Un dossier perdu

Next up in my random stack of French novels was a 1974 "aventure--policier" novel, Colette Renard's Un dossier perdu. It was one in a series of the publisher's "lire et savoir" ("read and know") series, which was apparently intended either for crazy foreigners like myself or for elementary school children--the book makes a point of noting it requires a vocabulary of 3,500 words and includes a handy glossary in the back (the definitions are also in French, and the list of defined words includes an odd mix of stuff I would assume people would pick up very quickly like "sol" or "message" and much harder stuff I've never encountered before, like French historical figures and Paris street names). It also contains maps of Paris and photographs of mundane things like cafes and automobiles--not really necessary to following the story, but I always appreciate publishers who put a little something extra in novels.

It starts off in a very intriguing way--a man is found beaten in the middle of the sidewalk, barely conscious and repeatedly mumbling a strange name. When brought to safety, he's very mysterious but constantly fears that someone is looking for him. It turns out (and yes, I'm going to spoil this for the thousands of you who were just about to bombard E-Bay looking for this book) that the man is a scientist working on creating a synthetic substance that is much stronger than steel and cheapter to make. Because his plans will revolutionize the world, some folks from Big Steel (I assume) are out to get him. There follows a bit of running around and one mild fist-fight, but most of the excitement is gone as soon as we know what this guy is running from (I thought for the longest time we would get a "surprise twist" and realize that this guy is the bad guy and the people looking for him are the good guys, but no such luck). Anyway, the poor bastard's scientific files (the "lost dossier" of the title) end up destroyed through sabotage and, in despair, he crashes his car into a tree. Fin.