The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau is a slow-burning mystery that offers a unique narrative style.

While the pace may not suit those seeking a quick thriller, the intricate character development and the atmospheric portrayal of a small town add depth to the story.

Fans of psychological mysteries will appreciate the nuanced exploration of secrets and lies in a close-knit community.

Okay, this was tricksy. I really like how clever and thought out the plot is. It's hard to really put my thoughts into sentences. Burnet is a very interesting writer and I know I'll be back for more of his work.

This book was quickly added to my radar after enjoying the gloomy but beautifully atmospheric Booker Prize finalist, His Bloody Project. While this book was very different, it had a similarly unusual narrative style and centered around a distinctive protagonist. This wasn't a quick read per se, but the writing was well-done and unique.

I enjoyed this book!

It's short and snappy, yet layered enough to give you the creeps and let you form strong opinions about its characters.

Manfred Bauman is a loner on the outskirts of society. His evenings are spent at a bistro, spying on the titular character and having inappropriate thoughts which he goes home and erm, acts upon, shall we say!
Bauman tries so hard to be normal that his behaviour becomes abnormal - regimented, routine, predictable and, well, strange.

When Adele mysteriously disappears, Georges Gorski, who is investigating the case, sets Bauman firmly in his eyeline. But he is not the easiest witness. Both main characters have haunting secrets which come to light in this slow burn novel that's intriguing enough to be a rapid read!

Not for me, i've tried reading this over and over for a few years now. It's just not doing it. It's had a few good reviews so it must have something going for it, but i'm just not feeling it.

Thank you to the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during that 2nd attempt, I have only managed to make it halfway through so I'd rather stop here and state that this book just wasn't for me.

Set in a quiet and insignificant town of Saint-Louis, a town along the French Swiss border, this book was originally written in 1982 and was written by Raymond Brunet. The book has been translated by GMB, and this book is simply brilliant and just as strange. Adele is a waitress at Restaurant de la cloche, a restaurant where Manfred Baumann is a regular. She goes missing, and this book is set around the time of her disappearance. The two pivotal characters in this book are Manfred and Gorski, the cop who investigates the disappearance of Adele. Manfred is a rather peculiar, yet ordinary man. He is a manager in a bank, and leads his life in the most absurd yet ordinary manner. Due to certain instances, he is constantly under the impression that he is being watched. The way the characters are built is simply brilliant. Manfred and the way he acts is strange, and it constantly reminded me of The stranger by Camus. He is a voracious reader, and sometimes the way he behaves makes him seem like an actor leading his life for the benefit of an audience that he imagines is watching him. What is his role in Adele's disappearance? One of the angles of the story is that and yet there is so much more than here mere disappearance. The book felt more like watching a play than reading a novel. Everything revolves around a few characters and is set in only a few places. This on one hand shows how small the town is and how everything and everyone is interconnected, it also perhaps shows the way the Author thinks.
It has also been made into a French movie, and I really look forward to watching it! It has been one unique and engaging read that shows how mundane plots can be elevated to being extraordinary! If you read this book, do not forget to read the afterword by the Translator, as it might throw light on a lot of things that you may be wondering about! Overall, a brilliant book that anyone who enjoys good character building will like😍. . .

How fortunate, that after being almost continually in print in France since 1982, this book has now been translated for English readers. This was not what I expected, because the disappearance of a girl named Adele is only the catalyst of the unraveling of several other events. Raymond Brunet was a clever writer to develop the main character, Manfred, in the artful way that he did. The reader finds it hard not to be on his side, while also seeing his many flaws. He is an unforgettable character.

This is an understated and cleverly written book.

The disappearance of Adele Bedeau is in fact the backdrop for a very well executed characterisation of the two protagonists, Manfred Baumann and Inspector Gorski. The former in particular comes alive in front of our eyes as a socially awkward and repressed individual, struggling to fit in among his peers.

It is a credit to the author the way he centred the book around a creepy and unlikeable character, while meandering through past and present events and creating a dark and atmospheric storyline.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest and impartial review.

The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau is about Manfred Baumann, an awkward man who does not seem to be able to connect with anyone. When Adele Bedeau disappeared everyone in his small town suspected that Manfred had something to do with her disappearance. Many people thought that Adele was murdered, however, a body was not found so Manfred could not be charged for any crime. This novel was fast moving and it made me want to keep reading. I usually like to like the characters is my books and this book had no likable characters. If you can overlook the unappealing cast of characters, I think that you will like this novel.

This book has one of the least likeable characters. It was instant dislike scenario for me when Manfred began his narration.

Manfred was circumstantial creepy, or well, he was creepy. He just gave me the heeby jeebes. The way he thought was creepy. He wasn't though. But he was kinda. :/

We got other pov's as well. I didn't like those either but they helped move the storyline obviously.

This was a translated work based on a French novel. But I didn't realize that. Quite liked that.

