This book was originally released and published in France, and later translated to English. The book is set in France and even only the descriptions of the scenery made the book worth the effort. Recommended.

A mysterious, flowery, wistful mystery. The characters were all completely unique, believably developed, and had believable and authentic reactions to one another. The pacing was perfect. A slow unravelling that made this an absolute joy to read.

From a slow start I was initially sceptical about this novel but it sucked me in with its clever plot and twist. So much so I spent my day off just reading this.

Thanks Orion Publishing Group and netgalley for this ARC.

Love the way we don't know til the end who the narrator turns out to be. This is a awesome example of a thriller done perfectly.

DNF @ 30%

I wasn't really getting on with this novel. I found the dialogue really weird and unnatural (maybe it was lost in translation?) and I didn't like any of the characters, especially not Laurenc Serenac or Stephanie Dupain but if you're going to review this with spoiler, TAG THEM AS SPOILERS PLS.

There is a chance that I would have kept going with this but now I know what happens, what's the point? If I was enjoying this more, I still would have kept going, but I don't think there is any use in me completing it now, since I'm not that interested in the read to begin with.

Actually 4.5 stars.
This is a hard book for me to review in the way that I normally set my reviews out so I am just going to wing it and see where I go!
It is the story of three women. A young painting prodigy, a middle-aged teacher and an old widow. It is set in the area of France where Claude Monet painted his famous Water Lilies. The story opens with a murder and promises to end with one too. We follow the police as they try to piece together what happened to victim Jerome Morval, as they rake through his past liaisons to try and find out who killed him. We follow the cast as they all go about their business around this.
And then it gets weird. Things start to not add up. I started noticing little things that seemed a bit off. Not really following, not really making sense in the big picture. But, and it's a big but, I trusted the author. I can't say why exactly apart from I needed to understand. I was intrigued. I was too invested in it already. I couldn't believe some of what I was reading so I did the only thing I could. I carried on. Determined.
And then it started to dawn on me and I actually started nodding my head as I read on, with a knowing smile on my face. Well done... very clever. I even read some of it again when I finished, something I really hardly ever do.
I usually say something about the characters in a book at this point and those in this book are, within context, very well drawn. I do admit to not being 100% convinced by the children but it could have been more to do with the translation than the characterisation so I was willing to let that go. The beautiful setting was also so well described that it could almost have been included as a character in its own right. I usually don't like too much descriptive stuff in a read, I find it distracting, but here it just enhanced the already intriguing narrative.
I also learned a lot about painting and Monet as a by product of reading this book. Not really my cup of tea but due to the nature of the book, their inclusion was necessary and, for a novice such as myself, presented in a very interesting way. I actually went on to look up a few things as I was reading.
All in all a good solid read for me. I am tempted to check out his other translated book as I have also heard good things about it.

My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

Oh dear I may be rather lonely on this one but we can't love everything. Although I try my best!

ANYWAY I loved After The Crash. I thought it was an almost perfect literary crime novel, so when the chance to read Black Water Lilies came up I was very keen. Sadly, for me personally, this one did not really work.

One of the main issues was I worked out what was going on within the narrative very early on, which made it a little too predictable for my tastes, even though I was prepared to be wrong right up until that final reveal, I was not wrong. I felt that the plot meandered as well, some of the descriptive prose was utterly gorgeous - one thing I am NOT going to fault is this authors writing prowess, he is a beautiful intuitive writer - its just in this case it kind of wandered an awful lot. Whilst in the setting it was stunningly drawn it was too incoherent (again for me personally) to be able to connect with the characters. Frankly it just went on a bit...

The premise is very intriguing - a murder in within the village that Monet lived and painted, some of the historical background was very cool - its not a subject I know much about although like anyone I've seen and admired Monet's work. Those little gems were probably what kept me reading, that and the fact that I wanted to see if my predictions were correct - other than that its sad to say I would probably have given up at around 30%.

I think there is a lot to admire here. I'll look forward to the next novel from Michael Bussi but sorry Black Water Lilies failed to engage me. Too messy.