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isbale3's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
pjchappie's review against another edition
4.25
This is not a mystery or thriller book. If you go into this short novel expecting twists and turns, you’ll come up short.
What this book really is, is one priest’s journey to find out the truth behind a crime that hits too close to home, even if it causes him to question his steadfast beliefs.
The reviews I’ve seen so far rate this book fairly low and complain about the misogyny and lewdness of the police inspector, but that’s the point. Most of the men in this book are despicable, horrible, perverted human beings, even the ones that are supposedly “good”.
The Madonna of Notre Dame sheds a light on what is considered “good,” and “moral”….can an injustice be righted through good deeds even if those deeds are technically illegal? Can faith still be pure if you had to do immoral things to right a wrong?
All of these questions culminate in a story that is all at once heartbreaking and hopeful.
What this book really is, is one priest’s journey to find out the truth behind a crime that hits too close to home, even if it causes him to question his steadfast beliefs.
The reviews I’ve seen so far rate this book fairly low and complain about the misogyny and lewdness of the police inspector, but that’s the point. Most of the men in this book are despicable, horrible, perverted human beings, even the ones that are supposedly “good”.
The Madonna of Notre Dame sheds a light on what is considered “good,” and “moral”….can an injustice be righted through good deeds even if those deeds are technically illegal? Can faith still be pure if you had to do immoral things to right a wrong?
All of these questions culminate in a story that is all at once heartbreaking and hopeful.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Misogyny, and Gun violence
Minor: Racism, Homophobia, and Sexism
lizaroo71's review against another edition
2.0
I want to give this more stars, but I feel like the story is just not fleshed out enough. It is a short book, but that doesn't mean the characters have to suffer the fate of one-dimension.
The mystery of the "madonna" is a young woman found dead in the Notre Dame Cathedral. As the investigators and the DA piece together the puzzle, it is, ultimately, a priest that connects all of the dots.
A quick read, so one I found worth finishing.
The mystery of the "madonna" is a young woman found dead in the Notre Dame Cathedral. As the investigators and the DA piece together the puzzle, it is, ultimately, a priest that connects all of the dots.
A quick read, so one I found worth finishing.
swiveller's review against another edition
Men writing women. The description of the female detective getting dressed skeeved me out.
lilacs_book_bower's review against another edition
The sexism and the misogyny was too gross for me to keep reading. Also, some weird grammatical choices that made me distrust the narrator.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny
cynthiak's review against another edition
3.0
Un petit polar tres bien écrit de facture classique où une procureure et un prêtre font équipe et dans lequel Notre-Dame de Paris est un réel personnage.
suria_go's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
diannel_04's review against another edition
I tried but the senior cop is such a horrible man and the woman who is supposed to be the main character just stands around and does nothing. DNF.
tonstantweader's review
2.0
I love reading mysteries written by authors from other countries. It’s an interesting form of armchair travel that has made me a forever-addict to the Akashic Noir series. I have an enduring love Fred Vargas whose procedural mysteries are infused with a deep compassion and humanity. Excited at the possibility of a new French mystery writer, I was eager to read The Madonna of Notre Dame by Alexis Ragougneau, which was translated into English by Katherine Gregor.
The story opens with the murder of a beautiful woman dressed all in white at the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame, a site visited by 50,000 tourists every day. But don’t think that means there are lots of witnesses. She was murdered during the night, placed so she looked like she was praying and not discovered until someone sat next to her.
Father Kern was one of the people who discovered the body and he begins to investigate because he is certain of the innocence of the obvious suspect, a mentally ill young man who had attacked the woman the day before during a procession. He investigates, as does a police detective who is also troubled by the easy, and obvious solution that makes everyone else happy.
★★
I was disappointed in this novel, though if Regougneau writes a second, I will give it a chance and read it because I think he has the makings of a good mystery novelist. I do not read French, so I cannot know for certain if the tone that put me off comes from the translator or the author. There was a prurience that made me uncomfortable. I know that when women are murdered, there are often details of the murder that implicate sexual fetishes and psychoses, but when they are lingered over with too much loving detail, I am turned off. There is a scene in the apartment of the obvious suspect that I thought was gross and unnecessary in its details and narrative excess. It turned me off so much I considered not finishing the book, but I was interested in the humane Father Kern and wanted to see where the author took him.
