It takes him a couple of chapters to get into gear but once he does there are some funny scenes, like the one with the calvados, or the one where his Englishness makes it impossible for him to use a French queue. I had a laugh at the bit where Kovacs calls Babalu a deus ex machina, because of course that's exactly what he is: he has to exist because of the plot. I wasn't too sure abou the wife popping up like a deus ex machina though. I don't know if he was making some sort of artistic point but I had been enjoying the mystery plot and would have liked there to have been something interesting behind the mystery. Really, the only complaint I have is his heavy use of adjectives, but as this was his first novel I shall blame his editor. ( )

An engaging debut novel by Anglo-Czech writer Mathews. The story is set in present-day Paris where the Anglo-Serbian hero, Philip Kovacs teaches. Divorced from his wife, he becomes embroiled in the affections and hatreds of other females, with potentially disastrous results. Pivotal to these events is the tomb of Victor Noir, a 19th-century journalist shot dead by his mistress's husband, and now a cult symbol for the deepest female fantasies and desires.

Contemporary Paris comes to life on the pages, but underneath it all lurks a more magical, surreal city, waiting to confound our hero. The novel can be read as a battle from darkness to light. There are several oblique references to "The Prisoner" TV series. It's cleverly written, with much innocent humour, including a flippant "Papa?", "Nicole?" exchange at a particularly poignant moment in the plot. The thought of Kovacs having his face burnt away by acid thrown by a maniac is said to be "discountenancing". The language is a delight. Mathews, like others from a dual-language background, revels in word-play. Writers such as Nabokov, Kerouac, and Dylan Thomas spring to mind, and there's also a certain similarity to the style of Paul Auster's New York Trilogy. Maybe it's the French connection.

The characters, including an anglophobic police inspector, and a black Brazilian visitor who befriends Kovacs, are all colourful, three-dimensional and completely believable, and this well-crafted novel is a joy to read. ( )