Time Is a Killer
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From the acclaimed author of After the Crash— “Harlan Coben fans will enjoy Bussi’s . . . mystery with its intriguing characters and twisty conclusion” (Library Journal).
A fatal accident in the past, broken lives, family secrets . . . Michel Bussi serves up a gripping thriller, set amid the beautiful scenery of Corsica.
In the summer of 2016, Clotilde is spending her vacation in Corsica with her husband, Franck, and her teenage daughter, Valentine. It is the first time she has been back to the island since the car accident in which her parents and her brother were killed decades earlier. She was in the car too, but miraculously escaped with her life.
This return plunges Clotilde back into the deepest recesses of her adolescence. She reacquaints herself with her paternal grandparents, Lisabetta and Cassanu, members of a powerful Corsican family that reigns over the island.
When a mysterious letter, signed “Palma”—Clotilde’s mother—arrives, the truth about her family, her parents’ death, and her childhood is called into question. Time Is a Killer is a voyage into the complexities of Corsican society, a compelling portrait of a woman’s awakening, and a masterfully executed novel of psychological suspense.
“Michel Bussi’s writing always rings true. His crime novel is a bomb.” —Le Parisien
“Michel Bussi’s psychological crime novels are beyond masterful.” —Le Figaro Littéraire
“Bathed in the perfumes and flavors of Corsica . . . Time Is a Killer will be read with bated breath until the final twist!” —Le Magazine des Livres
“Don’t open these books if you have anything more pressing to do.” —Elle (France)
“Gripping noir.” —Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this gripping noir from Bussi (After the Crash), Clotilde, husband Franck, and their 15-year-old daughter, Valentine, take a vacation in Corsica, where, 27 years earlier, Clotilde survived a car crash that killed her mother, father, and only brother. When she revisits the scene and makes overtures to reconnect with her Corsican grandparents, Clotilde receives a freshly written letter in what appears to be her mother's handwriting that triggers a spate of questions about her family's fate. The dizzying spiral of recall and disconcerting events related to the crash are set off by entries from 15-year-old Clotilde's diary from 1989, charting a narrative of teenage hormones, marital friction, and island politics that peaks with a devastating discovery of parental betrayal that led to the fatal crash. The climactic sequence, on the same fateful stretch of road, is a fine payoff. Bussi takes his time, maybe too much time, setting the stage and ratcheting up the tension between past and present, but manages to resolve most of the tangled relationships while keeping the reader intrigued.
