Super-Cannes

The middle part of Ballard's loose “gated community” trilogy, Super-Cannes expands on the ideas explored in Cocaine Nights where an artificially created community succumbs to strange psychopathies and behaviours.

Paul, a pilot recovering from a crash, and his young wife Dr. Jane Sinclair arrive in the business community of Eden-Olympia in the South of France, where Jane is to take over from the previous doctor, Greenwood, who had gone on a killing spree, murdering several of his colleagues and three hostages. Paul becomes fascinated by the tragedy, especially as, to him, certain aspects don't add up. He begins a private investigation into the deaths and finds himself in the middle of a dark and sinister world where business executives let off steam by terrorising the local immigrant population, staging robberies and other darker pursuits.

Cajoled by Eden-Olympia's resident psychiatrist Wilder Penrose, a bull of a man, with a very novel idea on how to treat his patients, which Paul slowly uncovers, the conspiracy of silence around Greenwood begins to shatter, revealing dark, uncomfortable truths. Meanwhile his wife sinks further into the Eden-Olympia morass of casual sex and drug taking and dark, dark game playing.

Yes this novel treads familiar ground; yes there are Ballard's usual tropes in play (pilots, car crashes, the sexual frisson of violence) but Ballard's writing here is fresh and exciting. It reads like a whodunnit written by a dark universe version of Agatha Christie. None of these characters are likeable, all of them have flaws, some far more severe than others. But the awful recognition of what has been going on keeps you turning the pages to the story's inevitable climax.

In the end it becomes clear what Greenwood was trying to do and Paul recognises that there is unfinished business to be completed. The novel ends on both a bleak and hopeful note, which is probably something only Ballard could pull off.

It's one of his best novels since the purple patch of the late 60s/early 70s. Very highly recommended.