One Deadly Summer - Sebastian Japrisot

I watched the French film One Deadly Summer starring Isabelle Adjani and it stayed with me. There’s something about that story that doesn’t let go, a quiet unease that lingers long after it ends.

So I looked up the novel of the same name by Sébastien Japrisot.

As you may have known, it's a story of a young girl Elle who seeks revenge on three men that raped her mother years ago in one winter day.

The first half of the novel is very good. The atmosphere is dense, the characters feel real, and the story moves in a direction that promises a lot. There’s that slow, summery feeling with something dark underneath.

But as the novel goes on, it becomes strange. As if it starts to fall apart from within.

It increasingly feels like this is not just a story about one girl, but about a tragedy passed down from generation to generation. Something that cannot be avoided, only repeated.

The saddest part is what happens to Elle. It’s as if she retreats back into childhood, losing touch with reality, until she eventually ends up in a mental institution.

In the end, it feels like everything was predetermined.

Sebastian Japrisot - Trap For Cinderella

In this novel unknown woman awakens in a hospital, suffering from amnesia, head injury and severe burns. As we found out she was caught in a fire in her room, but as the story progresess we don't know who put the fire, or the identity of woman. Very unusual crime novel, somewhat surrealistic, which was made into film Trap For Cinderella (1963). Japrisot wrote two more crime novels, One Deadly Summer and The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun. He also wrote a screenplay for And Hope To Die (1972), based on novel by David Goodis.

Ruth Rendell - A Sight For Sore Eyes

Very enjoyable late novel about young psychopath who after his family dies kills his relative and keeps him in his car, and after some time he falls in love with traumatised girl. Her mother was killed by some junkie and his father and stepmother psychoterapist take control of her. 

Ruth Rendell - Make Death Love Me

Of all Ruth Rendell novels, this is the one I enjoyed the most. It is about bored middle class bank clerk who is obsessed with literature. Two scums decide to rob a bank he is working in, but thing go wrong and protagonist get away with all cash however he doesn't know what to to with it now, since police are chasing him. Very depressing and grim.

Ruth Rendell - Live Flesh

Very good psychological thriller about serial rapist who accidentally shot policeman and condemned him to life in armchair while his wife manage to go through with him. As protagonist goes into the prison and out, he tries to resocialize with rest of humanity, but his murdering instinct pushes him to revenge and bloodshed against crippled cop whom he believes was responsible for his arrest and time spent in prison.

Barbara Vine - A Fatal Inversion

Much more disturbing than her novels written as herself, this one is about a group of friends who committed awful crime against a child. Of course they were young and inexperienced, but it's amazing how Barbara Vine portrays them as worst possible scum on earth. After many years memories of crime begin to haunt them when they are older and have a respectable career.

John Fowles - The Collector

Thrilling novel by respected author, it revolves around young man who wins at lottery. Not knowing what to do, and obsessed over some girl, he decides to kidnap her. Many issues arise during imprisonment. One thing that is weird is that sick boy didn't even rape her.

This novel inspired some psychopaths to commit serious crimes against humanity, but that is another story.

Patricia Highsmith - Cry of The Owl

 

Patricia Highsmith was famous for her novels featuring unstable characters, sociopaths and the like.

This particular novel is good example of her work.

She was also terrible woman and heavy drinker and Alfred Hitchcock made her novel into famous movie.

Ruth Rendell - Judgement in Stone

 

Ruth Rendell is one of the finest practitioners of crime fiction in its modern state, and is obviously full of hatred towards women. This novel really proves that, by telling a story about illiterate servant girl who comes to big house full of respectable people only to kill them all in the end. As always her prose is stylish and elegant and displays various shades of grey in people.