By the end of it, Manfred's past was revealed and the circumstances led to one thing and another and I did feel for Manfred. It was purely sad what happened to him.

I quite liked the non-ironic ending. In regards to Adele.

My goodreads thoughts right after I finished the book:
"A really dislikable main narrator. But I felt for him too. But really, don't like Manfred. This is a translated work and I think it as a good one. As I felt the digression. Translated novels always lose the essence of the original books but I could feel it here. Dunno.

The similarities between original author and main character are saddening. Added to the rating."

Special thanks to NetGalley and the Publishers for this review copy.

This was not your average mystery. Immediately we learn that the main character is a disturbing individual. Past events and present behavior create an ominous tone as we follow his actions during the investigation of a young woman’s disappearance. Don’t be fooled into thinking there are no surprises here. Well done!

Adele Bedeau, a waitress at the Restaurant de la Cloche in Saint-Louis goes missing. But without a body, there could be no murder investigation. Saint-Louis is a small, nondescript border town in the Alsace region - a place where few visitors wish to linger. Its inhabitants are creatures of habit, following routines on a daily basis. Daily lunches at the Restaurant de la Cloche and weekly card games. Life slowly passes them by.
Manfred Baumann inherited his father’s graceless demeanour and his mother’s sickly constitution making him an ill-at-ease outsider, an observer of life rather than a participant. Throughout his life, he found it impossible to form the kind of relationships, either passing or profound, which come naturally to most people. Inspector Gorski of the Saint-Louis police is a man who accepts his lot in life but is haunted by an unsolved case from his youth. When Adele disappears Inspector Gorski questions Manfred in connection with her disappearance as the restaurant where she worked was one that Manfred frequents daily for lunch and supper.
In France, this novel has been in print since 1982 and it is only now that it has been translated into English. In France, it achieved the status of cult classic after the screen version in 1989. I really think the translator did an admirable job as I never thought that the book was not originally written in English. The author was from Saint-Louis originally and there are many parallels between the novel and the life of the author, Raymond Brunet, although it is a work of fiction. However, the Restaurant de la Cloche and Saint-Louis are exactly as they are described in the book. The novel brought home to me how mundane many people’s lives are, how we never really know our acquaintances – what are their home lives like? How do they really feel? Most people never really say what they are feeling; some can’t as they do not have the social skills to mingle in everyday society like Georges Simenon wrote “Everything is true while nothing is accurate”.
Saphira
Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

What a strange little book.

One night, waitress Adele Bedeau leaves work and meets up with a young man. She doesn't show up for work the following day...and the investigation begins. Manfred Baumann, a patron of the restaurant where Adele works, is initially a bystander, but through his own missteps and bumbling, ends up at the center of the case.

I think the part about the story that I found most interesting was the translation note at the end. I became confused about whether or not it was accurate or not, and had to do some research online in order to figure it out.

A strange little book indeed.

Dark, odd, and entirely worth the read. I can see a lot of people not liking how slow it is, but I thought it was a fascinating character study of two intriguing people who shouldn't be thrown together, but are.

Manfred in an observer in life, not a participant. He assumes everyone else is observing him the way he observes them, noting his habits and proclivities. He doesn't realize they're participants in life. They're too busy living and don't consider him to be of note, but he's oblivious.

One of his very favorite people to observe, Adele Bedeau, is a pretty young waitress at his regular restaurant. She's friendly but cool to him. She certainly doesn't encourage his attention whatsoever, but she has it. He even follows her a couple of times when she leaves work. Not in a creepy way. It's not like he's some kind of stalker. He's simply... curious.

Adele disappears one night without a trace, and the police are stumped. Detective George Gorski is convinced Manfred is keeping something from him, which he is. Gorski starts to relate this disappearance to another twenty years ago when he was just a rookie... a different young lady who was found dead in the woods. He's never been satisfied with the conviction for her murder. Will Adele be found when it's too late as well? And why does he feel so hung up on Manfred?

Manfred is a man who never gets close to anyone. He has many secrets, some which would destroy his life. But is Adele one of them?

Polarizing ending, intriguing premise, a little dirty, old school feel. I loved it.

I received an ARC of this book from Net Galley and Skyhorse Publishing, thank you! My review is honest and unbiased.

