Paris in July 2020 - Time is a Killer (Le temps est assassin) by Michel Bussi

Paris in July 2020 is hosted by Tamara at Thyme for Tea. Here we are sharing our love for everything Parisian and French. I am here with another review of a book from a favourite thriller writer, Michel Bussi. His stories are not like the average mystery/thriller. His characters are ordinary people, and it takes some time before you realise that there actually is a murder mystery. The murder(s) enter the story very discreetly, and as you go along you understand that all is not what it seems to be. 

"In the summer of 2016, Clotilde is spending her vacation in Corsica with her husband Franck and her teenage daughter Valentine. It is the first time she has been back to the island since the car accident in which her parents and her brother were killed decades earlier. She was in the car too, but miraculously escaped with her life.

This return plunges Clotilde back into the deepest recesses of her adolescence. She reacquaints herself with her paternal grandparents, Lisabetta and Cassanu, members of a powerful Corsican family that reigns over the island.

When a mysterious letter, signed “Palma”—Clotilde’s mother—arrives, the truth about her family, her parents’ death, and her childhood is called into question. Time is a Killer is a voyage into the complexities of Corsican society, a compelling portrait of woman’s awakening, and a masterfully executed novel of psychological suspense." (From the publisher Europa Edition)

While on holiday on Corsica with her parents in 1989, the teenage Clothilde writes a diary. In connection with the accident, it is lost. When returning in 2016 we realise that somebody has gotten hold of it. Bussi is using the diary to tell a parallel story, revealing the details, through the diary, of what was happening in 1989. It gives us the illusion that we know what was happening, until ghosts from the past start to turn up and change the story. Or is it just to make us a little bit crazy? Clothilde, as the center of attention, goes on a ghost hunt. She soon discovers that she cannot trust anyone.

The story is set in Corsica. Bussi is obviously familiar with the island, culture, and traditions, which creates an intricate background to the mystery. As usual, he manages to keep you spellbound and guessing until the very end. He does not provide simple stories or simple solutions. He weaves a web of deceit, murder, and mystery, which miraculously, he manages to clear up in the end. 

Michel Bussi is a professor of geopolitics and one of the most popular French authors today. He has written numerous novels. I have earlier read After the Crash and Black Water Lilies. They are both excellent. I enjoy thrillers and mysteries that have an interesting story. Bussi provides this in all his books. The stories are often very sad, and the murderers become killers by pure accident. As I said, intricate stories.