A month ago we posted a competition on our site offering you the chance to win copies of Irène and Alex by Pierre Lemaitre, plus £50-worth of crime novels from MacLehose Press. That was the first prize, and we also had five runner-up packs containing copies of Irène and Alex.

Well, the winners have been announced. Congratulations to first prize winner Stephanie Smith, and to the runners-up Sharon Buesnel, Tracey Belcher, Claire Fraser, Louise Hector and Kevin Kusman. We hope you enjoy your prizes.

To enter, you had to identify the book the following murder in Irene was based on:

‘To Camille’s right, sprawled on the ground, were the remains of a disembowelled body, jagged, broken ribs poking through the stomach, and one breast, the other having been hacked off, but it was difficult to say for sure since the body of the woman – that it was a woman was the only thing that seemed certain – was smeared with excrement which only partially covered countless bitemarks. To the left was a head, the eyes burned out. From the gaping mouth snaked pink and white veins. Opposite lay a body from which the skin had been partially peeled away, deep gashes lacerated the flesh and there were yawning wounds, carefully demarcated openings in the belly and vagina, probably made using acid. The head of the second victim had been nailed to the wall through the cheeks. Camille surveyed the scene, and took a notebook from his pocket, only to quickly put it back again as though acknowledging that the task was so monstrous that all his methods were useless, every approach doomed to failure. There is no strategy for dealing with atrocity. And yet this was why he was here, staring at the nameless horror.’

And the answer is: American Psycho. A big thank-you to Quercus/MacLehose Press for bringing this great competition to Crime Fiction Lover. You can read our review of Irène here.