Summertime, All the Cats are Bored by Philippe Georget, translated by Steven Rendall
This first novel won the SNCF Crime Fiction Prize and the City of Lens First Crime Novel Prize.
The setting is in and around Perpignan on the French Mediterranean coast. Tourists are abundant and small crimes are the normal police cases at this time. Sebag and Molino are partners in the local police force. Sebag's children are just going off on vacations with groups or friends, and his wife Claire, who is a teacher has the whole summer off. She is going on a cruise with some friends while he continues to work.
When a Dutch woman is found murdered on a nearby beach, closely followed by the disappearance of another young Dutch woman, the media jumps on the two as connected.
The kidnapper, when he makes contact, seems to have chosen Sebag as his preferred contact, the Sebag finds himself obsessed by the case, something he has seldom felt lately in his police work.
There are a variety of police here, all after the solution to the case, but not necessarily working with the same assumptions. Sebag's focus seems to be a longshot, but as the facts keep falling into line with his proposed theory, the rest of the force begins to be convinced.
The personal side, where we see Sebag's struggles with his marriage and his own issues, make him come alive. This is a great addition to the crime oevre, and I already have my order in for the next book in the series. Which is pretty nice, seeing I picked this book up mostly for the title.
It's a great title; I would have picked it up for that reason, too.
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