Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa – translated by Jacky Collins – Blog Tour Review.

About The Book

When police arrest eccentric loner Émile Gassiat for the murder of a wealthy woman in a shabby seaside apartment in Biarritz, Inspector Canonne is certain he has put the killer behind bars.
Now he just needs to prove it.
But he hasn’t reckoned with the young man’s friends, who bring in lawyer-turned-investigator Larten to head for the desolate out-of-season south-west of France to dig deep into what really happened.
Larten’s hunt for the truth takes him back to the bustle of Paris as he seeks to demonstrate that the man in prison is innocent, despite all the evidence – and to uncover the true killer behind a series of bizarre murders.

My Review

With thanks to the publisher for the copy received. I don’t read a lot of translated fiction, something which I tend to regret when I had the chance to read one such as this. There must be a lot of great novels what I’m missing out on. This novel was only short but it was packed with some fascinating and original characters, lies and murder. One of the things I enjoyed most were the characters. I wanted to know more about all of them. Original doesn’t even begin to cover the ones who feature here. Larten was definitely wanted to know more about, There was only a taster about his personality but it left me wanting to know more. I suspect that the reader has only seen a glimpse of him and there is a lot to discover.

The case itself was a little unusual. Whilst I didn’t think the only suspect, Émile, was the culprit he didn’t do that much to help himself. He was certainly loyal to his lady friends and didn’t seem to concerned about the situation that he was in. Larten had to work hard to persuade him that the only way he could prove his innocence was to reveal who they were and what they had provided for him. 

The detective only appeared for brief intervals, and these seemed to focus more on his marriage and dental issues rather than the investigation. He seemed to be quite happy to let Larten prove his suspect innocent rather than the police prove him guilty.

A slightly unusual novel, it was short but I would love to see these characters again. I hope there will be a follow up.