The story begins with a plane crash of a flight from Istanbul to Paris in 1980, and then the narrative picks up eighteen years later in 1998. A private investigator, Credule Grand-Duc, is just finishing up a journal recounting his efforts since 1980 to find out the true identity of the sole survivor of the crash, a three-month old baby. Two sets of grandparents in France lost their grandbaby on that plane, with the baby fitting the general description of both Lyse-Rose de Carville and Emilie Vitral. Because DNA analysis was not in use at the time to determine identity, an investigation was conducted, and in the meantime the baby was given the name Lylie, a portmanteau of Lyse-Rose and Emilie.
After eighteen years, Grand-Duc felt he still had failed to solve the case, and decided to kill himself and send his journal to Lylie. And yet, as he raised the pistol to his head, he suddenly knew the answer to the mystery.
The narrative switches back and forth among the interested parties, including, as one of the voices, the pages of the journal Grand-Duc kept and passed along to Lylie before his intended suicide. Lylie’s brother Mark is another voice; he especially wanted to know the truth because he has been secretly in love with Lylie for years, but it would never be possible for them to be together unless she weren’t really his sister.
In fact, all the major players have big secrets, and as the story unfolds, we finally get to learn what they are, and who actually survived the crash that day in 1980.
Discussion: This is a more interesting story than I would have thought, but some aspects of it stretch the limits of credulity. Yes, there was no DNA testing for such purposes in 1980, but what about after that? Why didn’t Lylie and Mark confront the elders who have been dealing with Grand-Duc all these years and demand more answers? Why does Mark, so heavily invested in the outcome of the investigation and pressed for time, read the journal each page at a time chronologically, without skipping to the end to see what Grand-Duc concluded? Why did none of the peripheral players who knew the truth or some part of it never speak up, in spite of the huge amount of reward money being offered?
Evaluation: The mystery kept me reading, but only because it employed some not-too-believable plot lines to keep readers in suspense. There were a number of twists and unexpected aspects to the story that would have impressed me more in a less far-fetched whole. But my reaction may well be aberrant; this French author is quite popular, having won more than fifteen literary awards.
Rating: 3.25/5
Published in the U.S. by Hachette Books, 2016
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I’ve seen this around a few blogs and it looks really interesting. But the implausibility of what you mentioned would probably bother me a lot. I’m not convinced I should pick up this one.
I’ve also seen a few reviews of this one. Mostly positive. I’m planning on reading it. Because…well, I want to know. LOL
I like the premise but am not always good at suspending disbelief.
I weirdly was hooked by this book, yet noticed all the same flaws you did. But the bottom line was I couldn’t stop turning the pages. I did hate the ending – too coincidental and random.
There were definitely some issues with this book, but that did not stop me from enjoying it one bit. I couldn’t get enough of it in fact, even though I figured out how it would end well in advance. Normally, that sort of thing would be a huge turnoff, but it didn’t bother me in the least. I wish I knew why.
I’ve been on the fence with this … now I falling to the no side.
Plot holes like the ones you mentioned really bother me. I don’t know if I could fully enjoy this one.