Abdelilah Hamdouchi’s The Final Bet, which takes place in modern-day Casablanca, is the first Arabic detective novel to be translated into English.
Othman is an unemployed 32-year-old Moroccan man married to a wealthy 73-year-old French woman who has pampered him with fancy cars and expensive clothes. When his wife is murdered the police zero in on Othman as the prime suspect. He has been involved in a steamy affair with an attractive young aerobics instructor.
But is he guilty? Did he kill his wife for the money and his lover? Or is he an innocent man, framed by circumstance—and an overzealous and brutal police force?
Hamdouchi is one of the first writers of Arabic-language detective fiction. The author of eight novels, he is also an award-winning screenwriter for Moroccan television and cinema. All of his police novels, including The Final Bet, have been produced for Moroccan television.
There has been such a dramatic increase in the popularity and volume of international crime novels within the past few years that The Crime Writers' Association (UK) began giving out The Duncan Lawrie International Dagger Award in 2006 for crime fiction written in a foreign language that has been translated into English.
The 2008 nominees are: Andrea Camilleri (Italy) The Patience of the Spider; Stieg Larsson (Sweden) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Dominique Manotti (France) Lorraine Connection; Martin Suter (Germany) A Deal with the Devil; Fred Vargas (France) This Night's Foul Work.
The winners will be announced at the Awards Dinner in London on Thursday July 10th.
