The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair
by Joel Dicker  (Swiss)
2012 (US 2014) – 656 pages
read by Pierce Cravens – 17h 54m
rating  9.25  / literary crime

It’s a rare book which can come off as both a murder- mystery crime novel and literary fiction with some great satire in it.   The book was a hit in Europe where it was originally published but, unsurprisingly,  not so much in the US .  Well,  the US  is satirized a bit – but not in any kind of mean-spirited way -and it is a huge leap from James Patterson to Joël Dicker.

The story:   Back in the 1975 the eponymous Harry Quebert, a published author and professor then 35 years old,  had some kind of love affair with Nola Kellergan, a part-time waitress,  age 15.  She then went missing and now,  33 years later (2008) ,  her dead body has been found buried in Harry’s yard along with a copy of Harry’s most famous book,  The Origin of Evil.

Meanwhile,  Harry’s s former student and long-time  friend Marcus Goldman,  our first person narrator,  has written a best seller and is being pressured by his agent and publisher,  but can’t come up with a second.  Then he finds out that Harry has been arrested for Nola’s murder and goes to New Hampshire to help him. Maybe he could write a book on the situation?  >>>>MORE (no spoilers) >>>>