Review: The Paris Lawyer
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 13, 2013
A lawyer in France presents herself in court to handle the usual type of cases. Returning to her office, Catherine Monsigny is asked to take on the issue of a woman accused of killing her husband. It's the first serious crime she has handled. Catherine has memories of herself as a child in a stroller, on the day that her mother took her out and was beaten to death. Her father has closed off that part of their lives. An illegal immigrant woman from Gabon was treated as a slave, but escaped the family and married a wealthy older man. Later he died and his family, outraged by the widow's intention to sell the rural estate, accused her of poisoning him. Cyanide was then found in the man's body. Catherine travels to visit the accused, with basic facilities and local foods - which she never seems to enjoy. Returning to Paris, she takes pride in getting a client off on a procedural technicality; but in the rural case she has suspicions that not one but two murders are involved.The European legal court system is different from the British and American system but no real explanations are given. There are no juries and the judge trying the case has the power to order investigations; again written for a French audience, who don't expect juries. I also noted that this lawyer spends a lot of time defending a Tunisian pickpocket or a Moroccan thief; and considers that young teenagers who had sexual advances made to them by a teacher were far from victims and engaging the teacher's attention knowingly. This is not going to endear the main character to most readers. This is a complex tale of a woman facing unpleasant truths in her own past as well as others', but I just didn't find Catherine's self-absorption in her family past, or her lover, very interesting.Some Americanisms such as 'gotten' have been included in this translation but some nuances have been lost - "There are never any papers on the boss's desk because the mind of a great man contains all the information it needs." This risible line may have originally been meant as an amusing comment on the boss's possibly pompous attitude but we don't get enough information to decide. Catherine also comes across as extremely masculine, thinking 'establish dominance from the start', 'impose a power struggle' and 'stainless steel morale'. Simultaneously she panics whenever she's alone with a man, visualising him strangling her. So why doesn't she learn basic self-defence? Sylvie Granotier is a pen name and THE PARIS LAWYER was written by Albin Michel.This book would have read much better if it wasn't written in present tense. People keep going back and reliving the past but the whole lot is messily run together in present. I read a good deal of crime but never really got into the main character or her motivations and I thought the story had potential to be better than it read.