A chilling 1950s suspense story of youthful naivety, dark obsession—and the slippery slope to murder
Bored with her mundane factory job, her nagging mother, and her alcoholic father-in-law, 17-year-old Louise Lacroix is captivated by a glamorous American couple who moves to her industrial hometown in Northern France. The Roolands' home is an island of color, good humor, and easy living in drab 1950s Léopoldville—a place straight out of Louise’s dreams.
Louise is thrilled when she successfully convinces the couple to hire her as their maid. But once she is under their roof, their model life starts to fall apart. Painful secrets from their past emerge, cracks in their relationship appear, and a dark obsession begins to grow . . .
"Translator Daniel Seton has done a superb job Anglicizing Dard’s sometimes tortuous French colloquialisms and appropriating his conversational tone. . . . [Crush is] a short, sharp well-told tale." -- The Wall Street Journal
"With their tight plots, the stories are particularly cinematic, and fi lm-makers are already showing interest. Dard also wrote screenplays and plays. Their revival could be just around the corner." — The Observer
"The wonder is that Frédéric Dard’s singular take on crime noir is not better known in this country. Served by an excellent translator, Dard has much to offer." — Daily Mail
“The cleverness of Dard's Georges Simenon-influenced novella lies in the way that it lulls you into thinking this is just another tale of a teenager's shattered dreams... it is much darker than that.” — The Sunday Times
"A snappy and sassy little drama... Highly recommended." — Bookbag
"No question: for me, he was the greatest." - Philippe Geluck
"A thrilling character study of a teenage girl driven to despair." — International Crime Fiction
"His language is cutting, his point-of-view original and his verdict uncompromising... One of the few twentieth-century authors to win both critical acclaim and great popularity" - Solidarité Militaire
"The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine"- Le Figaro
"France's most popular post-war author." - L'Express
Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière for The Executioner Cries, forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.
A chilling 1950s suspense story of youthful naivety, dark obsession—and the slippery slope to murder
Bored with her mundane factory job, her nagging mother, and her alcoholic father-in-law, 17-year-old Louise Lacroix is captivated by a glamorous American couple who moves to her industrial hometown in Northern France. The Roolands' home is an island of color, good humor, and easy living in drab 1950s Léopoldville—a place straight out of Louise’s dreams.
Louise is thrilled when she successfully convinces the couple to hire her as their maid. But once she is under their roof, their model life starts to fall apart. Painful secrets from their past emerge, cracks in their relationship appear, and a dark obsession begins to grow . . .
Reviews
"Translator Daniel Seton has done a superb job Anglicizing Dard’s sometimes tortuous French colloquialisms and appropriating his conversational tone. . . . [Crush is] a short, sharp well-told tale." -- The Wall Street Journal
"With their tight plots, the stories are particularly cinematic, and fi lm-makers are already showing interest. Dard also wrote screenplays and plays. Their revival could be just around the corner." — The Observer
"The wonder is that Frédéric Dard’s singular take on crime noir is not better known in this country. Served by an excellent translator, Dard has much to offer." — Daily Mail
“The cleverness of Dard's Georges Simenon-influenced novella lies in the way that it lulls you into thinking this is just another tale of a teenager's shattered dreams... it is much darker than that.” — The Sunday Times
"A snappy and sassy little drama... Highly recommended." — Bookbag
"No question: for me, he was the greatest." - Philippe Geluck
"A thrilling character study of a teenage girl driven to despair." — International Crime Fiction
"His language is cutting, his point-of-view original and his verdict uncompromising... One of the few twentieth-century authors to win both critical acclaim and great popularity" - Solidarité Militaire
"The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine"- Le Figaro
"France's most popular post-war author." - L'Express
Author
Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière for The Executioner Cries, forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.
