Set in a downbeat French border town, The Accident on the A35 is the literary equivalent of an Edward Hopper painting. It’s a ballad of sad cafes, spilled drinks, and characters trapped in pantomimes of behaviour for the sake of appearance. Outside in the drizzle, there’s not even enough electricity for a lightning flash. We’re in noir-ville.

There’s been a car accident and the driver is dead. The town barely shrugs. Femme fatale Lucette, however, wrangles ajar this open-and-shut case, asking Chief Inspector Georges Gorski what her husband could possibly have been doing on the A35 that night. Gorski’s secret investigations lead him to a sexy murder in Strasbourg...

Softly, softly, another investigation commences. Bereaved teenage son Raymond finds a clue, but liberated now from the stifling absence of his father, Raymond faces an existential crisis causing his behaviour to dangerously disintegrate.

Nothing here is as it seems. The Accident on the A35 is a novel of appearance and reality. The book itself presents the manuscript of French author Raymond Brunet’s fictional account of his father’s death wrapped within a commentary and pseudo-translation by Scottish author Graeme Macrae Burnet. Yep. Untangle that! I always perk up at metafiction.

“…but he could hardly abruptly turn back without engaging in an elaborate pantomime for the benefit of those he imagined were observing him from behind the shutters of the fake-beamed houses that lined the street.” -Chapter 19

The Accident on the A35 is a sort of anti-detective novel. There are no chases or pistol shots; the palate here is muted. There’s a lot of sherry and quiet moments in corner shadows. Burnet evokes the literary landscapes of Georges Simenon, Franz Kafka, and Fyodor Dostoevsky: it’s always raining and the good guy’s on a losing streak…

Actually, like a candle in the rain, Chief Inspector Georges Gorski can suddenly spark and spit. His interrogation of Weismann is slick, as is his sharp encounter with Raymond at the funeral. Gorski plays the low notes, but he’s the heart and moral compass of the novel - the unsung hero.

And he smoulders beyond the last page. The Accident on the A35 is the second Georges Gorski novel, following The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau. A third and final Gorski book is in the works. I read The Accident on the A35 without having read its predecessor: it works fine as a standalone.

Last word: I loved the scene in which Gorski returns to his childhood bedroom and sees his detective novels above the bed. Heart that.

Keep on investigating:

His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet - a terrific tale of criminal behaviour and the manipulation of evidence

The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker - a novelist investigates murder in small-town America

The Tunnel by Ernesto Sábato: it’s a short bitter chain from meeting to murder

The Invisible Guardian by Dolores Redondo - murder meets superstition in the wet mountains of northern Spain