cover image What the Trumpet Player Revealed

What the Trumpet Player Revealed

Jean-Francois Renard. Vantage Press (www.vantagepress.com), $14.95 trade paper (205p) ISBN 978-0-533-16400-4

In Renard's dull historical thriller, a chance late-night encounter leads Canadian-American trumpet player Jonathan Malavoix to witness a savage murder in 1942 Paris. On his way home from another night of trying to scrape together some money performing at outdoor cafes, Malavoix is intrigued by an attractive blonde woman and decides to follow her. When that pursuit leads him into an apartment building, he's horrified to witness his quarry repeatedly stab a sleeping woman. Malavoix faints and, as soon as he regains consciousness, flees the crime scene. With Paris under German occupation, he immediately rejects the idea of reporting the killing. Soon, Malavoix hits it off with another woman he meets at a bar. More violence follows, but the path to the truth behind the crime is labored, while the book's resolution is improbable.