VBT Review and Giveaway of The Paris Lawyer by Sylvie Granotier

The Paris Lawyer

Can you ever escape your past?

The Paris Lawyer, by Sylvie Granotier (starts with a murder, then is a mystery).

Genre: legal procedural /psychological thriller

BISAC category: Suspense

Synopsis

For the first time in English, one of France’s masters in crime fiction brings us an award-winning legal procedural that doubles as a psychological thriller. As a child, Catherine Monsigny was the only witness to a heinous crime. Now, she is an ambitious rookie attorney in sophisticated modern-day Paris. On the side, she does pro bono work and hits the jackpot: a major felony case that could boost her career. A black woman is accused of poisoning her rich farmer husband in a peaceful village in central France, where the beautiful, rolling hills hold dark secrets. While preparing the case, Catherine’s own past comes back with a vengeance. This fast-paced story follows Catherine’s determined search for the truth in both her case and her own life. Who can she believe? And can you ever escape from your past? The story twists and turns, combining subtle psychological insight with a detailed sense of place.

The Paris Lawyer won the Grand Prix Sang d’Encre crime fiction award in 2011.

Author: Sylvie Granotier

Translator: Anne Trager

Publisher: Le French Book, Inc.

First published in French (Albin Michel, 2011)

Launch Date: September 18, 2012

Specs: direct to digital translation, ebook exclusive, 98,000 words

Genre: legal procedural /psychological thriller

BISAC category: Suspense

ISBN: 978-0-9853206-0-7 (Kindle)/

978-0-9853206-1-4 (epub)

List Price: $7.99

Retail orders: Amazon.com, BN.com, ibooks, other ebook platforms

Buying links:

For your Amazon Kindle.

For your Barnes & Noble Nook.

For your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.

For your Kobo.

Praise for The Paris Lawyer

“Sylvie Granotier's The Paris Lawyer is a beautifully written and elegantly structured novel of a woman's attempt to solve the central mystery of her life, along with several other mysteries along the way. It captures the reader from the first page, and never lets go.” — Thomas H. Cook, winner of the Martin Beck Award, Barry Award for Best Novel, Edgar Award for Best Novel

About the Author

Author, screenwriter and actress Sylvie Granotier loves to weave plots that send shivers up your spine. She was born in Algeria and grew up in Paris and Morocco. She studied literature and theater in Paris, then set off traveling—the United States, Brazil, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, ending with a tour of Europe. She wound up in Paris again, an actress, with a job and some recognition. But she is a writer at heart, and started her publishing career translating Grace Paley’s short story collection Enormous Changes at the Last Minute into French. Fourteen novels and many short stories later, Sylvie Granotier is a major crime fiction author in France. Sylvie splits her time between Paris and the Creuse.

http://www.lefrenchbook.com/our-authors/sylvie-granotier/

Contact:

anne@lefrenchbook.com

Website:

http://www.lefrenchbook.com

Online media kit:

http://www.lefrenchbook.com/our-books/crime-fiction/the-paris-lawyer/

Facebook: LeFrenchBook

Twitter: @LeFrenchBook

My thoughts:

The Paris Lawyer is a murder mystery novel that was very well received in France, winning the Grand Prix Sang d’Encre award for crime fiction in 2011, and was translated into English in late 2012.   The novel focuses on Catherine Monsigny, a lawyer who has been assigned her first homicide case, and who is also wrestling with the circumstances of her own mother’s death. Unfortunately, this reader found Catherine extremely off putting and was never able to find anyone within the pages of The Paris Lawyer to relate to.   

To her credit Sylvie Granotier masterfully creates characters with intricate, many layered personalities.  Perhaps her greatest strength was her downfall, in that this reader found more and more to dislike about Catherine as the novel continued which was disappointing.  I did find Granotier’s depiction of the law and procedural legal system of France very interesting and approachable, but I will say that I worked in the legal field for some time and perhaps these technicalities appealed to me in a way that wouldn't to a larger population.

In the end it seems to me that much of this novel was “lost in translation".

Le French Book, Sylvie Granotier and France Book Tours are offering an Ebook copy of The Paris Lawyer to readers internationally!  To enter the giveaway CLICK HERE

  In full compliance with FTC Guidelines, I received a free trade paperback edition of this book from the author and France Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.  I was in no way compensated for this post, and the thoughts are my own.