Machaho Tellem Chaho

{(under expansion)} Although titled "Top 10", this is now a Top 11 and expanding. These detective novels are by far the better crafted crime novels I've come across. Check out the whole list here however, they're all worth a read! 1- Maurice Attia - Alger la noire (2012, Barzakh)  [Alger, the black city] Available with Barzakh here  and with Actes Sud here .   2- Amel Bouchareb Sakarat Nedjma (the flutters of the star) (Chihab eds, 2015) See here for a review . 3- Amara Lakhous  Clash of Civilizations Over an Elevator in Piazza Vittorio, (transl. 2008) Dispute Over a Very Italian Piglet,  Europa Eds, 2014 4- Rahima Karim - Le meurtre de Soma Zaïd (2002, MARSA eds) (The murder of Soma Zaïd) 5- Salim Aïssa  Adel s'emmele ... Alger, ENAL, 1988. Mimouna, Alger, Laphomic, 1987.  6- Abahri Larbi  Banderilles et muleta. Alger, SNED, 1981.   ...

Djamel Dib is another novelist whose name is said to make the top 10 in the Algerian detective-story writers category. Another francophone writer, sorry about that.  Dib is said to be part of the second wave of Algerian detective novel's development (started from the mid-80s).  The Djinns' Saga (La Saga des Djinns) was published in 1986 by the Entreprise Nationale du Livre. La Saga des Djinns starts off well enough. It is set just outside Tamanrasset on an oil dig in the mid 80s. The inislimen Moussa Abegui is on his way to his zaouia to enter a long meditation. He knows trouble is coming (1) and blood is about to pour as an ancestral secret has been violated.  He is very good friends with Obed, the director of the oil dig managed by an all Algerian crew of specialists.  As Sheikh Abegui makes his way followed by a strong sense of unease, three murders occur on the rig.  That is when inspector Antar arrives, assisted by his two detectives, l'Appren...

This detective novel with no detective was inspired by a confidence Varenne's dad told him as he passed away. It is the story of proletaires French youths sent to do their military service in Algeria and finding themselves face to face with their comrades who unflinchingly practiced torture as ordered by their hierarchy. In this novel, as with Fredy La Rafale by Mohamed Benayat , it is a French guy, The Wall (Le Mur), a boxer, who is sort of hired to help carry out retribution. The Wall, the Kabyle and the Sailor tells the story of French soldiers who refused to obey orders to torture Algerians during Algeria's war of independence against France, how they developed complex war-friendships with Algerian inmates, and how they left Algeria completely traumatised by what they had witnessed, spending the rest of their lives trying to forget. But Algerians never forget, and in this novel, Le Kabyle returns to seek vengeance. And he smashes it. Pow!

In the Algerian detective story genre, Mohamed Benayat and his Fredy La Rafale are references. It's part of my Algerian detective story  reading trek. So far, I've only encountered DZ detective stories written in French. The version of the book I found is 200 pages long with several pages printed twice, one after the other (which made for some surreal late night reading). It was published by l'Entreprise Nationale du Livre, Algiers in 1991. It's a short novel, fast-paced and quite well written when the author gets going.  There are several parts, the beginning in particular and middle sections, which are disturbingly. stop. telegraphic. stop. written. in.stop. hic-up style (fortunately nothing like the he said-she said-he said-she said-he replied  torture of that awful book Djibouti by Elmore Leonard... never buying a New York bestseller ever again...) Fredy La Rafale is set in France, just before and just after the 1961 massacre of Algerians in Paris.  ...