The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau

 From the author of Man Booker-shortlisted 

His Bloody Project 

The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau 

by Graeme Macrae Burnet 
Text Publishing - NZ$26.00

The debut novel from the author of His Bloody Project, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau is an intimate portrayal of an outsider in a small community, of a man who cannot shake the feeling he is always being watched, whose every moment is determined by the catastrophic secrets of his past. 

Manfred Baumann, a repressed and anxious loner, lives in the French town of Saint-Louis. By day he works at a local bank, and in the evenings frequents the drab Restaurant de la Cloche, where he surreptitiously observes the sullen yet alluring waitress, Adèle. Until, one day, she vanishes. 

Baumann becomes entangled in the police investigation, led by Georges Gorski, a detective still haunted by his failure to solve one of his first murder cases. Burnet examines Gorski’s loss of faith in the process and Baumann’s descent into paranoia in precise and 

claustrophobic detail, crafting a noir masterpiece and captivating psychological thriller that stays with the reader long after its conclusion. 

Praise for Graeme Macrae Burnet 

‘Graeme Macrae Burnet creates true noir in the mysterious, funny and intelligent The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau.’ List, Top Scottish Books of the Year 

‘The book’s pretence at veracity, as well as being a literary jeux d’esprit, brings an extraordinary historical period into focus, while the multiple unreliable perspectives are designed to keep the audience wondering, throughout the novel and beyond. This is a fiendishly readable tale that richly deserves the wider attention the Booker has brought it.’ Guardian on His Bloody Project 

‘In drawing attention to this riveting, dark and ingeniously constructed novel, the Man Booker judges have done readers hungry for new and serious fiction a tremendous favour.’ Sunday Times on His Bloody Project 

‘A gripping crime story, a deeply imagined historical novel, and gloriously written all in one tour-de-force of a book.’ Herald, Book of the Year, on His Bloody Project 

Graeme Macrae Burnet was born and brought up in Kilmarnock and now lives in Glasgow. In between, he lived in Prague, Bordeaux, Porto and London. His second book, His Bloody Project, which deals with a triple murder in a crofting village in the Scottish Highlands, has been shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.