Couldn't get into this really. Not for me- I didn't manage to finish unfortunately

Thank you to NetGalley and Orion Publishing for this book. I felt it a bit slow to start with but once it got going boy did it go. I really enjoyed it and I must admit this is the first time I have read a novel translated into English . I would recommend it

I absolutely savoured every word of this most cleverly plotted thriller. We start with a really bad car accident with fifteen year old Clotilde being the sole survivor of her immediate family. Her parents, Paul and Palma, and brother, Nicolas, all dying at the scene of the crash. Fast forward nearly 30 years and Clotilde is now married with a fifteen year old child of her own and they have returned to her childhood holiday island of Corsica. The first time she has returned there since the crash. During her time away, she has thought a lot about what happened that summer and has questions that remain unanswered. She hopes that this visit can lay some of her ghosts to rest. Little does she know that her presence back on the island will be the catalyst that opens up old wounds for many people. But will she get the answers she so desperately needs? And at what cost to her, her family and the rest of the islanders.
Told in the present day, with the past injected at appropriate moments in the form of readings from Clotilde's childhood journal by an unknown person, we follow a dual countdown of the days before the crash and the events unfolding in the two timelines. In the past, we follow Clotilde and her brother as they and the other children at the campsite mature into young adulthood. In the present, we see Clotilde as she questions people from her past who were around at that time. It soon becomes obvious that certain people are withholding certain facts and that the crash may not have been the accident it was written up as. And then Clotilde receives a letter from her mother. But she's dead. But it's her handwriting and contains personal stuff that only she can know. This really puts the cat amongst the pigeons and makes Clotilde all the more determined to get to the truth.
For me, this book was a brilliant slow burner. Starting with a bang, literally, with the crash, we then slow right down in pace as Clotilde returns to Corsica to begin her, what I guess can be described, as a pilgrimage. A solo one at that as her husband and daughter couldn't be less supportive if they tried. Maybe they were trying to protect her but if so, it was a funny way to do it. Cutting to the journal entries corresponding to the same dates as the action unwinds in the present was a masterstroke and it really worked very well. We saw a young Clotilde as she spied on her brother and his friends, making very interesting reflections in her journal as to the group's dynamic. Back in the present, we follow her she visits many people and starts to ask some awkward questions, opening up some painful wounds for many people as she goes. We also see her reconnecting with her paternal grandparents who are big cheeses on the island both then and now.
The plotting is tight and extremely well executed. It's convoluted and interconnected and flows nicely from start to finish. Yes, there are the obligatory twists, some of which turn things upside down for a while but they are all very well explained - completely to my satisfaction and, unlike a lot of twists of the kind in so many other books, I never once felt cheated by the author. He has a way of building them up slowly from the start so when they occur they never come completely out of left field.
Characterisation is also excellent. I especially loved the differences and indeed similarities between the young and old Clotilde. I have read a few time hop books where characters have not matured congruently, but here that growing up has been expertly handled and completely believable. As I have said in many a review and must also say here, the setting of the wonderful Corsica can almost be considered as a character in its own right, so front and centre it is in the whole story. As indeed are the politics and ways of life portrayed by the population.
The translation of this book is also well worth a mention in my review as I know that the quality of this is key and can put people off trying "foreign" authors but here, it is completely seamless and at times I actually forgot it had been originally written in French. as there were absolutely none of the jarring phrases or strange words used that you can sometimes get with a translation.
All in all, a superb book that I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I am so glad that I found this author and, having read all his books that have been translated so far, I hope that the rest are soon to follow.
My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

A beautifully descriptive novel and one for every reader who wishes to envelop themselves In the sights and smells of Corsica.. From the start the story unwinds and keeps the reader immersed but sadly this doesn’t continue and meanders a great deal in the middle as did my mind. However this picks up towards the end and one is left with a nail biting conclusion..

This is a very entangled , twisty suspense thriller, in which Clothilde discovers the truth about the car crash that killed her family twenty-odd years ago on Corsica. The setting is atmospheric and adds an exotic feel. However, I did not engage with the characters at all and thought the plot was similar to other novels of this type.

