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sandin954's review against another edition
3.0
Paris, France in 1980 is the setting and the police are called in to the garment district when a young girl's body is found. There was a lot going on with this book. Besides the crimes (which there are many and some very graphic), there was a whole subplot about illegal Turkish immigrants who work in the rag trade. I found the book to be very interesting though, at times, struggled a bit with the author's writing style.
paulinevb's review against another edition
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual violence
komet2020's review against another edition
5.0
"ROUGH TRADE" was a thoroughly engrossing thriller rich with the elements of murder, prostitution, drug trafficking, money laundering (for the purposes of sending arms to Iran and bolstering an internal heroin market), Turkish extremist groups, politics, corruption in high places, and the various other aspects of the Parisian underworld in 1980.
Reader, should you decide to take up this book, be advised that you'll be in for quite a ride.
Reader, should you decide to take up this book, be advised that you'll be in for quite a ride.
rosseroo's review
4.0
As one might surmise from the title, this French procedural starts with the discovery of a young Thai girl who has been raped and tortured to death. Set in 1980, this murder sets in motion a stunningly complicated investigation by Inspector Dacquin and his team, which winds its way through immigrant worker politics, the international heroin trade, French-Iranian relations, child prostitution, Turkish domestic politics, police and government corruption, a private club, blackmail, the CIA, front companies, and most of all, the grimy Sentier district in Paris.
The somewhat choppy narrative takes place over a month, with lots of cutting between different locations and perspectives. It's a bit off-putting at first, but by the second half of the story, there have been enough new murders and complications so that one isn't so distracted. There book does suffer from a lack of distinction amongst all the cops. Other than the lead inspector Dacquin, the other cops are interchangeable and unmemorable, which is a bit of a problem since there are at least four of them running around at any one point. Manotti treats them more as Dacquin's pawns than real characters, which is a bit of a shame. Similarly, there are a huge number of people interviewed and interrogated, and they too, tend to run together. To keep everything straight, I recommend readers keep a running list of whom everybody is as they read.
It should be said that the book is unrelentingly grim and cynical, which some may not care for. The French cops don't mess around, beating suspects, blackmailing informers, and generally operating by whatever means necessary. It has one of the better climaxes I've come across recently though, very realistic I felt. And there's a fun little epilogue which really ends thing on just the right note. Manotti has written at least two other Dacquin books, but they've not been translated into English.
FYI, this book is also known as "Dark Path", which is the more literal translation of the original French title. Also, Manotti is a pseudonym.
The somewhat choppy narrative takes place over a month, with lots of cutting between different locations and perspectives. It's a bit off-putting at first, but by the second half of the story, there have been enough new murders and complications so that one isn't so distracted. There book does suffer from a lack of distinction amongst all the cops. Other than the lead inspector Dacquin, the other cops are interchangeable and unmemorable, which is a bit of a problem since there are at least four of them running around at any one point. Manotti treats them more as Dacquin's pawns than real characters, which is a bit of a shame. Similarly, there are a huge number of people interviewed and interrogated, and they too, tend to run together. To keep everything straight, I recommend readers keep a running list of whom everybody is as they read.
It should be said that the book is unrelentingly grim and cynical, which some may not care for. The French cops don't mess around, beating suspects, blackmailing informers, and generally operating by whatever means necessary. It has one of the better climaxes I've come across recently though, very realistic I felt. And there's a fun little epilogue which really ends thing on just the right note. Manotti has written at least two other Dacquin books, but they've not been translated into English.
FYI, this book is also known as "Dark Path", which is the more literal translation of the original French title. Also, Manotti is a pseudonym.
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