Items related to The Missing Piece
Since its invention in the 1780s, the jigsaw puzzle has had its ups and downs. In the late Nineties, US billionaire and media mogul Charles Wallerstein decides to revive its fortunes by setting up the International Speed Puzzle Circuit. Players compete to solve a puzzle in record time, while millions watch on the stadium screens or on their TV sets at home. It's the ultimate, riveting spectator sport, bigger than football, basketball or Formula One. The prize money, cost of TV rights, advertising revenue are all vast. More is at stake than the fortunes, or even the lives of the players. When a serial killer starts targeting key players on the circuit, suspicion falls on the reactionary old-school puzzlists, both those who fondly recall the Good Old Days, when the whole American family would gather round the hearth over a classic ocean liner, as well as the abstract East Coast theoreticians, who see the puzzle as a metaphor for everything from nuclear fission to the theory of crowds. The killer's habit of removing one of each of the victim's limbs suggests he is putting together a macabre puzzle of his own. The police need to find the vital missing piece, that philosophical element without which the whole of the rest of the puzzle has no meaning. Antoine Bello's prizewinning detective novel is a satirical, comic 48-piece jigsaw puzzle. The solution lies in the reader's hands.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
?Ambitious, funny, exciting? Le Monde ?As intelligent as Perec, as funny as Nabokov? Les Inrockuptibles ?Within the space of a few pages, the reader is plunged into a world which is totally unreal yet completely believable at the same time? La Nouvelle Republique I have rarely entered an imagined world so orginal, so fascinating and so downright peculiar. Antoine Bello's vision combines the crystaline intelligence and sadism of Borges with the glorious, twisted fantasy of Calvino.? A.L. Kennedy Who knew jigsaw puzzles could be so exciting? ?This dazzling novel combines intellectual game-playing, narrative teases and psychological suspense in a story that is constant fun to re-construct. ?Bello has fashioned a fiendishly enjoyable novel, which, while sharing some similarities with the all-time classics of experimental fiction, is somehow much more forgiving. ?Combining an investigation into the motives and modus operandi of the "Polaroid Killer" with a fascinating examination of the limits of puzzle games, Antoine Bello's The Missing Piece is, like the very best board game, guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment. Matt Thorne
From the Back Cover:
"A fascinating novel, wayward and witty, full of red herrings but scrupulously fair. Far more fun than a jigsaw."--Time Out (London)
When an American billionaire and media mogul decides to revive the fortunes of the jigsaw puzzle, he sets up an "International Speed Puzzle Circuit." Soon players from around the world are competing against the clock to solve puzzles, while millions watch on television or stadium screens. The game is a phenomenal success, and a puzzle craze sweeps the nation.
Simultaneously, a serial killer targets key players on the circuit. Each of the bodies is discovered missing a limb, with only a Polaroid of a corresponding limb from another body in its place. Suspecting that the killer is putting together a macabre human puzzle of his own, the authorities struggle to find the vital missing piece.
Given forty-eight "pieces"--including email, newspaper articles, meeting minutes, media interviews, and letters--the reader is encouraged to solve this bizarre and fascinating mystery. Intriguing, ingenious, and gripping throughout, The Missing Piece is part detective novel, part puzzle, and entirely entertaining.
"A fiendishly enjoyable novel . . . Guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment."--Matt Thorne
"Marvelously imaginative and original."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)
"Within the space of a few pages the reader is plunged into a world which is totally unreal yet completely believable at the same time."--La Nouvelle Republique (France)
Born in Boston to French parents, Antoine Bello lives in New York. The Missing Piece, which was first runner up for France's prestigious Prix Novembre in 1998, is his first novel.
|"A fascinating novel, wayward and witty, full of red herrings but scrupulously fair. Far more fun than a jigsaw."--Time Out (London)
When an American billionaire and media mogul decides to revive the fortunes of the jigsaw puzzle, he sets up an "International Speed Puzzle Circuit." Soon players from around the world are competing against the clock to solve puzzles, while millions watch on television or stadium screens. The game is a phenomenal success, and a puzzle craze sweeps the nation.