Michel Bussi writes stunning psychological thrillers, and Time is a Killer is just amazing. Translated from the French, it shifts from the past to the present, set on the island of Corsica. A 15 year old Clothilde Idrissi is the sole survivor of a car crash which kills her parents, Paul and Palma, and her 18 year old brother, Nicolas in 1989. 27 years later, now Clothilde Baron, married to Franck, and with 15 year old daughter, Valentine, aka Valou, she returns to lay the ghosts that have haunted her to rest and to visit her family from her father's side. As a teenager, Clothilde dressed as a Goth, immersed in the character of Lydia Deetz from Beetlejuice, and Dangerous Liaisons is her choice of symbolic reading matter, a harbinger of events that unfold in 1989. She believes her whole life is a dark room, a belief that is firmly reinforced in the present day. Her presence awakens the past as strange and sinister events begin to envelop Clothilde, as long forgotten echoes filter into her life, threatening to splinter her family apart and bring danger and darkness swirling thickly around her. This leaves Clothilde scared, terrified and wondering if there is anyone around her that she can trust and rely on.


Clothilde was closer to her father and extremely jealous of her mother, and now she struggles to be close to Valou and connect with her. Valou is not interested in her mother's past or Idrissi family history and is closer to Franck. The narrative goes back to 1989, resurrected through the missing notebook kept by the young Clothilde but in the hands of a unknown man. We become acquainted with the petty rivalries, jealousies, relationships and machinations of a group of hormonal teenagers surrounding Nicolas. Clothilde is also privy to some of the fissures apparent within her parents marriage and the powerful Idrissi family willing to do anything to keep Corsica free from the commercial development blighting other islands. Clothilde encounters characters from her past, many in completely unexpected circumstances than she would ever imagined them to be from what she knew of them in the past, including the charismatic Natale, the fisher king of princesses, dolphins and magic, her obsession and love. Clothilde begins to slowly disintegrate as she receives letters that imply her mother is still alive, a breakfast table laid out as it would have been from the past, her wallet disappears from the safe, and her daughter comes to be endangered. Idrissi family secrets slowly begin to seep out, challenging everything that Clothilde thought she knew of the past.

Michel Bussi evokes Corsica beautifully, through the characters, the landscape, family traditions and the sea that envelops the island. His ability to capture the world of a teenagers and Clothilde is extraordinary, the overheated emotions, the obsessions and passions. I loved that Clothilde was reading Dangerous Liaisons, which Bussi uses to good effect as Clothilde begins to become aware of all that eluded her in 1989. This is a cracking psychological thriller with twists that just keep on coming, making me avidly turn the pages to find out where it all ends. A superb read which I recommend highly. Many thanks to Orion for an ARC.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for an advance copy of Time is a Killer, a stand alone novel set in Corsica.

27 years after 15 year old Clotilde Baron survived a car crash which killed her parents and her brother she returns to Corsica to introduce her husband and daughter to her heritage and come to terms with the accident but strange things start happening, not least a letter from her dead mother. She feels as if she's going mad but it awakens in her a dogged determination to find the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed Time is a Killer but it may not be for all readers. It is a long, slow read, redolent of the heat and Clotilde's history so when the twists come they are a bit of a jolt. The timeline switches between the present day, 2016, and excerpts from Clotilde's 1989 diary with the conceit that it is being read by an unnamed male as Clotilde has not seen it since the accident. Who is this man? I had a few guesses and didn't get it right. Mr Bussi excels at unforeseen twists and creating a general sense of uneasiness throughout the novel.

Throughout the novel Clotilde is trying to reconstruct the events of that fateful day. It is interesting to watch her attempts as everyone she talks to has a different perspective and a different agenda. It muddies the pool as she strives to establish the truth but it certainly brings the characters and human nature to life. I particularly enjoyed the damage done to her marriage by Franck's indifference to her quest, not because I'm sadistic but because their essential differences become more obvious when away from their routine. It is a telling point. I'm not sure if I like Clotilde but I understand her need for answers and the warts and all picture Mr Bussi paints of her is probably too well done to make her entirely sympathetic.

I would also like to commend Shaun Whiteside's translation which gives the novel a very readable style.

Time is a Killer is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book. I found it a bit boring to begin with, it’s not one of those books that sucks you in from the first chapter, although it turned out to be a very good book. Great storyline and characters. The twists where brilliant. I didn’t want it to end but couldn’t put it down either. I would recommend this book to anyone.