Not Sure About This Book: Is It a Parody of a Crime Story ?

Paris is one of my favorite cities in the world, so it seemed like this mystery story with that French setting would be something irresistible. However, readers may wonder as I did - if this is a serious murder mystery or a parody of one? First, there’s something about the character of Max that is not immediately frightening as expected; sure, he seemed slightly bitter towards the world, but it’s things like considering his wife’s request to water the plants as “castrating,” and his concerns with his seemingly modern row home being more like a bland box to him. Then Detective Mazarelle is introduced, and he, too, seems more like a caricature than a character. All of this after a presidential assassination attempt (or was Max’s shot successful? That death or survival information is not included). There is a description, however, of Mazarelle and another cop pushing Max backward in his tipped interrogation chair. Within a minute, Max is yanked off the floor and pushed into an ambulance to take him to the psychiatric ward. How will a reader react to the next sentence : “He would never make it there”? For me, it was indifference.