The King of Fools

A fiendish tale of passion, betrayal, and murder in Edinburgh, Scotland—from the master of French noir

Jean-Marie can't believe his luck when he has a passionate triste with a beautiful young Englishwoman, Marjory, who is holidaying in the Côte d'Azur. But when he discovers she is married, he is crestfallen. When she returns to her home in rainy Edinburgh, he is heartbroken. He decides to take the biggest gamble of his life: he follows her.

No sooner has Jean-Marie arrived in Scotland than his luck runs out. Marjory’s husband is a jealous man—and a deadly encounter is only the beginning of a nightmarish, disorienting drama in the grey-granite labyrinth of the city.

Frédéric Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de littérature policière for The Executioner Weeps, forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo. Dard's Bird in a Cage, The Wicked Go to Hell, Crush and the The Gravediggers' Bread are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.