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Classic Kennedy... extraordinarily compelling' Daily Mirror Douglas Kennedy's new novel proves once again that he excels at writing sophisticated popular fictionHarry Ricks is a man who has lost everything. A romantic mistake at the small American college where he used to teach has cost him his job, his marriage and his relationship with his only child. And when the ensuing scandal threatens to completely destroy him, he votes with his feet and flees... to Paris. He arrives in the French capital in the bleak midwinter, where a series of accidental encounters lands him in a grubby room in a grubby quarter, and a job as a nightwatchman for a sinister operation. Just when Harry begins to think that he has hit rock bottom, romance enters his life. Her name is Margit – an elegant, cultivated Hungarian emigre, long resident in Paris – widowed and, like Harry, alone. But though Harry is soon smitten with her, Margit keeps her distance. She will only see him at her apartment in the fifth arrondissement for a few hours twice a week, and remains guarded about her work, her past, her life. However, Harry's frustrations with her reticence are soon overshadowed by a ever-growing preoccupation that a dark force is at work in his life – as punishment begins to be meted out to anyone who has recently done him wrong. Before he knows it, he finds himself of increasing interest to the police and waking up in a nightmare from which there is no easy escape.
Reviews with the most likes.
I am almost relieved to read the other reviews on this site of Douglas Kennedy's latest novel - I wondered if it was just me who found the ending to this book rather pointless and bizarre.
I have read lots of Douglas Kennedy's novels and loved them all, as others on this site state they are always really insightful, show a great depth of understanding of his characters and always follow a really strong storyline. I was really excited to begin The Woman In The Fifth, the dust jacket of the book outlines a plot that sounds really promising as an American college professor trying to escape his complicated life in Ohio moves to Paris to begin again and meets a Hungarian woman there who he begins a relationship with.
To be fair at the start of the book it begins really well, Kennedy builds his characters well and I was really enjoying the book. The last 8 or 9 chapters however are almost like they come from a totally different book, suddenly we go from a novel about the observations of life and our characters in Paris, to one about some woman who is a figment of the main characters imagination (or not - I'm still not sure) who's been dead for years and who goes around murdering people who have done the main character wrong.
I probably would chance reading another Douglas Kennedy novel again but another one like this and I think it would be my last!