Book Review
"I was thinking of the big white void that had slowly taken over inside him until all that was left was that semblance of a man dressed in black."
The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception
is written by Emmanuel Carrère and published by Vintage.I'd never heard of The Adversary before, or Jean-Claude Romand, but when I saw this latest edition on NetGalley I had to request it as the true story sounded so incredible. In fact, I think if the story of a man conning his family for almost 20 years and then killing them all before his secret could come out was written in a fiction, I would have said it wasn't believable.
And yet, real life is often stranger than fiction, Luckily, Carrère tells this story in a way that is quite understated, letting the brutality of the crime do the talking rather than courting controversy by inserting thrills. The Adversary is a well written and fascinating exploration of a crime and the criminal.
BLURB
ON THE SATURDAY MORNING OF JANUARY 9, 1993, WHILE JEAN CLAUDE ROMAND WAS KILLING HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN, I WAS WITH MINE IN A PARENT-TEACHER MEETING...
With these chilling first words, acclaimed master of psychological suspense, Emmanuel Carrère, begins his exploration of the double life of a respectable doctor, eighteen years of lies, five murders, and the extremes to which ordinary people can go.
That's a great first sentence. It's one that grabs the attention but it is also typical of the way Carrère writes throughout the book; he faces the horrific act with a matter-of-factness that makes it all the more chilling.
When first hearing about Jean-Claude Romand and his crimes, you wonder how he could have done it, what snapped inside him. Carrère gives the back story and the build up to the murders. It's an interesting book; delving into Romand's character and his lies.
I also couldn't believe at first that no one had caught Romand out in his lies. Yet, Carrère goes back to the beginning and builds the story steadily and you can almost see how Romand got himself in so deep and couldn't get out. You can almost see how he justified his own actions.
Almost, but not completely. Carrère is adept at showing the denial and backwards logic that makes up Romand's character. He's twisted, not in the sense that he was born as some kind of Antichrist, but in the way an insecure yet greedy person can become twisted and evil.
"People don't know what true madness is. It's dreadful. It's the most dreadful thing in the world."
Some of Romand's defenses of himself are rather sickening, especially when you remember that he also defrauded these people of all their money as well; not just lying but stealing and eventually killing too.
The Adversary is quite a short book but the pace does not feel rushed and I felt like I got all the information and story I needed in that time. While Carrère does sometimes analyse Romand's actions. at other times he just states them and lets them speak for themselves.
The Adversary is a well researched, written and explored true crime book that manages to be addictive without being sensationalist.
My Rating: 4/5 stars
I recieved a copy of The Adversary via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to the the author and publisher.
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