Past Imperfect

by John Matthews

A car accident in California, a deadly assault in Provence, two boys 30 years apart left battling for their lives. Dominic Fornier is the detective who finds himself up against a paper chase of clues... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140277544
• ISBN13: 9780140277548
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.1" x 1.6" x 4.5"

Customer Reviews

Past Imperfect by John Matthews (Pinguin Books)

I picked up Past Imperfect by John Matthews and couldn't put it down until I finished. The character description, plot and local knowledge is incredibly detailed. This is one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading in quiet a long time. No cookie cutter writing here. I do not understand why John Matthews doesn't have a big following in the U.S.A. already. Can't wait to read his other books, even if I have to order them from the U.K. A MUST READ for any serious crime/mystery fan with the wits for more involved stories.

Mysterious, haunting, tragic but brilliantly written

I took this book on holiday with me because I wanted a nice chunky novel to last me for my three weeks in the sun. It was the best book I read, in fact I read it twice and I enjoyed even more the second time around! The plot, which at first seems complex but eventually follows several simple threads, follows a tragic car accident in California in the 1990s in which a young boy is left fighting for his life, and a horrendous assault in Provence in the 1960s where a young boy eventually dies from internal injuries. What ties these two boys together seems to be a life after death experience, and the California survivor suddenly finds himself able to recall the last days of Christian Roussel, viciously attacked then murdered by the debonair and sadistic Duclos, an up and coming French Politician. The story jumps between America, France and England as the threads of these two young lives are slowly and inevitably bought together by a dogged and emotionally scarred French Detective, Dominic Fornier whose guilt over Christian's death 30 years previously has never died. Moving back and forth between two continents and through time itself, the story steadily heads towards its staggering climax, proving that revenge and redemption can sometimes be served up in the same dish. This is a cracker of a novel, and has the potential to be made into a really good movie.