Douglas Kennedy is the author of eleven previous novels, including the international bestsellers The Moment and Five Days. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages, and in 2007 he received the French decoration of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He divides his time among London, New York, and Montreal, and has two children. Find out more at DouglasKennedyNovelist.com.
The Blue Hour: A Novel
eBook
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ISBN-13:
9781451666403
- Publisher: Atria Books
- Publication date: 02/16/2016
- Sold by: SIMON & SCHUSTER
- Format: eBook
- Pages: 368
- Sales rank: 285,056
- File size: 5 MB
Available on NOOK devices and apps
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From the #1 internationally bestselling author of The Moment and Five Days comes a “completely absorbing and atmospheric” (Philip Kerr) novel about a woman whose husband disappears without a trace amidst the stunning, labyrinthine world of Morocco.
Robin knew Paul wasn’t perfect. But he said they were so lucky to have found each other, and she believed it was true. When he suggests a month in Morocco—where he once lived and worked, a place where the modern meets the medieval—Robin reluctantly agrees.
Once immersed into the swirling, white-hot exotica of a walled city on the North African Atlantic coast, Robin finds herself acclimatizing to its wonderful strangeness. Paul is everything she wants him to be—passionate, talented, knowledgeable. She is convinced that it is here that she will finally become pregnant.
But then Paul suddenly disappears, and Robin finds herself the prime suspect in the police inquiry. As her understanding of the truth starts to unravel, Robin lurches from the crumbling art deco of Casablanca to the daunting Sahara, caught in an increasingly terrifying spiral from which there is no easy escape.
For fans of thought-provoking page-turners such as The Talented Mr. Ripley, Douglas Kennedy’s The Blue Hour is a roller-coaster journey into a heart of darkness that asks the question: What would you do if your life depended on it?
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In Kennedy's (Five Days) melodramatic yet highly entertaining novel, a woman on vacation in Morocco learns that her husband has deceived her in a shocking way. Successful accountant Robin Danvers, after a failed first marriage, hopes she's finally found love and the possibility of parenthood when she meets the wildly talented, passionate artist Paul Leuen. Early in their marriage, his frivolous way with money causes friction, but a romantic trip to Morocco seems just the thing to strengthen their relationship, and maybe they'll conceive a child. When Robin discovers a profound betrayal by Paul, she leaves their hotel without confronting him, only to return to a ransacked room, blood on the wall, and Paul nowhere in sight, putting her at the center of a police inquiry. Kennedy effectively captures the wonders and the darkness of Morocco while propelling Robin on a fraught, dangerous journey filled with increasingly disturbing discoveries of Paul's many secrets. Though there are a few over-the-top moments, the story of a woman who must reconcile her intense love for a man who wasn't who he appeared to be, while finding her own strength, is an expertly painted one. (Feb.)
“The best book about Morocco since The Sheltering Sky. Completely absorbing and atmospheric.
“A passionate love-story-cum-spy-thriller set amid the secrets and shadows of Cold War–era West Berlin.
“With Five Days, Douglas Kennedy has crafted a brilliant meditation on regret, fidelity, family, and second chances that will have you breathlessly turning pages to find out what happened in the past and what will happen next. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, it is a bracing new work of fiction by an internationally acclaimed writer at the height of his powers.
“Leaving the World is a classy page-turner from a novelist who has become a cultural icon in Europe.... Kennedy's characters embark on long, complex, provocative journeys, and their ultimate strength is that like the writer they can throw off bright sparks in the dark.
Resilient and optimistic despite almost half a lifetime of frustration with her flawed and distant parents and a failed first marriage, 40-year-old Robin Danvers is overjoyed to meet and marry Paul, who appears to be the man of her dreams. Paul is an art professor, an accomplished artist himself, and a great romantic. Unfortunately, he is also deeply in debt, undisciplined in all sorts of dangerous ways, and ominously evasive about his past. A vacation to Morocco that Paul has planned turns into a catastrophe when he mysteriously disappears, leaving Robin alone in Casablanca. All manner of lurid revelations and adventures follow as Robin attempts to find Paul and unravel the mystery of their marriage. Kennedy (Five Days) is known for his portrayal of strong women, and Robin is certainly tough and resourceful if a bit too trusting; readers will likely find her courage and tenacity admirable. VERDICT This skillfully written page-turner develops considerable momentum and dramatic tension, though the literary ambition that informed Kennedy's earlier work is not in evidence here. Recommended for readers looking for an entertaining roller-coaster of a read featuring a strong, modern female protagonist. [See Prepub Alert, 8/31/15.]—Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT
A dream Moroccan vacation turns into a series of progressively more disastrous misadventures for an accountant from Buffalo. Robin turned to accounting in her 30s as a hedge against the unpredictability of life. Ignoring her now deceased mother's very cogent warnings, she marries Paul, who at 58 is 18 years her senior. He's an artist of middling reputation and an inveterate spendthrift—they meet while Robin is handling his IRS woes. Robin wants a child, and Paul, whose chief attractions seem to be in the bedroom, appears to be on board. He surprises her with a trip to Morocco, site of his formative adventures as a young artist, and at first their stay in Essaouira, miles from Casablanca, is all lovely sunsets and wine-soaked trysts. Paul is producing his finest drawings ever in a local cafe when Robin makes her first fateful mistake—checking email on vacation: an associate has discovered receipts for Paul's vasectomy. Livid, she leaves a nasty note and storms out, returning later to find the hotel room spattered with blood and torn-up artwork. Remorseful, she embarks on a frantic search for Paul. One step ahead of the gendarmes who suspect her of murder, she flees to Casablanca, where she discovers, with increasing horror, that Paul has a Moroccan ex-wife, an adult daughter, and a former friend who has become his worst enemy, the affable but sinister Ben Hassan. Hassan, once a painter before an escapade involving Paul destroyed his career, has extended the kind of loan Paul is singularly ill-equipped to repay. And that is only the beginning of Robin's descent into hell. It would be unfair to reveal more, except that readers will continually be urging her, no-o-o, don't do that! And she will ignore their advice just as she ignored her mother's. Despite her appallingly bad judgment, Robin still manages a laughable degree of smug self-satisfaction. Kennedy has a knack for portraying characters readers love to hate.