A man slowly unraveling after the disappearance of his wife moves to their newly-purchased country home, only to fall into the circle of a strange neighbor, in Pascal Garnier's Boxes.
Garnier was a French author of bleak, unpleasant noirs, often made more palatable with surreal humor. This one has a fair amount of humor and is light on the noir, with any sort of crime not really materializing until the final chapters of the novel.
What mystery there is centers around the neighbor, a fragile, pale woman with the overprotective older friend of her deceased father hovering nearby and a lot of unanswered questions--if only our protagonist could keep his wits about him long enough to answer them.
More a study of mental unraveling than a crime novel, Garnier still writes with a speed and wit that makes his writing readable for the discerning.
This is the final novel in a collection I purchased titled Gallic Noir Volume 2.
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