Original title: Compartiment tueurs
When night train from Marseille arrives to Paris a young woman is found dead on board. Paris detectives begin their investigation, but to begin with they cannot even identify the victim. She was young, attractive and someone strangled her in the compartment where 4 other passengers spent the last night. The railroad workers provided them with the names of those passengers, but without any details regarding their personal data or even the gender. Inspector Grazziani is given the task to find those witnesses, but keeping in mind they also can be suspects. His superiors are convinced that something happened aboard the train, which lead to the murder, but right now that is the only thing they can assume as sure. Grazziani give the list of the names to the journalists, hoping this will prompt the passengers to contact the police and make his work easier. His plan works and first of the four people he was looking for comes forward after seeing his name in a newspaper. Rene Cabourg, a low-level employee of one of many similar companies in Paris, phones the Quai des Orfèvres, the headquarters of criminal police, and tells them what he remembers from that night. At least most of what he remembers, because he did something that night, which would put him in a bad light. But he also provides them with another bit of puzzle - he is convinced that, besides the victim, there were 5 other people in the compartment. Soon after sharing that information with the police Rene Cabourg is shot dead in a toilet of the sport arena.
This 1962 novel is typical for the era in French art, it is a quintessence of film-noir, where (on surface) bland and disappointed with life characters are dealing with the grizzly business of crime, murder and the darker side of life. The story is told in a bit unusual way - we follow the police officers, who race against time to reach the witnesses before the killer will do - which will keep you guessing until the very end.
Do you have what it takes to solve a case like this?
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the story takes place in ParisIle-de-FranceFrance
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