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Published Dec 2014
416 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
Camille Verhoeven, whose diminutive stature belies his fierce intensity, has reached an unusually content (for him) place in life. He is respected by his colleagues and he and his lovely wife, Irene, are expecting their first child.
But when a new murder case hits his desk - a double torture-homicide that's so extreme that even the most seasoned officers are horrified - Verhoeven is overcome with a sense of foreboding.
As links emerge between the bloody set-piece and at least one past unsolved murder, it becomes clear that a calculating serial killer is at work. The press has a field day, taking particular pleasure in putting Verhoeven under the media spotlight (and revealing uncomfortable details of his personal life).
Then Verhoeven makes a breakthrough discovery: the murders are modeled after the exploits of serial killers from classic works of crime fiction. The double murder was an exquisitely detailed replication of a scene from Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, and one of the linked cold cases was a faithful homage to James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia.
The media circus reaches a fever pitch when the modus operandi of the killer, dubbed "The Novelist," is revealed. Worse, the Novelist has taken to writing taunting letters to the police, emphasizing that he will stop leaving any clues behind unless Verhoeven remains on the case.
For reasons known only to the killer, the case has become personal. With more literature - inspired murders surfacing, Verhoeven enlists the help of an eccentric bookseller and a professor specializing in crime fiction to try to anticipate his adversary's next move. Then Irene is kidnapped.
With time running out, Verhoeven realizes that all along he's been the unwitting dupe in The Novelist's plans to create an original work of his own. Now, the only person in the world the commandant truly cares for is in danger, and a happy ending seems less and less likely as it becomes clear that the winner of this deadly game may be the man with the least to lose.
"Starred Review. A book that no matter how fast the reader connects the dots still produces a bombshell that's both brilliant and diabolical." - Kirkus
"Starred Review. Not for the faint of heart, this gritty thriller will appeal to fans of Chelsea Cain, for the grisly details, and Fred Vargas, for the French setting and iconoclastic sleuth." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Know any Euronoir readers who can stomach ultraviolence? This is the book for them. Just be aware that the "Camille Verhoeven" trilogy works best in chronological order, as some of the dark surprises here are spoiled by its previously released sequel." - Library Journal
"The plot is unfailingly intriguing, though some readers may wish Lemaitre had lavished less grisly detail on the crime." - Publishers Weekly
"Quirky, brutal and not for the faint-hearted, it is crime fiction of the highest class... Superbly constructed and executed, it puts Lemaitre very close to Ellroy's class. If you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down." - Daily Mail (UK)
"Irene is compulsive reading... The narrative is fast-paced and the suspense unbearably taut. - The Sidney Morning Herald (Australia)
"Pierre Lemaitre's Alex... worked as a superb thriller even as it confounded readers' expectations of the genre. The follow-up, Irene, is equally clever, as the diminutive Parisian detective Camille Verhoeven is initially confronted with a murder scene so horrific that it puts him in mind of Goya's Saturn Devouring his Son." - Irish Times
This information about Irene was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Pierre Lemaitre worked for many years as a literature professor before become a full-time writer. He has won exceptional critical and public acclaim as a master of the crime novel and has won the Prix du Premier Roman de Cognac, the Prix du Meilleur Polar Francophone, and the Prix du Polar Europeen du Point. Alex was the co-recipient of the influential 2013 Crime Writers Association International Dagger Award. Also in 2013, Lemaitre won the prestigious Prix Goncourt, the highest literary honor in France, for Au Revoir La-Haut, a standalone novel about soldiers coping with the final days of World War I.
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