Crush
Description
<em>I understand why you did it. It'll be our secret.</em>
Seventeen-year-old Louise Lacroix is desperate to escape her dreary life. So on her way home from work every evening she takes a detour past the enchanting house of Jess and Thelma Rooland - a wealthy and glamorous American couple - where the sun always seems to shine.
When Louise convinces the Roolands to employ her as their maid, she thinks she's in heaven. But soon their seemingly perfect life begins to unravel. What terrible secrets are they hiding?
Dripping with tension and yearning, Crush is a chilling Fifties suspense story of youthful naivety , dark obsession - and the slippery slope to murder.
Praise for Dard's thrillers:
"The French master of noir" <em>Observer</em>
"Unsettling... with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best... classic French noir" <em>Guardian</em>
"Hugely atmospheric" <em>The Times</em>
"Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Simenon" <em>Sunday Times</em>
Frederic Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote hundreds of thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays throughout his long and illustrious career. <em>Bird in a Cage</em>, <em>The Wicked Go to Hell</em> and <em>The Executioner Weeps</em> (for which he won the 1957 Grand prix de litterature policiere) are also available from Pushkin Vertigo.
Reviews / Votes
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 * Sunday Times * The wonder is that Frederic 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 French master of noir * Observer * Spellbinding... A sharp, short, well-told tale * Wall Street Journal * On top of that, it is a thrilling character study of a teenage girl driven to despair by their family and the prospectless city she is stuck in * International Crime Fiction * A snappy and sassy little drama - not just for the crime shelves, as this has a look at strong characters living through base emotions. Highly recommended * Bookbag * No question: for me, he was the greatest * Philippe Geluck * The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine * Le Figaro * 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 * Solidarite Militaire * France's most popular post-war author * L'Express *More details
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