Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
A profound love of books and authors underpins this sprightly mystery from Laurain (The President's Hat). Violaine Lepage, the director of the manuscript readers' room for a Parisian publisher, is certain that Sugar Flowers, a debut crime novel, will be a big seller, and so it proves when, a year later, the book is shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt. Then the problems start. First, the author, Camille Désencres, has only communicated with her publishers by email, and refuses to participate in person for interviews. Then Det. Insp. Sophie Tanche of the Rouen regional crime squad informs Violaine that a double murder described in the novel closely resembles an actual case. When a third man is found dead, the detective observes, "I don't know how, but everything stems from one bizarre place: a thirty-square-meter room in which people are paid to read books that don't yet exist... the readers' room." The tendency of characters to wax philosophical ("All books are works of black magic") adds to the charm of this witty and perceptive novel. U.S. readers will want to see more of Laurain. (Sept.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
The acid-soaked satire of Michel Houellebecq meets the metafictional whimsy of Jasper Fforde in this slight but witty send-up of the publishing world from French author Laurain (The Red Notebook). Violaine Lepage is the literary director of a boutique publisher in Paris that has rescued a surprise masterpiece off the slush pile. Now, Sugar Flowers, a debut crime novel by Camille Désencres, is in the running for the prestigious Prix Goncourt. One problem: Nobody in her firm has ever heard of Camille Désencres, and Violaine can't get the author to commit to appearing at the award ceremony--or anywhere else, for that matter. A bigger problem: Sugar Flowers appears to have foreseen with unerring accuracy a series of murders that has brought the attention of a world-weary detective to the readers' room. Laurain unspools his mystery of the elusive writer and the clairvoyant novel alongside a number of erudite and surely hard-earned observations about the industry, though the teetering back and forth between whodunit and satire costs his characters the depth that would have made this work more memorable. VERDICT For fans of book-centered novels such as Gabrielle Zevin's The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry craving a slightly harder edge.--Michael Pucci, South Orange P.L., NJ
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