A claustrophobic thriller about love gone wrong, from the French master of noir
Blaise should never have hung around in that charmless little provincial town. The job offer that attracted him in the first place had failed to materialize. He should have got on the first train back to Paris, but Fate decided otherwise.
After a chance encounter with a beautiful blonde in the town post-office, Blaise is hooked. He realizes he'll do anything to stay by her side, and soon finds himself working for her husband, a funeral director. But the tension in this strange love triangle begins to mount, and eventually results in a highly unorthodox burial . . .
"A neat little story, almost shockingly quickly presented - making it all the more effective - The Gravediggers' Bread is a quick but satisfying read." — Complete Review
" This is a true gem from the 1950s now available in English. Imagine James M. Cain: with a touch of (literal!) 'graveyard humor.'" — Popular Culture Association Recommended Reading List
Praise for Dard's thrillers: 'The French master of noir' Observer 'Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Dard's hero Simenon' Sunday Times Crime Club (star pick) 'Spellbinding' Wall Street Journal 'Melancholy and atmospheric, with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best... classic French noir' Guardian 'Alongside the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon there is a rich vein of period French crime still to be tapped. Frédéric Dard is a case in point' Daily Mail
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 Weeps. Dard's Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush,The Executioner Weeps and The King of Fools are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.
A claustrophobic thriller about love gone wrong, from the French master of noir
Blaise should never have hung around in that charmless little provincial town. The job offer that attracted him in the first place had failed to materialize. He should have got on the first train back to Paris, but Fate decided otherwise.
After a chance encounter with a beautiful blonde in the town post-office, Blaise is hooked. He realizes he'll do anything to stay by her side, and soon finds himself working for her husband, a funeral director. But the tension in this strange love triangle begins to mount, and eventually results in a highly unorthodox burial . . .
Reviews
"A neat little story, almost shockingly quickly presented - making it all the more effective - The Gravediggers' Bread is a quick but satisfying read." — Complete Review
" This is a true gem from the 1950s now available in English. Imagine James M. Cain: with a touch of (literal!) 'graveyard humor.'" — Popular Culture Association Recommended Reading List
Praise for Dard's thrillers: 'The French master of noir' Observer 'Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Dard's hero Simenon' Sunday Times Crime Club (star pick) 'Spellbinding' Wall Street Journal 'Melancholy and atmospheric, with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best... classic French noir' Guardian 'Alongside the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon there is a rich vein of period French crime still to be tapped. Frédéric Dard is a case in point' Daily Mail
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 Weeps. Dard's Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush,The Executioner Weeps and The King of Fools are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.
