A review by ljm57
Irène by Pierre Lemaitre

3.0

The first in the French detective series which features Commandant Camille Verhœven as the chief investigator but the second I’ve read. I first read Alex which I thought was brilliant and, for me, Irène was good but didn’t live up to Alex. This book provides pertinent aspects of Camille’s personal back story and as the title is his wife’s name, she plays an important role in the story. Camille is a fascinating character, and both he, and his team are all very well done. As usual the string of murders is heinous and the violence is brutally depicted. I enjoyed the investigative aspect of the plot as a clever serial killer reenacts murder scenes from classic detective novels. It is fast-paced with lots of twists and turns. Not sure the ending worked well for me. It came very suddenly and was quite the twist. I didn’t feel it was fleshed out enough given that everything preceding it was played out in detail.