The Messenger
A Novel
-
- $17.99
-
- $17.99
Publisher Description
A stylish, mind-racing literary thriller set in the dark heart of Paris, by a break-out new talent in crime fiction.
After moving back to Paris to live with his French dad, Alex Giraud is struggling to fit in among the kids of the rich elite at his exclusive school and he feels stifled by the expectations of his overbearing father. Eddy Giraud used to be one of the most fearless journalists in Paris, but his professional and personal disappointments have made him a cynical, opportunistic man who has little patience for his son’s lack of ambition.
Desperate to escape the increasingly suffocating atmosphere at home, Alex seeks freedom in the French metropolis where his new-found friend Sami teaches him the rules of the street. But everything has a price—and one night of rebellion changes their lives forever. A simple plan for a robbery takes a sinister turn when Alex’s father is found dead.
Despite protesting their innocence, Alex and Sami are imprisoned for murder. Seven years later, Alex is released from prison with a single purpose: discover who really killed his father.
As he searches for answers, Alex is tormented by his sense of guilt for his father (and for Sami) and, as he begins to uncover the truth about his father’s killer, other shocking revelations with far-reaching consequences come to light. Will Alex be able to survive his own personal demons and, after all this time, bring the murderer to justice?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A man investigates his father's homicide after serving time for the crime in Davis's woolly debut thriller. Sixteen-year-old Alex Giraud has trouble acclimating when he and his dad, journalist Eddy, return to Paris following a decade in America. To appease his private-school bullies, Alex supplies them with drugs purchased from street-savvy petty criminal Sami Lantou. Then a deal goes wrong, and Alex and Sami's scheme to pay their debts by robbing Eddy results in their arrests for his murder. Eddy was alive when Alex and Sami left him, and Alex feels certain someone else killed him, but he helps convict Sami in exchange for leniency. Seven years later, Alex is a free man, but he can't move on until he exonerates Sami and catches the true culprit. In alternating timelines, Davis details the events preceding Eddy's death and Alex's present-day investigation. She paints a gritty portrait of Paris, and her dizzyingly complex plot touches on issues of classism, nationalism, and propaganda, but two-dimensional characters and a saggy, meandering middle lessen the impact. This ambitious debut bites off more than it can chew.
