Safe Return Doubtful

I’m not a smoker. I tried when I was 13, but fortunately, I didn’t like it. I can assure you that you don’t need to be to enjoy this. Most of us know someone who does smoke, and rather than trying to quit, simply enjoys it. I suspect Laurain himself does.

Fabrice Valantine, the protagonist and narrator here, is just such a person. We know from the outset that he is writing from prison, having killed several people, so its not a whodunnit, rather how and why, and is nonetheless, completely gripping.
Valentine has given up, by seeing an hypnotist, who has removed the pleasure of smoking but neglected to remove the urge.
Don’t come to this expecting a fast-paced crime thriller, but it works extremely well in lots of other respects; a light and easy to read prose, very much its own thing, and saturated with irony.
It has a Gallic noir stamp on it as well (à la Simenon / Garnier); from its Parisian setting, to that unfeeling and casual approach to murder, and the cynical and ironic voice of its characters.
It’s a novel that dwells on you after you finish. The immediate feeling is how much fun it was, especially after two very clever and humorous twists in the finale. After contemplation, Laurain has wittily brought attention to the anti-smoking campaign against those who push for a healthy lifestyle; his protagonist lauding the joy of smoking, but from prison, contrasted with those who have given up, in their own kind of prison. Its observations of freedom, and the interplay between personal and social, are relevant and satisfying.
The stand-out feature though, that makes this novel a real treasure, is that it has one of the most fierce and delicously pleasing endings that I have read for a long time.

Translated by Louise Lalaurie Rogers