Trap for Cinderella - Sebastien Japrisot translated by Helen Weaver

 

This is the third Japrisot book I’ve read now, thanks to Gallic books, and I am constantly amazed at how much he managed to convey in relatively slender volumes when compared with books of similar genre. He seems to achieve as much, if not more, the economy of his language gives the reader all they need. If I compare all three books his diversity, too, is to be admired. Yet all three books are firmly stamped with his inimitable style. A style that has not been compromised by the translation work of Helen Weaver.

Trap for Cinderella falls very much into the psychological thriller genre and possibly has more in common with The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun than The Sleeping Car Murders which is more of a straightforward crime story,.I use the term “‘straightforward’ loosely! This book messes with your head! It’s fairly unique I think and elicited in me a strange surreal, edginess as I read. The description of an amnesiac is one of the best I’ve experienced, I think, as you can really begin to feel the mist in the memory and the struggle to piece together what has happened. But the sense that something is off centre pervades the entire narrative contributing to the unease and unravelling of exactly what happened.

The opening - fairy tale like, fable like -  incredulously titled ‘I would Have Murdered’  is crucial to what follows and cements the Cinderella theme firmly in the reader’s mind inviting the traditional concept but the concluding sentence of the book is a masterstroke as you realise the intention was not as traditional as you thought! No character is exactly who they seem.Suspicion and mistrust build up within the reader to a crescendo as the book reaches its conclusion.

Japrisot’s economy of language demands you pay attention, failure to do so will leave you lost and floundering. That’s not to say that your faultless attention will answer all questions, no! There are twists and turns here to give your intellectual cerebellum a major workout. Enigmas and innuendo punctuate the narrative. I’m still not sure I’ve worked it all out! Identity, deceit, questionable motives and intentions, it’s all a tad far fetched on the surface but it never feels that way while you’re reading it!

I enjoyed it immensely. It’s entertaining yet remains intelligently plotted and executed. Thanks, Gallic Books, for my gifted copy.