'A strongly plotted story of murder with a clever ironical ending . . . remarkable' Daily Telegraph

'It becomes more sensational with each chapter' Sunday Times

'Japrisot writes with warmth, and has a gift for rendering almost every character instantly likable' New Yorker

'Sebastien Japrisot's talents as a storyteller have something of magic about them. You have to wait until the last page to be liberated from his grasp' Quotidien de Paris

Praise for Sebastien Japrisot

'With an instantly recognisable style and great story-telling techniques, he might be called the Graham Greene of France' The Independent

'The most welcome talent since the early Simenons' New York Times

'Utterly captivating' The Guardian

'A cordon bleu mixture of suspense, sex, trick psychology and fast action' Publishers Weekly

'Diabolically clever' Anita Brookner, author of Hotel du Lac

'Japrisot holds a unique place in contemporary fiction. With the quality and originality of his writing, he has hugely contributed to breaking down the barrier between crime fiction and literary fiction' Le Monde

'A marvellous storyteller' Telerama

'Unreeled with the taut, confident shaping of a grand master ... Funny, awful, first-rate. A rich and resonant sonata in black, astutely suspended between mythic tragedy and the grubby pathos of nagging everyday life' Kirkus Reviews

Sebastien Japrisot was born in Marseille, France in 1931. He published his first novel, Les Mal Partis, when he was just 17. Japrisot translated the works of J. D. Salinger and pursued a successful career in advertising and publicity. He was a scriptwriter and the director of two films. His first crime novel, The Sleeping Car Murders, was received with great acclaim. His reputation as a master for crime fiction grew with the publication of The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun, A Trap for Cinderella and Rider on the Rain. His novel One Deadly Summer was made into a film starring Isabelle Adjani. A Very Long Engagement was an international bestseller and won the Prix Interallie. He died in 2003.

Francis Price is a translator. His translations include God's Bits of Wood by Ousmane Sembene.