Black Water Lilies

Michel Bussi

Orion Publishing Group, Limited, 2016 - Giverny (France) - 350 pages

CRIME & MYSTERY. Giverny. During the day, the home of the famous artist Claude Monet and the gardens where he painted his waterlilies. But once the tourists have gone, there is a darker side to the peaceful French village. This is the story of thirteen days that begin with one murder and end with another. Jerome Morval, a man whose passion for art was matched only by his passion for women, has been found dead in the stream that runs through the gardens. In his pocket is a postcard of Monet's Waterlilies with the words: Eleven years old. Happy Birthday. Entangled in the mystery are three women: a young painting prodigy, the seductive village schoolteacher and an old widow who watches over the village from a mill by the stream. All three of them share a secret. But what do they know about the discovery of Jerome Morval's corpse? And what is the connection to the mysterious, rumoured painting of Black Waterlilies?

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - jayne_charles - LibraryThing

Something didn't feel quite right about this book most of the time I was reading it. I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe it was the nearly-but-not-quite omniscient narrator, maybe the storyline with ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - pgchuis - LibraryThing

I forced myself to finish this and I hadn't worked out the ending, but even that didn't really redeem it for me. I struggled with the Frenchness?/whimsey of the police investigation and seriously disliked Laurenc. The Monet bits were mildly interesting.

About the author

Michel Bussi is the author of eight bestselling thrillers. In 2013 alone, his books sold half a million copies in his native France. He has won fifteen literary awards, making him one of France's most prestigious crime authors. When not writing fiction, he is a Professor of Geography at the University of Rouen and a political commentator. Un avion sans elle is his first book to be published in the UK.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Black Water Lilies
• Author: Michel Bussi
• Translated by: Shaun Whiteside
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Group, Limited, 2016
• ISBN: 1474601758, 9781474601757
• Length: 350 pages