Bird in a Cage

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: It felt like the slipknot on a rope round my chest was being tightened without pity

Trouble is the last thing Albert needs. Travelling back to his childhood home on Christmas Eve to mourn his mother’s death, he finds the loneliness and nostalgia of his Parisian quartier unbearable… Until, that evening, he encounters a beautiful, seemingly innocent woman at a brasserie, and his spirits are lifted.

Still, something about the woman disturbs him. Where is the father of her child? And what are those two red stains on her sleeve? When she invites him back to her apartment, Albert thinks he’s in luck. But a monstrous scene awaits them, and he finds himself lured into the darkness against his better show more judgment.

Unravelling like a paranoid nightmare, Bird in a Cage melds existentialist drama with thrilling noir to tell the story of a man trapped in a prison of his own making.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Stupid decisions go hand-in-hand with horniness. Women want me, thinks the little head; men want me, thinks the woman's head, and they'll do whatever I want in hopes I'll deliver the goodies. Spoiler alert: fat chance she'll live up to her side of the bargain.

When did you last see Double Indemnity? This is a careful take on that story in a French accent. I think of that statement as a compliment...if you decide to emulate something, do it carefully and well, so it raises the same admiring attention as the emulated thing. The "reasoning" behind Albert, the man in question, doing what he did is...poor. Suffice to say the crime he's involved in wouldn't've challenged Maigret, or any flic in 1961 France, too awfully much.

That said, even a good copy is a copy. So I stalled out at four stars. show less

Very short Simenon like book. An ex con returns to his hometown (day one out of prison) to hang about. He gets mixed up with a woman who plans to kill her husband. Plays out like a nightmare, as he does not understand what is happening to him for the first 4/5ths of the book. In the end it is touching and even romantic. Still... a little thin. Though I still like the idea the author need not always write a book at least 200 pages long.

Classic French noir set in Paris in the 1960s. This is well executed and suspenseful, with enough plot twists and turns worthy of Hitchcock.

Narrated in the first person by one Albert Herbin, who returns home on Christmas Eve, after a absence of six years. A chance encounter over dinner with a mother and her child sparks off a strange series of events, which finds our man plumb centre in the middle of a murder. The crime is staged brilliantly and now Albert, the perfect pawn (or patsy), finds himself living within some sort of paranoid nightmare, where nobody is quite as they seem.

The story is more about plot and action rather than character development - so don't expect to learn too much about the protagonists. Enjoy the tale for what show more it is - the story of a man trapped within a prison of his own making. show less

A real page turner and read at one sitting book. There are many twists and turns for the unfortunate hero.

Atmospheric and Hitchcockian. Reviewed on my blog here: http://annabookbel.net/frederic-dard-bird-cage-amir-tag-elsir-telepathy