Guillaume Musso is one of the most popular novelists in France, regularly in the top 20 sales table, he has published 7 novels to date of which 2 are available in English through Gallic Books. Musso mixes romance and adventure in his books. I really did not know what to expect from this author but felt I could not ignore him. I decided he was a candidate for an audio experience and so borrowed ‘L’appel de l’ange’ as an audio book from my lending library and played it on a long road trip.
The story is based on two unknown travellers accidentally swapping cell phones at JFK and realising later. The man in the story is a French cook and restaurant owner living in San Francisco and the woman is an English florist and ex police woman living in Paris. The first third of the book, as each of the protagonists investigates the life of the other through information gleaned from their cell phones and the internet, was interesting although leading to improbable story lines. The second third becoming more incredible as Madeline and Jonathan decide to work together to solve each other’s life problem just kept my interest. The final third was so improbable that I had trouble listening and even fell asleep for fifteen minutes, which I did not bother to wind back to.
I would class this book in the same category as Linwood Barclay ‘Fear the Worst‘ – see my previous post and will avoid Musso in the future.
Published in French in 2011 by XO Éditions
South of Paris books 