Michel Auclair is the leading character (he certainly isn't the hero!) in the French Bonnes a Tuer (Ripe for Killing). A two-bit hustler from a poor family, Auclair manages to break into society by seducing and abandoning a series of female domestics. Once he's made it to the big time, he lines his pockets by promising to keep spicy tidbits out of the scandal magazines. After several romantic liaisons, Auclair perversely invites his former wife, his present one, his future one and his mistress to a party, intending to murder one of the ladies and then get away with it. He doesn't. Almost Wellesian in its use of multiple flashbacks, Bonnes a Tuer is far more slick and elaborate than its seamy subject matter deserves. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi