Book review: Arab Jazz

Karim Miske Translated by Sam Gordon MacLehose, €20.99; ebook, €12.99

Its characters are drawn into a nightmarish plot that makes for uneasy reading in the wake of the murderous reality of the Charlie Hebdo attack.

It starts with Ahmed, a not very devoted Muslim, discovering the dead body of his neighbour and the beginnings of a plot to frame him for her murder.

From there the plot moves backwards and forwards in time, and across the Atlantic to New York, as a criminal conspiracy involving religious fundamentalists of many different faiths is unravelled.

First-time novelist Miske, a filmmaker in his native France, offers up a poetic take on the traditional noir thriller which is one for crime fiction fans looking for something different to the usual tales of cops and robbers.