Wild Animal by Jöel Dicker

Swiss born author Jöel Dicker burst onto the thriller scene with his debut novel The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair. He followed that up with another couple of novels featuring author-protagonist Marcus Goldman (The Baltimore Boys and The Alaska Sanders Affair). While these original books had a very American flavour, in his latest, standalone thriller Wild Animal (translated from the French from Robert Bononno), Dicker returns to Switzerland. But he is still using many of the same techniques – time jumps and character reveals – to twist up the action.

Wild Animal opens with the beginnings of a jewellery store heist before rewinding a couple of weeks. The narrative then focusses on the lead up to the birthday of Sophie who lives an idyllic life with husband Arpad outside of Geneva. Little do the pair know that they are being spied on by neighbour Greg who has become a little obsessed with Sophie. This is despite the two couples (including Greg’s wife Karine) having developed a friendly relationship. Sophie is not only being spied on by Greg but is also being followed by another stranger in a grey Peugeot. As the lives of Sophie, Greg, Arpad and Karine become more intertwined, Dicker hints at the heist to come, although how the couples are connected to it only slowly becomes clear as the tension ratchets up.

Dicker sets out in this novel to mislead readers and twist the narrative.  He constantly withholds key pieces of information and then drops them when the twist is revealed (“three days earlier”, “fifteen years before” etc) and even these flashbacks are sometimes in themselves misleading. But he does set up an enticing mystery and each reveal adds another piece to the puzzle.

The biggest problem here are the characters, who all come across as cardboard cut outs. The men, who make up the bulk of the narrative, in particular Arpad and Greg, are all sex-starved, deceitful, ambitious and criminal and the woman are all either gorgeous and beguiling or vengeful. This may well put some readers off.

Dicker sets everything up and then pulls the rug out from under the reader multiple times. The reveals become a little samey though to the point where some readers might be able to predict them (the enjoyment then being in one-upping the author). Wild Animal is, in the end, slight stuff peopled by a host of unlikeable thin characters. But those who come for the thrill of the puzzle are unlikely to mind, and Wild Animal is short enough not to outstay its welcome. So purely as a quick, twisty thriller, Dicker delivers.

Wild Animal by Jöel Dicker

6

6.0/10