseilles immediately. My French is of the La Plume de ma tante et sur la table de Mon Oncle variety, I know how to order a cafe au lait, can say Merde with the best of them and that is it, but I had this vision of sitting at a table on the waterfront knocking back a coffee, a Calva, eating freshly grilled fish and smoking a Galois, none of which I would dream of doing in real life. The book reeked of France and the sea and I simply loved it.
I love Daniel Jacquot, he is very sexy..'then she saw him, younger, slimmer than she remembered. Leaning against a pillar, hands in pockets, one foot crossed over the other. A deep tan against a white T-shirt, an old cream jacket, faded blue jeans and espadrilles......A big warm smile as he drew closer, the gleam of his teeth making his tan even deeper....she felt herself caught up in his embrace, his arms about her, hugging her to him, a strange salty smell, mixed with a soapy pine scent...'
See what I mean?
OK and the the food, OMG the food. The descriptions just make you drool. Here is a sample:
"the broth was a creamy yellow, puddled with darker globs of oil, broken with thick flakes of fish, like icebergs, and the more treacherous blackened tips of mussels. He took the broth first, a spoonful of the liquor, blew on it and then tipped it into his mouth. The ocean, that's what it tasted like. Fresh and hot and sweet, the flavour filling his cheeks"
I have now read all of the Jaquot books and loved them all. So when Justice Done arrived I pounced upon it and read it straight through. This story is set in the nineties and goes back to those days when Daniel had just been promoted and before the later stories. I was quite glad of this as later on if you read them all (and you should) he meets Claudine who is one of those women who drives you MAD. She is gorgeous, she is sexy, she is witty, intelligent and a great cook who can knock up a five course meal in half an hour. I freely admit I found her rather irritating after reading about all her perfections book after book. The Brunetti books of Donna Leon also had one of these women and not only could she cook and was gorgeous she read Henry James for fun. I say no more....
At the start of Justice Done a mother is driving frantically to deliver a ransom for her kidnapped son. She loses her way and comes off the main road and, unfortunatly, is stopped and robbed and in the fight to hold onto her briefcase full of the money, she is shot.
The robber makes off with the ransome and is, naturally, delighted at his windfall. Then he is found dead. A chain reaction of murders follow all linked with the money. So who is getting rid of them so systematically? Throw into the mix the step-father of the kidnapped child, a cold and chilly individual who does not seem at all bothered by the kidnapping or the death of his wife, and you have an intriguing mix.
Daniel is an ex-Rugby player who is famous for a well recorded try in an interational Rugby match. In the last few weeks I have been reading books by Martin Walker, about Bruno a local policeman and set in the Dordogne. Bruno plays in the rugby team and in one of the later books a certain Jacquot is playing in a local game. So I wonder if Martin Walker has read these books too....
Love Jacquot and hope lots more to come.
Recent Comments