Ne lache pas ma main (French Edition)

jusqu'au dernier moment on est bluffé! comme toujours avec Michel Bussi. un dépaysement total et une intrigue très bien ficelée.à recommander!!

surprenant la fin, mais .....

Good book. Lots of suspense

As a long-term resident of Reunion for more than 20 years I was pretty disappointed with this book. There are too many inexact clichés about the Reunionese people, a lot of the geographical details don't make sense, and some of the "Reunion Creole" words and proverbs are unknown in Reunion (they're probably French Caribbean Creole). Add to that a sexist attitude, a storyline that you can guess, and a majority of the characters who are unlikeable and you have little reason to enjoy this book. This was the first book by best-selling French author Michel Bussi that I've read; it will very probably be the last.

On holiday in the French tropical paradise of Réunion, Liane Bellion disappears from her hotel room, leaving only evidence of a struggle. As the damning evidence against him mounts, her husband Martial decides to go on the run with the couple’s pampered but bright six-year-old daughter Sopha. This being a novel by Michel Bussi, Martial is unlikely to have murdered his wife, but is unable to prove his innocence, plus he could well have committed some other crime, or be about to do so.In the same vein as Bussi’s excellent “Nymphéas noirs”, this novel has a remarkably convoluted plot in which the reader can be sure of nothing, except that the author is capable of switching from corny mawkishness to moments of brutal violence or tragic fate from which no character may be spared. Once again, he develops a strong sense of place, in this case a volcanic island with some striking landscapes of deep craters, lava fields encroaching on fields of sugar cane and palm-fringed beaches, scenic tourist spots, which he describes in detail along with the local vegetation and birdlife – all of which can be checked on google images. Even the route Martial takes can be located on “street view”, and the Hotel Alamanda at Saint-Gilles-les-Bains exists in reality.Bussi also fleshes the story out with details of the social background: the Créoles, descendants of slaves and still exploited as cheap labour in the hotels, the Zarabes, muslims of Indian origin like the driven police officer, Captain Aja Purvi, and the Zoreilles, the “top dogs” from the French mainland.This is a page-turner until the accumulation of implausible plot twists becomes too much to swallow and by then it is too late to give up. There is also the odd dud scene, such as the clunky debate on the effects of rum on the local population conducted by the hypocritical drinking mates of unlikely police lieutenant Christos. Even more toe-curling are the sex scenes with his voluptuous lover Imelda.Most of the characters seem somewhat overdrawn: ageing hippy Christos, with his grey pony-tail, smoking pot he has confiscated from Imelda’s borderline-criminal teenage son Nazir; Imelda herself, a Creole Miss Marple to out-class the detectives, but not wise enough to avoid having five children by different feckless men, nor keep clear of danger in her sleuthing; Aja Purvi, humourless in her single-minded ambition, throwing the furniture round in bursts of unprofessional frustration, exploiting her long-suffering husband’s seemingly inexhaustible good will as he somehow combines a teaching career with caring for their two daughters.The slightly jokey tone perhaps makes one take the occasional bloody murder too lightly. The strongest aspect of the book is the creation of a sense of tension as Martial and Sopha maintain their freedom against the odds. The only subtle relationship in the book is the complex bond between the two as Martial tries to connect with the daughter whose care has always been provided by his overprotective wife, with the constant nagging suggestion that Martial may in fact be even more of a monster than the police believe.This reads best in the original French and proves a good source of vocabulary for a foreign reader. For the reasons given above, it is not as effective as “Nymphéas noirs”.

Wow, what a disappointment from the author of the excellent Black Water Lillies. Stock characters, an improbable plot, false tension and a fuzzy view of morality. All ete in a French Indian ocean paradise and written by an author who is very fond of his own coolness.

the usual suspense from Michel Bussi I love it.

Great plot! However, the choice of vocabulary is too stereotypical for a reader who is not familiar with the culture. It took effort not to abandon this book due to unnecessary local detail.

Bussi schreibt spannend, und ich habe das Buch bis zuletzt nicht aus der Hand gelegt. Allerdings wirken einige Ereignisse eher unwahrscheinlich, manchmal etwas an den Haaren herbeigezogen. So wie einige Fernsehkrimis, bei denen der Gute immer siegt - und es auch nicht immer klar ist, wie unmögliche Sachen möglich gemacht wurden.Halt eine nette Geschichte, wenn man am Strand oder sonstwo im Urlaub nebenbei etwas Spannendes lesen will, ohne allzugroßen Anspruch auf Plausibilität.