No Identifiable Remains By John Tagholm
The story starts with a Channel Tunnel train crash! the Eurostar ploughs into a petrol tanker and half the coaches get destroyed in the explosion. Oliver Dreyfuss is on-board – a young, good looking expert chef with a hot career woman wife and promising restaurant owner, BUT all is not quite so rosey in the real world of Dreyfuss. Through (fate and) luck alone, Dreyfuss survives and wanders to the nearest town in a daze before the emergency services arrive. He has to make a decision to wander into the French sunset and start a new life or go back to his old one – he decides on option numero uno! From there we meet the new woman in his life, the real side of his insanely jealous career wife and other colourful characters.
This book was written by the brother of Wilton legend Roger Tagholm and hence why I ended up reading it. It is an entertaining and thrilling story, mixing emotions of past and present marvellously well, throwing the reader into vivid scenes of rural France and visiting the alpine region for a terrible tragedy amongst other things. There are some rather graphic and shocking descriptions of Dreyfuss' 'ex'-wife's affair in there too! The end is also rather brilliant, despite me shouting OH NOOO very loudly during reading.