Joël, aka 'The Rink' (because his bald patch is shiny enough to skate on), the unpopular owner of the only bar in town has been murdered. There are so many suspects, it's not so much a question of who did kill him as who didn't.

There's Magalie, the temperamental teenager obsessed with Paris Hilton; her troublemaker boyfriend, Tani; Tani's mother, Madame Levi; her unemployed, daytime-TV addicted husband; Yeznig, their younger son, who has learning difficulties but perfect memory recall; and newcomers Ali and Nadia, the Muslim twins struggling to fit in.

As the tension mounts and we're still none the wiser, the ending is as tragic as it is unexpected.

'Engaging... Along with the corpse himself, [the suspects] tell their stories in a series of monologues, and this is where Guène, with the help of an excellent translation by Ardizzone, really shines' Laura Wilson, Guardian

'The various monologues very cleverly paint the picture of a day in the life of this deprived society; [it] is very thoroughly and convincingly done... She writes with intelligence and sympathy, with humour and understanding' Allan Massie, Scotsman

'Super-young, super-cool and fast becoming known as one of the hottest literary talents of multicultural Europe' Sunday Telegraph