Maxime Chattam

In present day Paris, Marion, a young woman working as a secretary in the department of Autopsies for a Paris Medical Institute, becomes an unfortunate innocent victim by stumbling upon documents that will prove a local politician a criminal. The DST, which is France's version of our CIA, wishes for her to go missing for a while until the scandal dies down. People might want her dead. Immediately whisked away for temporary exile, Marion finds herself deposited at the daunting doors of the show more famous monastery of Mount-St. Michel. Not knowing how long her secret stay will last, Marion settles in to the abbey life amongst a variety of monks and sisters that all have mysterious pasts and personalities. Soon cryptic letters arrive unseen in her cottage evoking an eerie and sinister presence that will have Marion's emotions on edge wondering if she has been followed and found out. While preventing boredom for the long winter ahead, Marion is given the chore of assisting the monks with cataloging the abbey library. Enjoying her task, she one day put her hands on a very old diary, one man's personal and private notes, dated Cairo 1928.

Jeremy Matheson, a British post-war veteran who had endured the many horrors all soldiers of war experience, has settled into a quiet life as a hard-boiled detective eaking out an existence in the Egyptian mecca of Cairo. Although he is suffering from the pangs of unrequited love, the local police department turns up an interesting case of multiple gruesome child murders allowing Matheson the opportunity to jump at the chance to take on the case. Child after child is found brutally murdered, slayed as if a wild animal had taken them in it's hungry jaws.

The Cairo Diary is a diabolical dual mystery that will have readers turning pages so fast they won't realize time flying by. Cleverly crafted with an astounding literary writing style, this suspense novel is riveting, intriguing and very unique. As the author alternates stories, the written pendulum swinging from past to present, both Marion and Jeremy are caught up in two whirlwind mysteries that amazingly will weave together for an unbelievable jaw-dropping ending that will leave readers panting for more from this creative and talented new author. Trembling with fear as I turned each page, I was on the edge of my chair throughout the whole book, and simply could not put the book down for a second. The characters of both Marion and Jeremy will tug at your heartstrings, evoke a host of emotions, and will keep you cheering on both of these finely created characters as they painstakingly unravel two uncanny puzzles; one born of evil, the other from an unlikely duo out for a bit of welcoming mischief. Bravo Maxim Chattam, a literary accomplishment worth many awards! Five stars without blinking. show less

The story was good. I enjoyed the mystery. I did not enjoy the writing style. I felt like the author thought he was writing for idiots. Chapter 1: Brolin was young. Chapter 2: Brolin was young. Chapter 3: The young Brolin. I wanted to scream "I get it already, he's young. It's a burden." The recap of characters and storyline every two or three chapters was completely unnecessary and distracting. I also did not appreciate the footnotes. Do we really need a footnote to explain what a SWAT team show more is? Or that Johns (and it's Johns with an s!)Hopkins and Georgetown are prestigious universities? Really? Si l'auteur choisit les Etats-Unis comme cadre pour son roman, il faudrait bien qu'il l'assume. Otherwise, why not just set it in France? That way we could do away with the footnotes. There would not have been much difference in the story. I won't be reading anything else by this author because I found his style really annoying, which is too bad because I did enjoy the story and the characters.

As for this trend where popular French authors (Chattam, Levy, Musso) set their stories in the States, so far I don't see the good that's come of it. Does it allow them to sell more books somehow? Maybe. Not to me, that's for sure. show less

The Cairo Diary is an atmospheric thriller that does, I feel, edge towards the realms of gothic horror.

We are presented with Marion who, after uncovering something within her real life, is sent to hide away under the guise of seeking a 'retreat' amongst a religious order. Whilst helping one of the monks catalogue books in the library in the nearby town, she uncovers a diary written by a detective in 1928 who is investigating the rather extreme murders of children in Cairo. Over the coming show more days Marion settles down to read the diary becoming ever more enthralled and involved with its' contents. We are with Marion as she reads the diary, not only hiding herself from the world, but also the diary from the immediate people around her.

In the book, Chattam manages to conjure up a feeling of paranoia around Marion's immediate environment and the threats she perceives. He also manages to draw us into the contents of the diary that Marion is reading, teasing us with each chapter, so much so, that I found myself becoming more interested in the events of 1928 and, at times, found Marion's story a sideline to the events in Cairo.

The writing, I feel, manages to conjure up the images of a desolate, cold and isolated monastry where Marion is staying and juxtapose these with the hot, dank and dark winding streets of Cairo where the diary events unfold and the murders take place. The descriptions of which are quite graphic on a couple of occasions and not for the faint of heart!

It has been sometime since I have read fiction (non-fiction being the favoured of late), however, I managed to stay with the Cairo Diary to the end and was, at times, swept along by the writing, the imagery and the sense that something would be revealed at the next turn of the page. Like Marion I found myself awaiting the next installment of Jeremy Matheson's writing.

Overall a good, easy to read piece of fiction that has the sprinkling of a gothic atmosphere. show less

The plot was very good, the thrills, twists and reveals worked very well - except, possibly, for the original premise of the scandal that meant the protaganist had to leave Paris (which I found slightly stretched). It is difficult to be original in this genre and the author succeeded convincingly.
The creation of atmosphere and the sense of being in two very different places and times was also conveyed well.
But, oh dear, I really must stop reading translated books: I wanted to go thru the show more book with a red pen and change so much. I apologise to translators: it must be hard and I don't know anything about it, but I assume there is some kind of rule about being careful to express what the writer intended, rather than what you think would read better (a bit like being an editor). However, in this book there were too many instances of the sentences reading clumsily, partly because (I can only guess) the translator was being literal or trying to avoid cliches or something like that. But it spoilt the flow of reading. Or maybe the book should have been edited better in the original language - there was a really annoying over use of one stylistic phrase that someone should have spoken to the author about! show less