L’Assassinat d’Orson Welles (The Assassination of Orson Welles), a novel by French writer Jean-Pierre de Lucovitch, is one of five contenders for the Prix France Bleu.
The prize, awarded to a French detective novel, will be bestowed in mid June.
The Assassination of Orson Welles is set at the Cannes Film Festival in 1949 when The Third Man took home the Grand Prize.
In the thriller, Welles in his suite at the Carlton, where a shot rings out. A bullet grazes him before shattering a mirror. To ensure his safety and unmask the culprit, Welles hires Jérôme Dracéna, a film-loving private detective, as at home in a boxing ring as in front of a camera. Between the chic districts of Paris and the Croisette, Dracéna finds himself immersed behind the scenes of the seventh art and in the world of pretenses and illusion: the truth is hidden where we least expect it.
The French language novel was first published as a 304-page paperback in April 2019 by Editions du Rocher. A 240-page pocket edition was published this month by 10 X 18.
De Lucovitch’s has written for Paris Match and Vogue Hommes. His first novel, Take care of Arletty!, received the Arsène Lupine.
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