iBookKindlePrintReviews

Alex by Pierre Lemaitre

By
This may be his first novel translated into English, but Pierre Lemaitre is far from a newcomer to the crime fiction genre. It’s actually the second book in his Verhoeven series following Travail soigné, which won the Cognac Festival’s prize for best new novel in 2006….
Read more
iBookKindlePrintReviews

The Ghost Riders of Ordebec

By
Written by Fred Vargas — A new Fred Vargas novel is always a happy event for her legions of admirers, whether in the original French or translated into English, and she has won the CWA International Dagger three times. She is not as prolific as other…
Read more
Features

French crime fiction: five to discover

By
French readers are voracious consumers of crime fiction. One in five books sold in France is a polar – a shortening of roman policier, which means crime novel. All the major publishing houses have an imprint or series specialising in crime fiction or noir novels, usually…
Read more
Book Club

How's the Pain?

By
Translated from the original French, How’s the Pain ranked as MarinaSofia‘s favourite crime book of 2012. She said: “This, to my mind, is the perfect noir: a tragicomedy about an unlikely friendship between the ageing vermin exterminator Simon (AKA a contract killer) and the naïve…
Read more
iBookKindlePrintReviews

How's the Pain?

By
Written by Pascal Garnier — Pascal Garnier was, until his death in 2010, one of the most distinctive and versatile authors in France. Children’s writer, novelist, short story writer and even painter, he was profoundly disparaging of genre labels on books, calling them an oversimplified…
Read more
Features

CIS: Revisiting Maigret

By
Classics in September — Let’s proceed to Place des Vosges in Paris. Here, in a modest flat on the second floor, Commissaire Maigret lives in quiet marital harmony with his wife Henriette. She is cooking his dinner or knitting, while he dreams of growing tomatoes…
Read more
KindleReviews

The Paris Lawyer

By
Written by Sylvie Granotier — Catherine Monsigny is an ambitious young Paris lawyer, eager to make her mark with her first ever murder trial. The case that she’s convinced will make her name is that of Myriam Villetreix. Born N’Bissi, she’s a refugee without papers…
Read more