The Wicked Go To Hell by Frédéric Dard, David Coward (Translated by)

He's being sent undercover.  They want to know who the man's boss is and he won't tell them even when tortured.  So they'll put him in prison too and he can try to befriend him to find out.

Pushkin Vertigo and Edelweiss allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published September 10th.

This author wrote more than three hundred published works, many of them suspense stories.  I like the old stories and don't believe I've had the opportunity to read his work so I grabbed this one.  The words are sparse, the emotions are muted, and the tension runs high.

The story begins with three men in a jail cell.  The author doesn't tell you which one is the cop but you can easily pick the two that will be doing a little dance of death together.  The first thing they do it get into a fight.  When they fight in the showers, they find themselves in solitaire.

Neither of the men are nice.  Both have hot tempers.  They end up being battered by the prison guards as well as by each other.  But there's a camaraderie there somehow.  When the one decides to escape the other goes along.

They end up on an island just off the coast.  They got some help from a woman during their escape but now they're stuck.  They eat seafood, try to rest up and get healthy and try not to fight with each other.  Things don't get better.  Especially when the woman that helps them shows up on their island and tells him their boat capsized and her husband drowned.  The woman is attractive and brings up other issues.

This is a wicked tale with death here and there throughout the tale.  It has the feel of a Fedric Brown story.  I read it quickly because the story drew me in.  The tale is not resolved until the last chapter and it surprised me.  If you want to read some fine sharp writing, this is a good tale for you.  I liked it.