I also did not like the mysterious disease that afflicts Father kern. Give him rheumatoid arthritis or chronic fatigue or anything but some mysterious recurring and debilitating disease that makes no sense, that seems more like an affliction induced psychosomatically or by a punishing god. I want it to go away forever. There is a hallucinatory scene with the priest that again makes little sense and makes this humane, kindly and intelligent priest seem too naive and unaware to ever be the same person who earlier in that same day made the logical leap that brought him to that neighborhood at that time.
The biggest flaw, though, is that this is not truly a fair mystery. Readers are provided the clues that make the detective and the priest doubt the official police narrative, but the evidence that narrows the field from a set of suspects toward a narrower group is absent. Well, it’s there, the priest sees it plain as day in a video and the detective is told exactly who the murderer is by a witness, but that is “off-screen” so to speak. It would be too revealing to give the specifics, but there should be some other clues that narrow the field somehow.
We are also give the “mind of the murder” narrative, my personal pet peeve, a flashback to the past when the fatal flaw was introduced into the killer’s psyche. It was unnecessary and psychologically unpersuasive.
But, despite all those flaws, I do look forward to reading another by Ragougneau for the following reasons. He writes complex and intriguing characters. He creates a strong sense of place and mood. While I thought that hallucinatory scene with the priest was unlikely, it was truly hallucinatory. As a reader, the whole spinning, out-of-control, why-am-I-here, how-can-this-be unreality of it was magnificent. Ragougneau can write! I just want a stronger plot.
The Madonna of Notre Dame is only available in electronic format at the moment and will be released in paper on October 11th.
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/the-madonna-of-notre-dame-by-alexis-ragougneau/
The story opens with the murder of a beautiful woman dressed all in white at the famed Cathedral of Notre Dame, a site visited by 50,000 tourists every day. But don’t think that means there are lots of witnesses. She was murdered during the night, placed so she looked like she was praying and not discovered until someone sat next to her.
Father Kern was one of the people who discovered the body and he begins to investigate because he is certain of the innocence of the obvious suspect, a mentally ill young man who had attacked the woman the day before during a procession. He investigates, as does a police detective who is also troubled by the easy, and obvious solution that makes everyone else happy.
★★
I was disappointed in this novel, though if Regougneau writes a second, I will give it a chance and read it because I think he has the makings of a good mystery novelist. I do not read French, so I cannot know for certain if the tone that put me off comes from the translator or the author. There was a prurience that made me uncomfortable. I know that when women are murdered, there are often details of the murder that implicate sexual fetishes and psychoses, but when they are lingered over with too much loving detail, I am turned off. There is a scene in the apartment of the obvious suspect that I thought was gross and unnecessary in its details and narrative excess. It turned me off so much I considered not finishing the book, but I was interested in the humane Father Kern and wanted to see where the author took him.
I also did not like the mysterious disease that afflicts Father kern. Give him rheumatoid arthritis or chronic fatigue or anything but some mysterious recurring and debilitating disease that makes no sense, that seems more like an affliction induced psychosomatically or by a punishing god. I want it to go away forever. There is a hallucinatory scene with the priest that again makes little sense and makes this humane, kindly and intelligent priest seem too naive and unaware to ever be the same person who earlier in that same day made the logical leap that brought him to that neighborhood at that time.
The biggest flaw, though, is that this is not truly a fair mystery. Readers are provided the clues that make the detective and the priest doubt the official police narrative, but the evidence that narrows the field from a set of suspects toward a narrower group is absent. Well, it’s there, the priest sees it plain as day in a video and the detective is told exactly who the murderer is by a witness, but that is “off-screen” so to speak. It would be too revealing to give the specifics, but there should be some other clues that narrow the field somehow.
We are also give the “mind of the murder” narrative, my personal pet peeve, a flashback to the past when the fatal flaw was introduced into the killer’s psyche. It was unnecessary and psychologically unpersuasive.
But, despite all those flaws, I do look forward to reading another by Ragougneau for the following reasons. He writes complex and intriguing characters. He creates a strong sense of place and mood. While I thought that hallucinatory scene with the priest was unlikely, it was truly hallucinatory. As a reader, the whole spinning, out-of-control, why-am-I-here, how-can-this-be unreality of it was magnificent. Ragougneau can write! I just want a stronger plot.
The Madonna of Notre Dame is only available in electronic format at the moment and will be released in paper on October 11th.
http://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2016/10/01/the-madonna-of-notre-dame-by-alexis-ragougneau/
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