Graeme Macrae Burnet writes beautifully and that’s what sets this novel apart from the crowd. With exquisite detail, he lays out the ordered, humdrum life of Manfred Baumann, a 36 year old bank manager in the sleepy small French town of Saint-Louis near the Swiss border. Manfred would rather eat food he dislikes than disrupt the pattern of his life and thus draw attention to himself.
He dresses in the same boring suits, eats at the same bistro every day and orders the same food. He drinks his wine in the evenings in the same bistro and his carefully constructed and fastidious life follows a pattern that seldom varies. Even his somewhat functional sex life, conducted wholly without attachment, is accorded a place in his routine. His companion drinkers in the bistro with whom he has a nodding acquaintance after years of patronage, casually allow him to play cards with them one evening a week, but even then the convention is that he waits to be invited. He is the eponymous Outsider and the echoes of Camus are strong in places.
Though he strives to affect detached indifference, he is curious about the bistro’s waitress, Adele in whom he sees a languorous dormant sexuality which makes him both curious and somehow uncomfortable.
When Adele suddenly disappears, Manfred finds himself caught up in the speculation over her disappearance and it is not long before the detective assigned to the case, Gorki, begins to treat it as a murder.
Gorski is haunted by a past failure, a case he failed to solve when he was in his twenties and just at the start of his career. A teenage girl was murdered in a wood and though someone was convicted of her murder, Gorski has never been satisfied that they had the correct result.
With lovely echoes of French noir in a Simenon novel, Gorski begins to look at all the people Adele came into contact with, and it is not long before his gaze falls on Manfred.
Manfred, overly given to being concerned about what people think of him, struggles to tell Gorski the truth about his movements, and thus the mystery begins to entangle both characters in a twisted path which cannot do other than lead to tragedy.
As Manfred’s carefully constructed life slowly disintegrates under Gorski’s scrutiny, the secrets of his past and his present become one big lie he struggles to hold on to.
I really enjoyed this book because of its literary antecedents, its psychological complexities and the fabulous characterisation of time, place and people.
Beautifully done and with a nice afterword, which really must be read as part of the novel, this is a gem of a book.

It's been a few days since I finished this book and I'm still reeling from all of the emotions. It was creepy, awkward, and beautiful in all the right ways. If anyone's life could be described by bad luck, bad timing, and bad decisions, it's Manfred Baumann's. When a random waitress at a restaurant Manfred frequents goes missing, a determined investigator takes the case and his inquiries set off a chain of events that leads to uncovering the truth about Manfred's troubled past and a decades-old murder. While the book at times can become a little too wordy in setting the tone or discussing backstories, the main story itself is gripping. I read this book within two days (including feverishly reading during short breaks at work) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. To me, the sign of a good book is that I you find yourself thinking about it long after you finish it. I have a feeling I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come,

The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau is one of the first novel by Graeme Macrae Burnet, author of His Bloody Project, novel listed at the Man Booker Prize 2016.

This novel is set in a French town, and it focuses on Manfred Baumann, on one side a succesful man, director of a bank, but at the same time a loner, with extreme difficulties in social interactions.

Manfred is also a creature of habit: he has all his dishes at the restaurant where Adèle Bedeau works as a waitress. One night, out of the restaurant, Manfred sees Adèle - who is waiting a guy - and, after a short conversation, he has the idea that the woman is romantically interested in him. A few days later Adèle does not come to work and the police begins inquiring after her disappearance.

The novel, a noir in which we have access to a couple of points of view (Baumann's and police inspector Georges Gorski), keeps the reader attention till the end, since he/she is not able to understand whether to trust the narrators (in particular concerning Baumann). The strong point of the story is in the characters, and in the ability to build a coherent figure of a lone and disturbed man, a creator of dreams and paranoia based on nothing.

It's a very good book mostly for the characterization of Baumann, who we follow in the abyss he builds himself with his own thoughts.

Thanks to the publisher for providing me the copy necessary to write this review.

Manfred Baumann is a 36-year-old bank manager in the small, humdrum French town of Saint-Louis. He is a peculiar man, a loner, and a creature of habits, dining at the same local restaurant daily, sitting at the same table and ordering the same meals. He worries constantly about what others think of him and imagines himself in wonderful relationships with various women who have not shown the slightest interest in him. These inner dialogues reminded me very much of those Britt-Marie from Fredrik Backman’s “ Britt-Marie Was Here” (although Britt was a much more sympathetic character).

A young waitress in the restaurant Manfred frequents goes missing, and suspicions arise about Manfred. The local police inspector, Gorski, another tortured soul, suspects that Manfred might have something to do with her disappearance, and also with a case that he 'solved' many years before.

Burnet brings this small town and the characters to life in a way that really transports the reader there. The stories of both Baumann and Gorski are engrossing, and solving the mysteries of Adele’s disappearance and a past crime makes it hard to put this book down. And just when the reader thinks he has reached the end, there is another huge surprise!

I absolutely loved this wonderful book, one of the best reads of the year for me, and would highly recommend it.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Ambientato in un paesino francese nei pressi di Strasburgo, si rivela un acutissimo studio di caratteri, in particolare quello distorto, paranoico, ossessivo del protagonista Manfred, e del poliziotto che, senza saperlo, da vent'anni gli dà la caccia.
Un risultato notevole, che affascina sia nella ricostruzione d'ambiente che nell'anatomizzazione dei personaggi.