This book isn't just limited to the murder of a horse though. As Commandant Servaz starts to investigate, people start dying. The more the police find, the more people seem to die. And with more knowledge comes plot twists. The more I read, the more I wondered "who is the criminal?" because all my guesses were wrong.
First written in French, this book is an excellent Police Procedural from France. There are some procedural differences from a normal novel (such as the way cases are investigated), which the book explains in a note in the beginning of the book. Another difference would be cultural difference. Once, a character mentions changing to use "tu" to the judge. This marks a change in their relationship, because "tu" is a more intimate form of "vous", which means "you" in English. I wonder how many of these nuances had to be left out when the book was translated into English.
Wait, that means I really should go learn French. It'll be there, on my "to-do" list of languages.
There are only two things about the book that I wasn't happy about. The first was the ending, in which one of the characters was revealed to have this big secret (unrelated to the case) which I didn't see coming and frankly, thought was a bit unbelievable. The second would be that a case mentioned in the beginning (the murder of a homeless man by three boys) as a contrast to the horse case seemed to be neglected and then forgotten about by the book. I would have liked to know how the case ended, and if proper justice was given.
All in all, this is a well-written police procedural. It's interesting, there are twists and turns, and generally, the characters are well thought out.
Disclaimer: I got this book free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.
I also got a copy of an ARC (when I worked at a bookstore) but I haven't felt the urge to read it yet. Nice to see your rebiew!
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