Alex - Pierre Lemaitre.
Translation by: Frank Wynne.
Translation by: Frank Wynne.
Another day, another book and another dear friend who indeed put a gun of sorts on my head and swore to never to speak to if I didn't read this book 
. And I must say, what a fool I was to miss the terrific Pierre Lemaitre so far and this co-incidentally became the second book that I read from the land of French after recently finishing and loving "The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth" which was a conspiracy to kill the French President. This was although a totally different ball game as far as killings are concerned and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, another page turner from France. I love detective stories and this was an exceptional one of an agent that I so much reminded me of my recent other read from Robert Galbraith and his awesome detective Cormoran Strike with his partner Robin always in toes with him solving the cases. Here we have terrific Camille Verhoeven with his team of team of agents solving the mysterious case of "Alex's" kidnapping and subsequent murder trails. What I loved about Pierre's style is the background story that each character has and the way he keeps opening them as the story progresses forward and doesn't give out anything in the very start as an introduction. The ease with which the reader in me actually fell in love with the Agent first, followed by falling in love with the victim and to my own shock I found myself actually rooting and cheering (by the time it ends) for the killer too. Now he Pierre did that, you've got to read the book to know. Also, before I forget, let me mention this too that the book isn't for the faint hearted, the gruesome killing and torture may be a little too much for some, I although enjoyed it thoroughly. If you plan to read this, the racy fast paced book that it is, do have your breakfast, lunch or dinner before you pick up the awesome book.
. And I must say, what a fool I was to miss the terrific Pierre Lemaitre so far and this co-incidentally became the second book that I read from the land of French after recently finishing and loving "The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth" which was a conspiracy to kill the French President. This was although a totally different ball game as far as killings are concerned and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, another page turner from France. I love detective stories and this was an exceptional one of an agent that I so much reminded me of my recent other read from Robert Galbraith and his awesome detective Cormoran Strike with his partner Robin always in toes with him solving the cases. Here we have terrific Camille Verhoeven with his team of team of agents solving the mysterious case of "Alex's" kidnapping and subsequent murder trails. What I loved about Pierre's style is the background story that each character has and the way he keeps opening them as the story progresses forward and doesn't give out anything in the very start as an introduction. The ease with which the reader in me actually fell in love with the Agent first, followed by falling in love with the victim and to my own shock I found myself actually rooting and cheering (by the time it ends) for the killer too. Now he Pierre did that, you've got to read the book to know. Also, before I forget, let me mention this too that the book isn't for the faint hearted, the gruesome killing and torture may be a little too much for some, I although enjoyed it thoroughly. If you plan to read this, the racy fast paced book that it is, do have your breakfast, lunch or dinner before you pick up the awesome book.
Alex is a beautiful girl who gets kidnapped at the very start of the story, with barely one vague witness and nothing much of a background as where she works, stays or for that matter who she is, the cat and mouse chase game starts. Camille Verhoeven is the agent on whose table the case lands, he himself is recovering from his pregnant wife's murder who was kidnapped and killed some 4 odd year ago. Now, Author has smartly disclosed almost no details about his wife's case on this one as the prequel to this book is actually a book called "Irene" and that's what Camille's wife's name was. So, we better get that too now to get to know Camille a little bit better (I am going to do that very soon, can't keep myself hanging in suspense for too long you see). Camille himself is one heck of a character, with hardly 5 feet in height, bald, over weight, almost hitting an age of 50 with no life to look forward to but just a bunch of professional friends and irritatingly for his superiors, brilliant. A very helpful boss who always comes to his rescue and with a judge who is hell bent in proving him wrong plus on top of that a superb support agent who is the mi-serest best I have ever read a character in any-book and who is always hungry. The story is poised right from the very start to a terrific finale as Camille has to not only find the kidnapped girl, save her from being killed, find the reason and the person who is doing it, why he is doing it, find her background, family, friends and what not whereas no one has any clue as who she is. On top of that even after being kidnapped for a few days, there is no missing person report anywhere. Imagine, all that happening in the first 50 odd pages of the book and I had no idea what to expect from it. And I must say the way it blew my mind off, I regretted not knowing French big time. If Frank Wynne's translation is so good, imagine how terrific it will be in Original.
Although judging a writer by just one book is way too early but I must say Pierre Lemaitre came too close to one of my all time favorite writer Stieg Larsson as far as the suspense, thrill and characterization is concerned. He actually made me fall in love so much with the characters that I had no choice but to compare them with Larsson's amazing characters. Gotta read more of him now and see how fantastic his other works are. Another thing that I loved about Pierre's book is the way so subtly he shows the filth and ugly side of Paris / France to us who know nothing about the city / country in general which surprised and shocked me big time.
Have you read Alex or Irene? or any of Pierre Lemaitre's books. Do let me know which is your favorite, if you have read any of his works. I am big time looking forward to Irene now at the earliest before my dear friend puts a gun on my head, I will get it and read it now on my own.
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