Description

When Franck gets out after five years in jail, he expects to find the brother he protected with his silence. Instead, waiting for him is his brother Fabien’s girlfriend. Jessica takes him to the gloomy country house where she lives with her cantankerous, hard-drinking parents, her eight-year old daughter – who doesn’t speak, hardly eats, and seems to be carrying a secret much bigger than herself – and a large mastiff dog they all seem to fear.

Time passes, Fabien doesn’t return, and Franck is increasingly mystified by Jessica’s behaviour, seductive at times, hostile at others. Nonetheless, Franck follows her around on her crazy nocturnal rounds until he finds himself with a gun pointed at his head. It’s the beginning of a crescendo of retaliation in a gang war in which Franck believes he is participating, only to realize he’s merely a sacrificial pawn.

In the scorching heat of the summer, love and violence, sweetness and blood, will result into an unpredictable ending, one that perhaps only the little girl knew from the start.

Publisher Review

“A perfect example of noir novel, reminiscent of Jim Thompson, but never derivative.” * Encore du noir * “Incisive and brutal.” * Alibi * “Suffocating, tragic, a great noir novel.” * Radio RTS * “Poetic, poignant, and ferocious.” * Critica Letteraria * “Le Corre has rediscovered the quintessence of noir, erasing all artifice to reach the bare bones of a drama at once contemporary and timeless.” * Marianne *