Help a fading memory

[ed goldberg]

Hi All,
Someone asked me whether I knew of a book where a detective investigates a crime and realizes that he, himself, committed the murder. My friend believed it might have been a French novel or story.
This sounds familiar to me, but my aging gray matter has failed to resolve this.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

[J. F. Juzwik]

Hercule Poirot's Christmas is one story that has the investigating officer as the killer. Joyce

[ed goldberg]

Thanks!

[D.R. MacMaster]

There was another Poirot novel, I think it might be Murder of Roger Ackroyd where the narrator turns out to be the killer.

[I. J. Parker]

I thought of that also. Have a dim memory that in spite of popular opinion regarding this "brilliant twist", I was not pleased as a reader.

[ed goldberg]

As David St. Hubbins said in Spinal Tap, It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.

[ed goldberg]

Thanks for getting back to me.

[Graham Powell]

There's also a short story by John Lutz called "The Real Shape of the Coast" about a murder in an insane asylum.

[ed goldberg]

Many thanks.

[Laura Benedict]

You should definitely read Patry Francis's first novel The Liar's Diary. The protagonist is not an investigator, but is an excellent example of a well-written unreliable narrator.

[ed goldberg]

Thank you!

[Suzanne]

In Anne Perry's "Face of a Stranger." the police detective has amnesia and comes to believe that he is the murderer.

[I. J. Parker]

That sounds like the one. A "French" novel. :)

I haven't read it, but there was a lot of buzz about that one at the time. Do I take it that the twist is what caused the interest?