Such is the world of Jake Hinkson

Every week, we invite you to read something new, a classic or a book to rediscover.

One evening in Chicago, Alice leaves the apartment of her lover Jason, with whom she has just had an argument, when a stranger with a knife drags her into an alley. The victim defends himself and succeeds in turning the weapon against the attacker. The man collapses, his throat cut. Distraught, she sees a police car that she does not dare to hail and takes refuge at Jason's house. When they go to the alley, the attacker – who seemed at best very seriously injured, at worst dead – has disappeared as well as the knife… Alice decides to return to the family home and hide from her husband and their grown-up son the terrifying evening she suffered. For this academic, who teaches in the theology department of her faculty, it is better to lie than risk the implosion of her career and her family.

Around this beginning with a bang, Jake Hinkson features other characters whose voices will follow one another and lead the story from one chapter to the next. Among them: Owen Pall, small-scale private detective, hated by the local police, specialist in adultery cases. This man, who experienced a youth as trying as it was chaotic before being taken in charge by an old detective from Chicago, does not hesitate to use blackmail in order to supplement his meager income. But even a cynic is not immune to remorse or a surge of morality.

Secrets and lies

Sixth book by Jake Hinkson translated in France, This is how the world goeswhich has just been published by Gallmeister (also publisher of the previous ones), reveals itself over its 425 pages to be a jubilant treasure hunt. Croatian mafiosi enter the game. A classic criminal, who seems to have stepped out of a David Fincher film, is pulling the strings. In addition to the unfortunate Alice, a weakened and innocent old lady appears as the predicted victim. Except that the novelist knows how to surprise and manage his effects.

This dark novel about manipulation and domination suggests that we live in a world where we can no longer have secrets. Not sure though if we refer to his fall. Awarded several prizes for detective literature, Hinkson creates a high-level suspense and offers us along the way aphorisms such as this delicious one: “ Internet, God's gift to men who have no friends. » To read.

Christian Authier

> A book for the weekend

This is how the world goes – Gallmeister