Description

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 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.

Publisher Review

Melancholy and atmospheric, with a twist worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best, this brief tale has the hallmark of classic French noir * Guardian * Hugely atmospheric * The Times * The French master of noir * Observer * Alongside the Maigret novels of Georges Simenon there is a rich vein of period French crime still to be tapped. Frederic Dard is a case in point * Daily Mail * Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Dard’s hero Simenon * Sunday Times Crime Club (star pick) * This short, sly novel of the night has more than enough substance and mystery to keep readers awake and engrossed * The National * It’s exceedingly clever – when surprising things happen they slap you in the face for being so obvious, so necessary and so vital yet so surprising at the same time, and you can only squirm more enjoyably into your seat as you read on * Bookbag * A typically tense and yearning tale… One eagerly awaits forthcoming translations to see whether he can do the trick over again * Wall Street Journal * It’s a brilliant book, and though Frederic Dard may have been ‘one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century’ he’s new to me, so this was a real discovery and treat all rolled into one * Desperate Reader * It’s a short, sharp story featuring a handful of brilliantly portrayed characters, and is structured as intriguingly and cunningly as an Escher drawing * Thriller Books Journal * It is a tribute to the quality of the writing that Dard can contain so much tension, surprise and mystery in so few words * Crime Review * Imbued with a tantalising mix of Patricia Highsmith and Alfred Hitchcock * Raven Crime Reads * If you’re a fan of Film Noir, you’ll love Bird in a Cage… if all the novels in the Vertigo series are this good, I predict I’ll be needing more bookshelves — Lee Randall * Randall Writes * A slick novella… the ending is deliciously ambiguous… a triumph * The Worm Hole * The literary descendant of Simenon and Celine * Le Figaro * No question: for me, he was the greatest — Philippe Geluck 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 *