Alex

Praise

PRAISE FOR ALEX

“Fascinating, horrifying, not to be missed.” —Rolling Stone (Italy)

"Alex . . . moves from read-as-fast-as-you-can horror to an intricately plotted race to a dark truth.” —Alison Flood, The Guardian

“Enthralls at every stage of its unpredictability.” —Marcel Berlins, The Times

"A weaver of dark and disturbing crime fiction . . . Lemaitre brings his stinging, bitter story to a genuinely unexpected conclusion. We are not in the comfortable world of Inspector Maigret here—this is harsh, fierce crime writing with a Gauloise tinge. It would not be out of place filmed in black-and-white by the late, lamented Francois Truffaut, who loved crime tales like this." —The Daily Mail

“Exhilarating, literary, Hitchcockian . . . This new investigation of Commandant Camille Verhoeven resumes with the sense of suspense, the art of the unexpected twist, the play on emotions that so seduced us and in which the influence of Hitchcock breaks out.” —Le Monde Magazine
 
“[Lemaitre’s] fourth novel keeps its bloody promises.” —Metro
 
“Pierre Lemaitre has proved, over four novels, not only that he is an accomplished novelist, but also that he [is] . . . capable of portraying characters with real human depth . . . All this enveloped in an atmosphere laden with violence and pierced, through unimaginable suffering, by noble sentiments, like rays of sunshine . . . Lemaitre’s talent lies in never being predictable.” —Le Figaro
 
“Pierre Lemaitre has achieved a milestone with his new novel: half mystery, half thriller, 100 percent successful.” —Le Figaro

“Lemaitre raises the bar high, and brilliantly rises to the challenge he has set himself . . . [Alex is] as chilling as it is fascinating…gives an exhilarating lightness to the horror depicted. The work of an artist.” —Carrefour Savoirs
 
“A thriller that grapples with the codes of murderous insanity. The author offers us an infernal and unpredictable plot, taking the art of suspense and terror to the limit.” —Ici Paris
 
“A novel of two halves, each as astonishing and unexpected as the other, served by extraordinary characters, and skillfully written. The torment and the twists of the book will keep you from sleeping.” —Point de Vue
 
“Thriller fans who still haven’t heard of Pierre Lemaitre should rush to discover this great author who manipulates suspense as well as the pen. Alex, his fourth novel, is violent, dazzling, terrifying, exhilarating . . . the talent of Lemaitre is as much in delivering a formidably effective whodunit as providing 400 pages of literature.” —Service Litteraire
 
"Sex, murder. Strategy, insanity. [Pierre Lemaitre] isn’t cautious with his scenario, dissolving the victim-executioner relationship in sulfuric acid." —Alibi

“A powerful whodunit.” —Pelerin
 
“In fewer than four years, Pierre Lemaitre has established himself as the most ingenious constructor of Hitchcockian plots . . . [Alex] demonstrates that the imagination of the author is still as diabolical and that he is capable of trying something new in a genre where most of his peers only get by with a great deal of implausibility and obvious plot contrivances . . . A tour de force.” —L’Humanité

“Lemaitre’s skilled and beautiful writing is a mixture of details at the edge of shock and lyrical passages.” —Giancarlo de Cataldo, La Repubblica