A review by elerireads
Le mystère Henri Pick by David Foenkinos

4.0

This is very much my kind of book. It's a sweet little mystery full of surprising turns that leave you hanging right till the very end. It's very cleverly written, in a deceptively simple style and matter-of-fact tone. All the way through we have this nagging feeling that something doesn't add up but find it difficult to distrust such an open and honest narrative voice (I had initially guessed at the ending, but over the course of the book was convinced I had been wrong). I love that it's a true mystery - unlike most detective stories etc., it doesn't need any element of danger or time pressure to keep you hooked.

Along the way, as the story unravels, we encounter more and more people connected to the mystery in different ways. Between them they show us a wide range of different ways that people can be unhappy, but over the course of the book they are forced to re-evaluate their lives and find their own happiness. Put like that it sounds cheesy and annoying to read but it really wasn't, because everything was handled with such a light and unsentimental touch.

I also love the way this book questions how well people can ever really know eachother.