Dogs and Wolves by Hervé Le Corre
An example of the best kind of hardboiled tough-guy fiction reminiscent of Hammett, Chandler and Spillane set in the countryside of a France most of us wouldn’t want to visit except in fictional form. Excellent writing and complex plotting provide a compelling read for fans of dark detective tales.
Dogs and Wolves by Hervé Le Corre, translated by Howard Curtis
Europa Editions
Paperback | $17
9781609459765
This one is so hardboiled that bullets would bounce off. Franck, a convicted small-time kind of crook is released from prison after having taken the rap for a crime he committed with his brother Fabien. Expecting to see his sibling he instead is met by “the girlfriend”, Jessica, a moody, enigmatic woman who alternately exudes sexuality and indifference. He is frustrated and confused and begins to experience extreme discomfort as he is introduced to Jessica’s odious parents and her eight-year-old daughter, a child who is clearly disturbed and disturbing. Add to this situation a menacing large dog who seems to frighten everyone and a run-down remote farmhouse used by Jessica’s father as a base to refurbish stolen cars for a violent and threatening gypsy crime boss and all the ingredients for disaster are ready for baking into a vile concoction of violence, treachery and sex.
Le Corre’s writing is outstandingly dark, reminiscent of the greats of noir detective fiction: Hammett, Chandler, Spillane. Here’s a small taste; “Time was like water that slipped through your hands and disappeared, unlike in prison where every quarter of an hour stuck to your skin, sweaty and stifling and unhealthy.” This occurs early on in the narrative and clues the reader that what is to come will be grim but tightly written and literarily sinister. Things don’t get any sunnier as time goes on and more felonious and menacing connections with criminals emerge. The entire situation becomes maddeningly complex and befuddling for Franck, who hovers at the edge of the action but is drawn in bit by bit and takes a boatload of roughing up accompanied by lethal threats. Starting to act on his own he dives into the scrum and winds up on the run, accompanied alternately by Jessica and her daughter Rachel, a character that could have been written by Stephen King.
Ultimately seeking refuge with the father from whom he has been estranged since the death of his mother who suffered abuse at his brutal hands, Franck seeks to make sense of the confusion and to find some form of justice. The quest is harrowing, the narrative is dark, the writing exquisitely tough.