Friday, November 22, 2019

Friday's Forgotten Books, November 22, 2019




TRAP FOR CINDERELLA, Sebastien Japrisot (Patti Abbott)

This is one of those books whose success depends on taking you by surprise and it is difficult to review it without divulging details that will detract from that pleasure. A girl wakes up in a hospital. She has just undergone plastic surgery to fix the burns she sustained in a fire at her house in a French resort. Her friend has died in the blaze. Or is she the friend? She can't remember much, including who she is. A third woman seems to play a role in both scenarios.

The book plays with this idea--who died and who survived. It is a moody, atmospheric
book--reminiscent of Patricia Highsmith. The book won France's most prestigious fiction award. It is short and dark. Read it when you are fully awake and not drowsing in bed or you won't know who is who either.

6 comments:

Margot Kinberg said...

Oh, this does sound good, Patti I'd not heard of it before, but it sounds suspenseful.

George said...

I read Sébastien Japrisot's TRAP FOR CINDERELLA back in the 1970s. Margot is right: it is suspenseful!

Jeff Meyerson said...

I thought I read this but it was a different Japrisot book, The 10:30 FROM MARSEILLE.

Steve Oerkfitz said...

Made into a rather mediocre movie a few years back. When I first saw the title I thought John. D. Macdonald.

pattinase (abbott) said...

I used to have a few others but I guess we moved too much.

Rick Robinson said...

No Things Making You Happy??????