Simultaneously, a serial killer targets key players on the circuit. Each of the bodies is discovered missing a limb, with only a Polaroid of a corresponding limb from another body in its place. Suspecting that the killer is putting together a macabre human puzzle of his own, the authorities struggle to find the vital missing piece.
Given forty-eight "pieces"--including email, newspaper articles, meeting minutes, media interviews, and letters--the reader is encouraged to solve this bizarre and fascinating mystery. Intriguing, ingenious, and gripping throughout,The Missing Piece is part detective novel, part puzzle, and entirely entertaining.
"A fiendishly enjoyable novel . . . Guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment."--Matt Thorne
"Marvelously imaginative and original."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)
"Within the space of a few pages the reader is plunged into a world which is totally unreal yet completely believable at the same time."--La Nouvelle Republique (France)
Born in Boston to French parents, Antoine Bello lives in New York. The Missing Piece, which was first runner up for France's prestigious Prix Novembre in 1998, is his first novel.
When an American billionaire and media mogul decides to revive the fortunes of the jigsaw puzzle, he sets up an "International Speed Puzzle Circuit." Soon players from around the world are competing against the clock to solve puzzles, while millions watch on television or stadium screens. The game is a phenomenal success, and a puzzle craze sweeps the nation.
Simultaneously, a serial killer targets key players on the circuit. Each of the bodies is discovered missing a limb, with only a Polaroid of a corresponding limb from another body in its place. Suspecting that the killer is putting together a macabre human puzzle of his own, the authorities struggle to find the vital missing piece.
Given forty-eight "pieces"--including email, newspaper articles, meeting minutes, media interviews, and letters--the reader is encouraged to solve this bizarre and fascinating mystery. Intriguing, ingenious, and gripping throughout, The Missing Piece is part detective novel, part puzzle, and entirely entertaining.
"A fiendishly enjoyable novel . . . Guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment."--Matt Thorne
"Marvelously imaginative and original."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)
"Within the space of a few pages the reader is plunged into a world which is totally unreal yet completely believable at the same time."--La Nouvelle Republique (France)
Born in Boston to French parents, Antoine Bello lives in New York. The Missing Piece, which was first runner up for France's prestigious Prix Novembre in 1998, is his first novel.
|"A fascinating novel, wayward and witty, full of red herrings but scrupulously fair. Far more fun than a jigsaw."--Time Out (London)
When an American billionaire and media mogul decides to revive the fortunes of the jigsaw puzzle, he sets up an "International Speed Puzzle Circuit." Soon players from around the world are competing against the clock to solve puzzles, while millions watch on television or stadium screens. The game is a phenomenal success, and a puzzle craze sweeps the nation.
Simultaneously, a serial killer targets key players on the circuit. Each of the bodies is discovered missing a limb, with only a Polaroid of a corresponding limb from another body in its place. Suspecting that the killer is putting together a macabre human puzzle of his own, the authorities struggle to find the vital missing piece.
Given forty-eight "pieces"--including email, newspaper articles, meeting minutes, media interviews, and letters--the reader is encouraged to solve this bizarre and fascinating mystery. Intriguing, ingenious, and gripping throughout,The Missing Piece is part detective novel, part puzzle, and entirely entertaining.
"A fiendishly enjoyable novel . . . Guaranteed to provide hours of entertainment."--Matt Thorne
"Marvelously imaginative and original."--The Times Literary Supplement (London)
"Within the space of a few pages the reader is plunged into a world which is totally unreal yet completely believable at the same time."--La Nouvelle Republique (France)
Born in Boston to French parents, Antoine Bello lives in New York. The Missing Piece, which was first runner up for France's prestigious Prix Novembre in 1998, is his first novel.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherSerpent's Tail
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 1852426489
- ISBN 13 9781852426484
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages256
- Rating
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The Missing Piece
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Serpent's Tail
(2002)
ISBN 10: 1852426489
ISBN 13: 9781852426484
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