[ZJZ]∎ Libro Dead Horsemeat Dominique Manotti Amanda Hopkinson 9781900850827 Books

Dead Horsemeat Dominique Manotti Amanda Hopkinson 9781900850827 Books

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Dead Horsemeat Dominique Manotti Amanda Hopkinson 9781900850827 Books

ABSOLUTELY RIVETING AND TERRIFIC! This is the second Dominique Manotti novel I've read in less than a week and it doesn't disappoint. A police procedural novel set in France in the second half of 1989. A major corporation changes direction, seeks to shift its investment portfolio more into property acquisition (given the rising prices at the time) and takes on more aggressive leadership. The web widens into money laundering, drug trafficking with a Colombian and Italian angle, government corruption, murder, and the sometimes murky world of horse racing. Taken together, they make for a rollicking, engaging, and pulse-raising experience. Reader: if you're looking for excitement and a well-crafted tale, you've come to the right novel.


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Dead Horsemeat Dominique Manotti Amanda Hopkinson 9781900850827 Books Reviews

In addition to Dead Horsemeat, Manotti is the author of The Lorraine Connection, Rough Trade, Affairs of State, and Cop. Her novels, which are usually set in the recent past, highlight the corruption and patronage at the upper crustiest levels of French society and business. She does this brilliantly, without being didactic or preachy, and even names names. I don't know anything about French libel laws, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that she's had angry avocats knocking at her door from time to time.

But Manotti isn't just a one trick pony. Her plotting is complex and layered, and unlike some crime writers who include a political angle to their work, Manotti isn't afraid to also pile on lots of action and sex (gay and straight). Her prose is muscular and, when need be, witty, and like any self-respecting French writer she's always game for a loving description of Paris or food.

Manotti's best work so far is Dead Horsemeat, the second of three novels featuring Inspector Daquin. Daquin is tough, honest, smart, quite willing to bust heads, and also ready to bend, even break, the law to get the job done. He's also openly and enthusiastically gay. In short, he blows all those moody Scandinavian police detectives out of the water.

Dead Horsemeat is about a cocaine smuggling ring that, in part, operates out of a Paris horse racing track and supplies well-heeled customers. There's actually a hell of a lot more plot than that, almost too much, so you'd better pay close attention and not put the book down for more than a day. Manotti keeps the action moving at lightning speed, and one of the highlights is the burning of a horse stable, which leads to the image of horses covered in flames racing through a woods at night. This isn't something Dick Francis' wife would write.

Some readers might not appreciate Manotti's politics (well left of centre), and others might just find her too ballsy and gritty, but right now I can't think of a contemporary crime writer who's her equal.

You can read more of my reviews at JettisonCocoon dot com.
One of things I always wonder about when I read a translation (by two people), is whether the writer is better than the translation or vice versa. Having read 'Rough Trade' (which was translated by a different team) I'm going to go with the idea that the writer has been discredited by the translators. For an American, who has read many translations (especially Scandinavian authors) by British translators, I've learned to adjust for the difference in idioms between ourselves and our cousins across the 'Pond'. But there is no 'flow' to this book. It's choppy and just plain circuitous in parts. I got the impression that the translators worked on separate sections and never spoke to each other or read the whole book. The original book was written in 1997 about events that occurred in 1989, but wasn't translated until 2006. I got the feeling that the translators had 'no feel' for the times of the book.

The original events of the book happened in 1968 and focuses on a group of radical leftist students from that time. It's the relationships from that time when the left was being suppressed by the 'Gaulist' government that the group relationships were formed. Move forward thirty years and it's now 1989 and the Socialists are in power and like China under Deng Xiaoping, making money by those on the left is now in style. The old '68s have become the power in France under Mitterand. If none of what I've written above makes any sense to you, the book is going to be difficult to understand.

The main protagonist of the book is Daquin who is a Superintendent in the Paris Police in charge of their drug squad (called the Drugs Squad by the translators, which is the English equivalent). Daquin and his inspectors are looking for a drug connection between Columbia, France and Italy, where France is the 'go-between' area. It is suspected by Daquin, after some 'mules' are caught in a sting that their is a connection to horse racing and breeding and the smuggling of drugs. This leads Daquin and his group to one of old '68ers and to more and more of the old leftist group.

This is an 'artichoke' investigation (as each leaf is peeled off it lead to the next question and person) and you have to pay strict attention as to what is said by the characters and especially the investigators when the meet to talk about the case. Most of the story flows well (in spite of the translation) but their is one outstanding coincidence that may be blamed on the author as to convenient. C'est la vie. All in all though it's very intense and speaks directly to the problems of the French system of government and how old-school ties can be used to hide a myriad of blunders.

Zeb Kantrowitz
ABSOLUTELY RIVETING AND TERRIFIC! This is the second Dominique Manotti novel I've read in less than a week and it doesn't disappoint. A police procedural novel set in France in the second half of 1989. A major corporation changes direction, seeks to shift its investment portfolio more into property acquisition (given the rising prices at the time) and takes on more aggressive leadership. The web widens into money laundering, drug trafficking with a Colombian and Italian angle, government corruption, murder, and the sometimes murky world of horse racing. Taken together, they make for a rollicking, engaging, and pulse-raising experience. Reader if you're looking for excitement and a well-crafted tale, you've come to the right novel.