Bove Emmanuel – The Murder of Suzy Apple: Suzy Pommier, a young and beautiful actress in vogue, is murdered the night of the premiere of the film where she plays … an actress murdered in her bathtub. In all, the crime scenario corresponds to the scenario of the film.

Hector Mancelle, a young inspector, seizes the case and investigates in his own way, in the absence of his chief. He refuses the ready-made conclusions, meets the father of the victim, the director of the film, the main actor, the lover of the victim. He acts quickly, intelligently, he is sure of his fact and draws clever conclusions, even against the advice of his superiors. Masterful demonstration of his art at the end of the story.

This second detective novel by Emmanuel Bove (the first is under the pseudonym Pierre Dugast, La Toque Breitschwantz) is very well built, classic in its bill and well removed. It is in a completely different register than his other books (My friends or The foreboding, both published at the BNR) which are darker and desperate. If you like the “polars”, it is to discover.

Prolific writer, revealed by Colette, Emmanuel Bove was successful in his lifetime, before falling into oblivion, and to be rediscovered by Peter Handke in the 1980s. He was born in 1898 in Paris, but made a part of his studies at Calvin College in Geneva, then lived in Vienna and again in Paris, where he died in 1945.