Chantal Pelletier, Goat Song

Goat Song

Chantal Pelletier

Bitter Lemon Press, 2004, $13.95, 176 pp.

ISBN: 1904738036

In Montmarte, a double murder occurs in the Moulin Rouge. Gloom and doom French Inspector Maurice "More is Less" Laice and his superior Aline Lef vre, a positive thinking active lesbian who at times lets her other "head" do her thinking, lead the investigation. The crime scene produces nothing. Thus the two cops turn to the victims seeking who might have a motive to kill the duo.

Lead dancer Manfred and Lisa the trainee are the victims; the culprit intermingled their corpses in some sort of macabre dance. However, outside of the Moulin Rouge, the victims seem to have little in common as Manfred is a purebred native and Lisa is a Corsican emigrant. The case goes nowhere sending the pessimistic Maurice deeper into depression while Aline tells him to find solace in orgasms. Still the two cops argue about life, but keep digging within the Moulin Rouge community and the growing Corsican immigrants flocking to the city.

The key to this strong often amusing and as often gloomy French police procedural is the two cops, as opposite of a pair that readers will ever find. Laice is a fortyish person who at times acts like an ailing octogenarian who no longer can get it up while the promiscuous Aline lives for multiple orgasms with her female partners. At times the depth into the lead couple is so deep and powerful the murder mystery takes a back seat even with the fast-pacing of the plot that like the stars contrast between the upbeat and the downbeat.

Harriet Klausner