The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay

The City of Blood by Frédérique Molay
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Twenty-seven years after burying the leftovers of a banquet in an art project, the place is excavated, but together with the leftovers, a body is found. Who is the dead person and who killed him?

The hardest thing for me with this book was keeping track on all the people, there were a lot of names and I don't know if it was because they were French or just so many that made my brain go "who was he again?", but at least, in the end, I think I had gotten most of the names under control. The worst thing is reading a crime novel and when the culprit is revealed you just go "who was he again?" That did at least not happened with this book.

The story was quite straightforward, no big surprises, not a lot of red herrings. Someone was dead. Everyone was quite sure of whom it was more people dead and it was quite logical that the body buried 30 years earlier had something to do with present day's murder.

One thing that I found unusual with the book was that everyone was so nice; I mean among the cops, usually, the lead cop is a real bastard, or some other cop is a bastard, someone is usually a bastard. But everyone was genuinely nice. That was quite odd to read. This is the first crime novel I read that takes place in France so I don't know it is typical or if the author just wanted to portray everyone in that way. Anyway, that was a nice change to all the moody cops I usually read about.

Another thing that I thought about while reading the book, was the cops quite relaxed attitude to the gay community. I mean two of the cops went to a gay bar to question witnesses and there were none of the usual attitudes towards homosexuality. I don't know if all the American/British/Swedish crime novels I have read have made me used to more eh harsh attitude towards homosexuals or something. But it was really nice to have cops just so at easy with it.

Anyway. I liked the book, the story wasn't that complex, but I liked the characters. I mean the main character Nico Sirsky, mentioned in the book Star Trek (a milieu looked like a scene from Star Trek), and had a Queen ringtone (Another one Bites the Dust). He cares very much for his mother who had to be taken to the hospital after collapsing and worried about her while hunting a killer. I wish he was for real!

Thank you Le French Book for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!