The Accident on the A35

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There’s something a bit Wes Anderson about Graeme Macrae Burnet. There’s a dry humour to his characters. It’s hard not to love. He skilfully portrays absurdity and contradictions of characters that have a very strong sense of self. Mme Barthelme—alluring and apparently unmoved by the news—has a single question: where was her husband on the night of the accident? The answer might change nothing, but it could change everything. And Gorski sets a course for what can only be a painful truth. Once again, Graeme Macrae Burnet comes up with a clever conceit based around the discovery of a decades-old manuscript in the slush pile of a Parisian publishing house. The story in this book is Macrae Burnet’s ‘translation’ and is every bit as brilliant a concept as the Booker-nominated His Bloody Project. Indeed, all the better, in my view, for being a far more subtle take on subterfuge. Here, the author succeeds in authentically replicating the slightly formal, ever so slightly stilted language of a French-to-English translation. This is handled in such a convincing manner that it becomes a totally credible construct and to me it is the very finest thing about this very fine literary crime novel. As with Adele Budeau, we learn in the Forward (and more in the Afterword) that this detective story was actually one of two outstanding manuscripts by the “acclaimed” (fictional) author, Raymond Brunet, delivered to the publisher on the day of his mother’s death. Brunet had died years earlier in a suicide, which leaves the reader wondering why these manuscripts weren’t sent until this very day. Burnet is such a tease with his crafty meta-fiction!

The Accident on the A35 is a darkly humorous, subtle, and sophisticated novel that burrows into the psyches of its characters and explores the dark corners of life in a sleepy town.”The rider of the motorcycle – a man aged in his 50s – sadly died at the scene. His family has been informed. The second part of the structure of the novel is that it is not narrated by the author Graeme Macrae Burnet. This is where the mystery and confusion of the novel starts. The book's Foreword reveals that this story comes from the two manuscripts of a writer called Raymond Brunet, sent following the author's instruction by his solicitor, to the publishers Editions Gaspard-Moreau in 2014 after the death of Marie Brunet, Raymond Brunet's mother. This manuscripts were meant for the attention of the editor George Pires, but he had previously died. Brunet had died in 1992 after committing suicide underneath a train, and the manuscripts were only sent by the solicitor after the death of Marie Brunet. Fans of Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret novels will find and enjoy familiar ground in The Accident on the A35 , the second in a trilogy of French detective novels by Scottish writer Graeme Macrae Burnet.’ Because of the death of the editor Pires, a trainee who subsequently received the manuscripts had put them to one side, not realising that they linked up with a previously published novel of Brunet called The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau. The link was recognised later by another editor at the publishers, who then published a second novel from the manuscripts as The Accident on the A35. Graeme Burnet uses this as a clever structural device to add mystery and intrigue to what otherwise would be a straightforward police mystery novel. The reader sees the novel as being a smaller thing within a larger publishing world. Nothing was mentioned as to the fate of the second manuscript.

Both towns are important characters in the book but it's the human characters who make it such an absorbing story. Gorski is a middle-aged man in something of a rut, but without the ambition or desire to find his way out. He is content to be the Chief of Police in Saint-Louis – a medium-size fish in a tiny pool – even if he's not particularly liked by his subordinates nor respected by those at the top of the social heap. He's less happy with the fact that his wife has just left him – he's not altogether sure why and he's not convinced that he wants to change whatever it is about himself that's led her to go. He's a decent man, but rather passively so – neither hero nor villain. It's the skill of the writing that makes this ordinary man into an extraordinary character.The front and endpapers claim that The Accident on the A35 turned up in a bundle with another unpublished Brunet manuscript. The Scottish middleman will presumably translate and annotate the third work in due course. As Macrae Burnet is careful not to specify the genre of this final text, it may turn out to be a departure – a Brunet memoir or biography of Simenon, perhaps even a guidebook to Saint-Louis – that would, presumably, further compromise the reliability of The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau and The Accident on the A35. Had Graeme Macrae Burnet not made last year’s Booker shortlist with his previous novel, His Bloody Project, you probably wouldn’t be reading this review: it wouldn’t exist. After all, Burnet’s Maigret-influenced debut, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau, went unnoticed outside his native Scotland. But the enterprise of his publisher Saraband (once of Glasgow, now based in Salford), the wisdom of the 2016 panel – and the quality of His Bloody Project, about a crofter’s son bound for the gallows after a triple murder to which he has confessed guilt but not motive – have won Burnet a keen audience for his next move. A word of warning – don’t expect a thriller with a few curve balls or twists with this book, it’s more of a leisurely paced character-driven journey in which the setting also plays a prominent part. Also, if you’re the sort of person that likes a crime or mystery solved and don’t like things left open-ended then this book may not be for you. Set in Saint-Louis, France, very close to the Tripoint, where France, Germany and Switzerland meet, the main characters are the Chief of Police Georges Gorski, and the Barthelme family – husband and wife Bertrand and Lucette and their 17yo son Raymond.

There were 1,390 reported road deaths in Britain from June 2020 to June 2020, data from the Ministry of Transport shows. It’s a long time since I read a police procedural (more or less) that was so gripping and intelligent.’ A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "The road has been closed between the Symondsbury and Crown roundabouts and these closures are expected to remain in place for some time. We would advise motorists to seek alternative routes while these closures are in place. Four other people - including an eight-year-old girl who suffered serious injuries - were taken to hospital following the crash on the A35 yesterday (January 16).The Accident on the A35 is the second book in the Georges Gorski series by award-winning Scottish author, Graeme Macrae Burnet. It looked pretty straightforward: Bertrand Bethelme’s Mercedes had run off the A35 into a tree, sometime after 9pm on Tuesday night. He probably fell asleep at the wheel. But after confirming his identity the following morning, his widow, Lucette raised a query: where had her husband been that night? His usual Tuesday night dinner with his club would not put him anywhere near the A35. Gorski had no time for the idea of human nature. It was a meaningless idea people used to absolve themselves of responsibility for their own actions… The incident happened at just before 1am on Sunday morning (16 January) on the A1 Northbound near Wothorpe."

The number of deaths saw an 11 percent drop from the year before, and the number of casualties decreased 9 percent. A spokesperson for Devon and Cornwall police said the crash happened happened at 11.10am, involves a Peugeot 207 and a Honda Civic and that two people have sustained minor injuries. A major emergency response was needed following the crash on the Puddletown bypass yesterday afternoon (Tuesday, May 24). If this closure impacts on your planned route, please allow extra journey time. Plan ahead, you may wish to re-route or even delay your journey. We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.

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A spokeswoman from Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Rescue Service said: "At 2.56pm yesterday, we were notified by the police about a road traffic collision on Puddletown Bypass.