After the Crash

November 16, 2015
French crime author Bussi makes his English-language debut with an insightful thriller. A three-month-old girl, dubbed the Dragonfly by the media, is the sole survivor of a 1980 airline crash in the Jura Mountains at the Franco-Swiss border. The Dragonfly was one of two babies the same age on the flight from Istanbul to Paris, but during the crash any bits of identification were lost. Was the baby Lyse-Rose de Carville, granddaughter of a wealthy family and now heir to an industrial fortune? Or was the little survivor Emilie Vitral, whose grandparents operate a van that sells snack food in Dieppe? Both sets of parents died in the crash, and the primitive DNA testing of the time can’t provide an answer. Meanwhile, sleazy Crédule Grand-Duc, a former mercenary turned private detective, spends the next 18 years trying to uncover the child’s identity. This fascinating tale of intrigue and murder delves into complicated family bonds as it builds to a surprising and shocking conclusion.

Daniel Philpott's deft delivery is ideal for this intricate story, which shifts in time from 1980 to 1998. When a plane crashes on the French-Swiss border, everyone is killed except for one of the two infant girls who were aboard. Philpott expertly depicts members of two families--the wealthy de Carvilles and the struggling Vitrals--who vie to prove that the survivor is theirs. It's intriguing to hear the eighteen-year-investigation of private detective Credule Grand-Duc, who is hired by the de Carvilles to prove the girl is their daughter. Equally gripping is the character of Marc Vitral, who uses Grand-Duc's journal to come to a different conclusion. Philpott keeps listeners on their toes. S.G.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

August 1, 2015

When he's not working as a geography professor at the University of Rouen, Bussi is one of France's best-known crime writers. But he really hit the jackpot with this book, which was on the best sellers list in France for two years, has been sold to more than 25 countries, and won multiple awards; it also attracted a lot of attention at BEA in May. The premise: a plane crashes in the Swiss Alps, with the sole survivor a three-month-old girl thrown from the wreckage before it bursts into flames. But which of the two infants on board is she? The families--one rich, powerful, and threatening--immediately start fighting. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2015
A plane crash and the identity of its lone survivor form the delicious premise for Bussi's novel. It's 1980, and a plane en route from Istanbul to Paris crashes into the side of a mountain. Everyone aboard is killed, but searchers find one survivor, an infant girl who's been improbably thrown from the plane. The 3-month-old baby is immediately hailed as a miracle child and would be reunited with her grandparents except for one small problem: there were two baby girls on the flight, and neither set of grandparents has ever seen their granddaughters. Up springs a battle to claim the little girl, with a rich family, the de Carvilles, on one side and a poor family, the Vitrals, on the other. But a man who has investigated the case for 18 years is at the center of the drama. Credule Grand Duc, a private investigator hired by the de Carvilles to prove the child is their Lyse-Rose and not Emilie Vitral, has finally determined the child's identity. Complicated by the fact that DNA was not a commonplace identifying tool until the later 1980s, the action moves back and forth over the years as the two families tussle over the child, to the present day of the book, which is 1998. Bussi has an intriguing premise, but many things about his narrative will frustrate readers, including DNA test results that no one bothers to read, and when people do, they keep the results secret. Lyse-Rose's older sister, Malvina, is a heavy-handed villain; Emilie's brother, Marc, is also the girl's lover, adding the possibility of incest to the mix; and Grand Duc's recounting of the events, in a notebook he left behind at his death, is a meandering mess that's like a long-winded uncle stretching a one-minute story into a three-hour monologue. Lots of initial promise, but the plot proves improbable and the execution melodramatic.

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Starred review from December 1, 2015
This is the first of French crime novelist Bussi's novels to appear in an English translation, and it's a real corker. In 1980, a plane crash kills all but one person aboard the aircraft. The survivor, a baby girl, is thrown clear. A wealthy businessmen says the girl is his granddaughter, but so does a considerably less well-off man. A judge decides the girl is the granddaughter of the poor man, but the wealthy man doesn't take defeat well. His wife hires a private investigator to find out who the girl really is, once and for all, and now, 18 years later, the private investigator is ready to admit defeat. But, moments before his planned suicide, he finally realizes he's known the solution to the mystery all along. That's just the setup to this devilishly complex thriller, which intercuts scenes set in the present day (1998) with excerpts from the investigator's journal that take us through the history of the case. On nearly every page, the story adds another layer of complexity, another tantalizing clue (forcing us to doubt all our assumptions about the girl). Brilliantly conceived and executed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)