Celui qui sait, by Ian McGuire: A gripping revenge thriller
Celui Qui Sait, de Ian McGuire : un roman policier captivant sur la vengeance
Un nouveau polar à ne pas manquer.
Celui qui sait est le dernier polar de Ian McGuire : un auteur britannique connu pour ses intrigues surprenantes et rondement ficelées. Pour ce nouveau roman, il nous entraîne dans les bas-fonds du Manchester de la fin du dix-neuvième siècle, secoués par le meurtre d'un policier aux mains de trois nationalistes irlandais. Un mystère à ne pas manquer.
In November 1867, three Irish nationalists were hanged before a large crowd from a gibbet erected on the walls of Salford prison. They’d been fitted up for the murder of a police officer shot through the eye two months earlier. Outrage over a terrible crime led to the railroading of these innocent men, and perpetuated a cycle of injustice, martyrdom, radicalisation and terror.
2. McGuire draws on these events for his third novel The Abstainer. He begins on the eve of the
three men’s execution. In an office, Manchester police brood over the possibility of reprisals. The newly industrialised city is teeming with Irish immigrants, many of whom harbour republican sympathies. It’s a tense, chilly opening, full of ominous portents of the retaliation to come.
3. James O’Connor is the novel’s titular character: a teetotal Irish police officer who harbours grave doubts about the wisdom of attempting to suppress the Fenians with violence.
4. As the only Irishman in the police department, O’Connor is an outsider, able to move freely among Manchester’s large Irish population. From his network of informers, he soon learns that the Fenians are preparing to escalate. They’re bringing over a veteran from the US civil war, a man named Stephen Doyle, to carry out a spectacular but as yet undetermined act of terror. The stage is quickly set for a battle of ruthlessness and cunning between the two émigré Irishmen.
"THE VIVIDNESS OF A SCREENPLAY"
5. The book is written with the vividness and economy of a screenplay, unfolding through a series of sharply observed scenes full of cliffhangers, misdirection and reverses. Its lovely, rhythmic prose evokes the stinks of the Victorian city, its factories, rat-baiting arenas and slaughterhouses. The novel reminded me of the best police procedurals – The Wire by gaslight.
6. You might argue that a game of cat and mouse between an alcoholic cop and his scarred, implacable antagonist is not exactly breaking new ground in a thriller, but one of the pleasures of this book is that it reworks familiar tropes in surprising ways.
7. The ending is replete with consolation and irony. While never being so clumsy as to carry any overt message, it also hints at the seductive combination of transcendence and delusion that lies behind the promises of all worldchanging ideologies.
1. to hang, hanged or hung, hanged or hung pendre / crowd foule / gibbet potence / to erect ériger / to fit sb up monter un coup contre qqn, piéger qqn / to shoot, shot, shot abattre (arme à feu) / outrage scandale, tollé / to lead, led, led to conduire, aboutir à / railroading ici, procès, condamnation injuste.
2. to draw, drew, drawn on puiser dans, s'inspirer de / novel roman /
to brood over ici, s'inquiéter de, craindre / reprisal représailles / to teem with grouiller, regorger de / to harbour nourrir, entretenir / chilly froid, austère / ominous inquiétant, sinistre / portent présage, augure / retaliation représailles.
3. titular ici, qui donne son nom au roman / character personnage / teetotal qui ne boit pas d'alcool / to suppress ici, neutraliser / Fenian Fénien (nationaliste irlandais qui lutte contre la présence britannique).
4. outsider ici personne étrangère à un milieu / informer informateur, indicateur / to escalate montrer d'un cran / to bring, brought, brought over faire venir, inviter / as yet pour l'instant / stage ici, décor, conditions / to be set ici, être planté (décor), être réunies (conditions) / ruthlessness cruauté / cunning ruse.
5. screenplay scénario / to unfold se dérouler / cliffhanger situation à suspense / misdirection ici, leurre, illusion / reverse revirement / stink puanteur / factory usine / rat-baiting activité consistant à placer des rats dans un espace fermé et à parier sur le temps qu’un chien met à tous les tuer / slaughterhouse abattoir / police procedural série policière / The Wire (VF) Sur écoute.
6. cop flic / scarred mutilé, marqué (cicatrice) / to break, broke, broken new ground innover, être une première / thriller roman à suspense / trope ici, thème récurrent.
7. to be replete with regorger de / clumsy maladroit / overt évident, flagrant / to hint at donner un aperçu de, suggérer / delusion illusion, délire / to lie, lay, lain behind sous-tendre.