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| Plot Summary of Murder Without Pity |
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" Paris at the start of the second millennium is dark with fog, riots over police killings, and Far Right demagogues frightening the confused.
Such is the millieu surrounding dogged state criminal investigator Stanislas Cassel at the Palace of Justice. However, this grandson of a French propagandist for the Nazis during their World War II Occupation, ashamed of his family's infamy, avoids anything political. Instead he buries himself tracking down perpetrators of small crimes, which he calls his Little Miseries.
One current dossier involves the bizarre murder of a pensioner, found glassy-eyed dead on the stairs of his run-down apartment building. The major suspect: a Far Right extremist, convicted, after Paris's 1945 Liberation, of Nazi collaboration. Among his victims, Cassel believes, were the deceased pensioner's relatives, making a link therefore between suspect and victim.
Cassel finds the suspect odious because the man resembles his collaborator grandfather. This resemblance works subconsciously to make Cassel's investigation slipshod.
During his work, Cassel meets a Jewish woman, whose family died in a 1942 death camp. Haunted by this traumatic experience, she tries to warn him about the Far Right's reemergence, but to no avail. Anything political doesn't interest him the least bit, except when a dramatic turn one foggy night forces him to rethink his investigation and consider other Far Right suspects as well.
"
Steve Haberman, Resident Scholar
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| Review Analysis of Murder Without Pity |
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Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- present (2000-2010)
Crime & Police story
Yes
Story of
- catching a killer
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
War/Revolt/Disaster on civilians
Yes
Conflict:
- War, WW II
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- government investigator
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 60's-90's
Profession/status:
- politician/elected ruler
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a little/some
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 5 (an average amount)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- France
Misc setting
- fancy mansion
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately detailed references to deaths
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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Steve Haberman Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR:
 Steve Haberman
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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