The Executioner Weeps

Native Frenchman Daniel Mermet is vacationing near Barcelona. As a painter with an up and coming gallery exhibition, he views the world with artistic intensity. When a beautiful, young woman walks into the path of Daniel's car, he focuses on her broken violin case. Redirecting his attention to the woman, she seems unharmed, however, he decides to take her to his hotel and send for a local doctor. The woman has no papers or passport, no money and a case of amnesia. Who is she?

Daniel embarks upon a quest of discovery. A handkerchief in her possession is embroidered with the letter "M". Her clothes have a label from Saint German-en Laye, a Paris clothing shop. She speaks French. As Daniel tries to unravel her past, he falls deeply in love with "Marianne" and will circumvent the law to be with her. Daniel's love and cunning will be tested as snippets of Marianne's past slowly emerge and Daniel enters a dark, life changing nightmare.

"The Executioner Weeps" by Frederic Dard was originally published in 1956. Dard, a French crime writer, has written a novella which is both a mystery and a love story. It is fast paced, intense and dark. I was mesmerized.

Thank you Hanover Publisher Services, Steerforth Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to read and review "The Executioner Weeps".

Thank you Net Galley. A well written book, full of twists and turns. The complicated relationship between the two protagonists is addictive. You keep turning the pages eager to see what comes next. A must read.

The unusual story line keeps you reading on.. Loved the way the end comes together.
Would like to read more from this author..

First published in 1956, The Executioner Weeps is a psychological thriller that poses the question how far would you go to protect the person you love? When Daniel encounters the unknown woman, he is drawn both to her beauty and in a strange way to the fact that she remembers nothing of her past. In fact he contends: ‘I was living the dream that all men have: of loving woman without a past. A woman to whom we represent a new start’. In contradiction is his assertion that ‘There’s nothing more terrifying for a painter than a blank white canvas. It’s like a window that opens onto infinite possibilities. A window from which the most disturbing metamorphoses may emerge.’

This is the first of many links between the act of creating art and the uncovering of the mystery woman’s identity. Significantly, it is in the act of painting the woman that Daniel gets the first sense of something dark behind the attraction of her beauty and grace.

‘I had succeeded in capturing [her] most unguarded expression so well that I could read her character better in my painting than in her face. Now...I detected a bizarre glint [in her eye] which quite disconcerted me.’

Later he reflects that ‘It was strange how my artistic eye unconsciously picked out what had escaped my plain man’s eye.’

When Daniel starts to detect hints about the woman’s past and more worryingly, her memory shows signs of returning, he feels compelled to find out where she came from and how she came to be on the road on the night of their encounter. What he discovers will draw him into a ‘macabre vortex’ and a web of deceit that will have tragic consequences. You may never want to open a door in an empty house again!

I really enjoyed this dark, noir-ish thriller and introduction to the work of Frederic Dard.

He felt like she threw herself in front of his car. He was driving back to his room late at night and she jumped in front of him just like a deer would. He couldn't stop. When he turns her over, he finds that she is still alive...

Pushkin Vertigo and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you). It will be published March 28th.

He takes her back to the place he's staying and they get a doctor for her. The doctor says she wasn't hurt badly and should be fine but she can't remember anything. She doesn't know her name, if she was married, or where she came from.

Mr. Dard writes succinctly and without a lot of detail but his stories make you sit up and pay attention. This could easily be made into a play that would shock you.

He comes up her first name. He buys her another violin to replace the one he drove over. He buys her clothes and soon they fall in love. She still doesn't remember much. She remembers the room she practiced her violin in. He's caught between wanting to know and being afraid of finding out.

When his artwork can be shown in the US, he has to see if he can get her a visa to leave the country. She has no passport or visa with her. What he does when he gets to the city is see if he can find out about her past. He should have just left it alone.

The ending is unusual and unexpected. It's an ironic twist that will pop into my mind here and there in the future. Mr. Dard wrote strong stories that capture you and make their point. If you haven't read him yet, you should.

A woman steps out in front of a car driven by an artist making his way through the mountains near Barcelona. She survives the accident, but appears to have no memory of who she is. Her only possession of any note is a violin damaged by the accident.
As she convalesces in the artist’s care, the two fall in love. But it is a romance which threatens to take a sinister turn.
The Executioner Weeps was first published in 1956, but could have been written by a modern author who chose to set their story in that time.
There is great depth to the storytelling in this novel, in the breathtaking scenery, capturing the whole feel of that era, and the developing relationship between the couple. There is indeed a love story, only there is an uncomfortable edge to it as the further into the romance we are taken, the more claustrophobic and worrying it becomes for the reader.
As the story moves on it becomes ever more difficult to work out who is more vulnerable in the relationship the amnesiac woman or the artist.
Given the time the novel is set this type of relationship would be more than frowned on, but even a modern reader will have a great sense of unease with a woman who is so willing to fall into a relationship with a man who’s biography of himself she has to take at face value, which makes you question her motive. Yet Frédéric Dard’s writing leaves you questioning your own ability to make a proper judgement.
The story unfolds brilliantly and the denouement is a shocking revelation even by today's standards in crime writing.

This taut little gem of a thriller, originally published in 1956, still packs quite a wallop today. In the noir convention, but with enough thrills and surprises to warrant re-publication. A quick, exciting read! Would make an intriguing film. Thanx to Netgalley for the ARC.