The Accident on the A35, by Graeme Macrae Burnet, is a traditional and—though written by a Scotsman—very French mystery that is heavily influenced by Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels. The puzzle begins on the title page with Burnet credited as the work’s translator (rather than author) and a Raymond Brunet as the French author. This is followed by a foreword that only deepens the mystery. Brunet, after publishing a single earlier novel, left the manuscript with a solicitor with instructions for its publication upon Brunet’s mother’s death. Brunet then promptly killed himself. This clever ruse positions the authorship, as well as the meandering plot, as something to be discovered and revealed.


Bertrand Barthelme is instantly killed when his car crashes on France’s A35’s south-bound lanes between Strasbourg and Saint-Louis. An obvious accident, but Barthelme’s wife, Lucette, asks Chief Inspector Georges Gorski to make discreet inquiries about her husband’s activities since he was supposed to be far from the crash site that evening. Gorski’s investigation connects Barthelme, more as a hunch than a fact, to the murder of a high-class prostitute in Strasbourg. Meanwhile, Barthelme’s son, Raymond, finds an address scrolled in a feminine hand in his father’s desk and loses himself trying to discover his father’s business there.

The Accident on the A35 is an elegant literary mystery with insightful characters and a bleak, atmospheric setting. Gorski and Raymond, a middle-aged detective and a 17-year-old boy, respectively, are both at a crossroads. Gorski is a by-the-book policeman, Raymond a timid and shy boy, but both want something very different from the lives they have. Saint-Louis is painted as a miserable, gray, and dead place, but this is a reflection more of the two primary characters than of the city. The mystery is beautiful and complex, with more than a few allusions to Georges Simenon’s famous detective and an understated and satisfying conclusion.