Martin O’Brien Jacquot and the Waterman

Jacquot and the Waterman

Martin O'Brien

St. Martin's, Jan 2006, $24.95, 416 pp.

ISBN: 031234998X

As his personal life is in the dumps since his relationship with his beloved Boni Mihaud teeters on the brink of extinction, Marseille Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot buries himself in his work. He even left town to allegedly see the latest corpse, the third battered drowned victim in a month; he knows that he did not have to go to the crime scene, but did as a rationalization to escape domestic hostility.

When Boni finally leaves him, Jacquot feels the blues deeply finding only work as an escape from his depression. There are three brutalized beautiful young women drowned by what appears to be a serial killer in the Marseilles area. The media is going crazy, which makes the politicians on edge and even wackier. Marseille Police Judiciare Chief Yves Guimpier is grumpy and jumpier than usual as he tells Jacquot to catch the perpetrator immediately. As he continues to investigate while wondering what happened with Boni, Jacquot ironically thinks he has never worked harder on a case yet his superior says work even harder. Rugby was never this difficult.

JACQUOT AND THE WATERMAN is a terrific French police procedural starring a wonderful protagonist who finds his life falling apart on the personal and professional fronts. Jacquot cannot understand why his relationship with Boni collapsed and how he can do anything more than he is on the serial killer investigation. His troubles almost drown the likable detective, but in spite of the pressure and nothing and no one to help him relieve it, Jacquot keeps plugging away even as each clue makes the case spin further out of resolution. This is a fabulous tale with apparently other Jacquot stories already released in England.

Harriet Klausner