Zonnesteek

Inhoud

Uit liefde voor zijn vroegere vriendin, de mooie nachtclubzangeres Pascale, besluit de jonge Gerard zijn vrouw te vermoorden. Zij is de eigenares van een beroemd modehuis, een nerveuze, veeleisende vrouw, die de knappe, maar nogal weke jongeman volkomen domineert.
Onder de kokende Spaanse zon, waar het echtpaar vakantie houdt, volgt dan de volmaakte misdaad.

Bespreking

Murder with a twist

Driven by the immense love for his old girlfriend, the ever beautiful night club singer Pascale, the young Gérard decides to kill his wife Dorothée. She is the owner of a famous fashion house in Paris. Although Dorothée seems very weak and nervous at first sight, she still has Gérard under full control. Gérard seems incapable to fight against her never-ending flow of complaints and demands, until his old flame Pascal enters his live. Under the boiling Spanish sun, during a supposedly relaxing holiday, the spineless Gérard turns into an evil mastermind and commits the perfect crime.
Although Un soleil de plomb gets up to speed very slowly, this story really delivers at the end. The first half of the book is used to weave an elaborate picture of the wife and this tends to be a bit too ponderous. But when Dorothée dies nothing seems to stop the flow of surprises and twists. Michel Lebrun has already proven to be a master in plotting enthralling mysteries. With this book he shows that he has a very sadistic mind too, because the end is ready-cut for an episode of Tales from the Unexpected.