For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he is happily married, expecting his first child with the lovely Irene. But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. Worse still, the press seem to have it in for him - his every move is headline news. When he discovers that the killer has killed before - that each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the fourth estate are quick to coin a nickname...The Novelist...With both men in the public eye, the case develops into a personal duel, each hell-bent on outsmarting the other. There can only be one winner - whoever has the least to lose...
'Gripping, frightening, intelligent and brilliant' Marcel Berlins, The Times
'A page-turning race to a grand-slam finish Laura Wilson, Guardian
. '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 Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail
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Author
About Pierre Lemaitre
Pierre Lemaitre was born in Paris in 1956. He worked for many years as a teacher of literature and now devotes his time to writing novels and screenplays. In 2013 he was awarded the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for Au revoir la-haut. Frank Wynne is a translator from French and Spanish. His translations include works by Michel Houellebecq, Marcelo Figueras's IFFP-shortlisted Kamchatka and Alex by Pierre Lemaitre.
