The Praying Mantises - Hubert Monteilhet

The French are especially good at crime novels populated with adulterous, scheming lovers. Monteilhet in his first work of crime fiction took this quintessentially French idea doubled the usual number of adulterers, and added an eavesdropping subplot that turned this suspense subgenre on its head. Knowing as little as possible about the plot of this book is the better than having too much revealed. I'll try to be careful in discussing the story.

In a nod to the Victorian novelists Monteilhet also constructs his novel in the epistolary form. The book consists solely of letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles in telling the story. The focus is on two married couples: Paul and Vera Canova, a university history professor and his Russian emigrant wife, and Beatrice and Christian Magny, M. Canova's secretary and her husband who happens to be a teaching assistant to M. Canova. The book opens with a series of letters from M. Canova to his bank and a life insurance company outlining his plans prior to a wedding. I cannot help but think of Double Indemnity whenever life insurance is mentioned in a crime novel written anytime after the 1940s. You can be sure that the Byzantine instructions about the life insurance policy and how the money is to be handled and dispersed will play a pivotal role in the story. From there the story twists and winds its way through the machinations of the three other main characters.

The most interesting aspect is that the story begins as a murder plot conspiracy then deftly turns it around. As with most of the works of Boileau and Narcejac the story is taken over by one of the intended victims. This character discovers the plot prior to its culmination and then goes about constructing a devious plan in order to gather evidence of the premediated murder to be used against the plotters. And this person allows the murderers to carry out their plan almost as planned. The key word there is almost. What follows this decision is a cruel plan of vengeance exacted upon the murderers. Typical of this type of suspense tale the ending has a some satisify-ingly ironic touches.

If you are looking for a break from a steady diet of whodunits and want to sample something with a more exotic flavor then look no fruther. The Praying Mantises is far from typical fare and will more than satisfy a craving for something delectably diabolical. That it also garnered two literary prizes for Monteilhet certainly underlines its value as a creme de la creme work of crime fiction.