After the Crash by Michel Bussi

[Rachel Caldecott]

Spot the mistake. The blurb on the back of this "Thriller of the Year'' reads like this:
ON THE NIGHT OF 22 DECEMBER, A PLANE CRASHES ON THE FRANCO-SWISS BORDER. All the passengers are killed instantly, apart from one miraculous survivor - a three-month-old baby girl. But who is she? Two families step forward to claim her, but is she Lyse-Rose or Emilie? Two decades later, on the eve of her eighteenth bithday, the detective who investigated the case makes a discovery that could change everything...

 

[Richard Wilkes]

Mmm, sloppy. Simple maths (even for a dummy like me). I think, reading that blurb, it might actually put me off reading the book as no one has bothered to check this obvious mistake. The odd typo is ok, but this is a whopper!

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Maybe the girl was doing some near-speed-of-light travel? That could account for it.

 

[Robinne Weiss]

And I would have immediately put the book down, if I'd read that. If they can't be bothered to remove glaring errors in the back-cover copy, imagine what the book is like?

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

Well, I'm struggling through it (although I'm not sure why). It provides a lesson in how not to write a book, perhaps. Although it does make me cross - there are so many glaring errors and shabby plotting I wonder how it ever was published in the first place (first in French and then translated into English!) I think I'll give up and write something better myself

 

[Marc Joan]

I don't know -- does the term 'decade' necessarily need to be exactly ten years? For example, by 'a couple of centuries ago' I would mean probably anything from ~150 to 250 years ago, not exactly 200 years, 0 months, 0 weeks, 0 days, 0 hours etc. Perhaps they are using 'decade' as a similarly approximate measure. Colloquial rather than literal.

 

[Rachel Caldecott]

I don't know -- does the term 'decade' necessarily need to be exactly ten years? For example, by 'a couple of centuries ago' I would mean probably anything from ~150 to 250 years ago, not exactly 200 years, 0 months, 0 weeks, 0 days, 0 hours etc. Perhaps they are using 'decade' as a similarly approximate measure. Colloquial rather than literal.

I do see what you mean. My mother (perhaps it was a S. African thing) used to use the word 'couple' to mean a few, rather than two. But I think this is still dodgy on a book blurb.

 

[Carol Rose]

I don't know -- does the term 'decade' necessarily need to be exactly ten years? For example, by 'a couple of centuries ago' I would mean probably anything from ~150 to 250 years ago, not exactly 200 years, 0 months, 0 weeks, 0 days, 0 hours etc. Perhaps they are using 'decade' as a similarly approximate measure. Colloquial rather than literal.

That was my take on it, too.

 

[Richard Wilkes]

I think you're being generous! It says specifically 'two decades later', not 'decades later' - which would be ok. I think blurb should be as tight as possible in guiding the reader. I have also come across 'couple' meaning a few - an Irish girlfriend many years ago used couple as anything more than one and vaguely up to 4 or 5 - completely confused me at first.

 

[Carol Rose]

Honestly, something as insignificant as this wouldn't make me not read a book, but to each their own.

 

[Richard Wilkes]

You're right - it is insignificant in the great scheme of things and I didn't lose any sleep over it, but nonetheless it is sloppy. Would that I had such a problem! - to be published, I would put up with the odd error or two ...

 

[AngryPI]

Well, they must have noticed the problem, as on Amazon it is a clearer version.

On the night of 22 December 1980, a plane crashes on the Franco-Swiss border and is engulfed in flames. 168 out of 169 passengers are killed instantly. The miraculous sole survivor is a three-month-old baby girl. Two families, one rich, the other poor, step forward to claim her, sparking an investigation that will last for almost two decades. Is she Lyse-Rose or Emilie?

Eighteen years later, having failed to discover the truth...