Tuesday 19 July 2016

The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair


The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker

Published by Quercus

Paperback Edition

7th May 2015

 



August 30, 1975. The day of the disappearance. The day Somerset, New Hampshire, lost its innocence.

That summer, struggling author Harry Quebert fell in love with fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan. Thirty-three years later, her body is dug up from his yard, along with a manuscript copy of the novel that made him a household name. Quebert is the only suspect.

Marcus Goldman - Quebert's most gifted protégé - throws off his writer's block to clear his mentor's name. Solving the case and penning a new bestseller soon merge into one. As his book begins to take on a life of its own, the nation is gripped by the mystery of 'The Girl Who Touched the Heart of America'.

But with Nola, in death as in life, nothing is ever as it seems.



What can I say, it’s another Richard & Judy book that had me gripped from the very start.  I loved this story and I actually couldn’t tell that it was a translation which sometimes you can.  Joel Dicker has written a good and clever novel. The chapters descend rather than ascend so you kind-of get the end of the story before you get the beginning of it but it is a great thriller; not the dark, spooky sort that makes you afraid, but more of a grown-up ‘whodunnit’ and we all know I love those.

Marcus Goldman was the man who everyone wanted to be when his first novel was published. However soon the public are baying for his eagerly awaited second book and he is having a hard time finding any inspiration to get started.  He decides, as the pressure is mounting in New York, for a bit of r&r at his old lecturer’s house and that is where our story takes hold.  Harry Quebert was once an author who wrote a fantastic novel and was then never heard of again in the literary world.  What happened to the man who wrote the bestseller The Origin of Evil? 


You see, Harry was once in love, with a young girl called Nola, only their love was forbidden and Harry harbours a dark secret that he has never revealed, until now.  Marcus finds himself on a journey to find out more about the man he has admired for years, and the man who he now sits opposite in a prison.  Can they really be one and the same?  Delving deep into the lives of the people of Somerset, Marcus wants to discover the truth, no matter what the odds may be.  Only someone seems to want to stop him from doing so.



This is a great page-turner and I think a fab holiday book too.  Take it to the airport, begin it on the plane and keep going until you discover the truth – who did kill Nola Kellergan.  I know.



Happy Reading



Miss Chapter x

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