"Everything come in twos," fortune-teller Bouc Bel-Air tells the skeptical Paul, "more or less in twos." Little does Paul realize that by following Bouc's prophecy, he and his friend Bob will be caught up in a wild escapade - one that involves gun running, robbery, and insurrection, and that takes them to distant Malaysia aboard the mutinous ship Boustrophedon - in which characters, events, and plot lines "double" each other like so many mirrors.It all started once upon a time, when two men vainly courted Nicole Fischer. Three decades later, Paul is himself vainly pursuing the fair but indifferent Justine - not realizing that Justine is actually Nicole's daughter; nor that one of the men who loved Nicole is Paul's canny uncle Jeff, manager of a Malaysian rubber plantation that he intends to usurp with Paul's reluctant aid; nor that Nicole's other ex-suitor, an elusive subway-dweller named Charles, will become a key player in the resulting chaos; nor that the suave gangster Van Os and his surly henchman Toon are following Paul with murderous intent....Like Cherokee before it, Double Jeopardy is "full of grace and surprises, compelling and fresh" (The New York Times). At once a thrilling adventure novel a la Conrad, a sly black comedy, and a finely-crafted work of literature, Double Jeopardy further affirms Jean Echenoz's standing as one of the most innovative and enjoyable writers in France today. Read Less