Book Review: Camille by Pierre Lemaitre

Anne Forestier finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time when she blunders into a raid on a jewellers on the Champs-Élysées. Shot three times, beaten almost beyond recognition, she is lucky to survive, but her ordeal has only just begun. Lying helpless in her hospital bed, with her assailant still at large, Anne is in grave danger. Just one thing stands in her favour - a partner who will break all the rules to protect the woman he loves: Commandant Camille Verhœven. For Verhœven it's a case of history repeating. He cannot lose Anne as he lost his wife Irène. But his serious breach of protocol - leading a case in which he is intimately involved - leaves him out on a limb, unable to confide in even his most trusted lieutenants.  And this time he is facing an adversary whose greatest strength appears to be Verhœven's own matchless powers of intuition.

After Alex and Irene, comes the story for Camille himself. All of the stories are about him, about the people around him, but this one particularly. After the loss of Irene, he desperately tries to build himself a new life. He almost died with her and he is far from fine, but life goes on. He even starts a new relationship with Anne. But the destiny has other plans. Anne goes to the shopping center Galerie Monier and stumps on a robbery. The thieves beat her so badly that she is almost dead. Camille can't stand another loss.

It is the second time that the destiny plays games with Camille. He lost Irene, but won't loose Anne. The moment she wakes up in a hospital, she remember hearing few Serbian words. Being a police inspector, he uses his connections to start his own investigation. With an outcome that he might not like it.

The whole plot of the story is in three days. In those three days, we follow Camille on his path to find the people who harmed his girlfriend, but we also get into his emotions for Irene and feel his pain. The whole journey is full of tiniest details of the robbery in the Galerie, seen from multiple points of view. Camille's emotions are described with so many details, and in many occasions we can see Anne 's point of view. Three days full of adrenaline rush and nail-biting moments.

What to say more and not to spoil the book? It's three days we're talking about. Very emotional book, very detailed stories, an ending that literary made my jaw dropped to the floor. A story full of twists and turn-overs, a real page-turner. It is far away from a classic detective story, very one of a kind. Gripping and unpredictable, all I have to say: excellent!

My opinion: 5 / 5.

Book Review: The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas

The opera singer Sophia Siméonidis wakes up one morning to discover that a tree has appeared overnight in the garden of her Paris house. Intrigued and unnerved, she turns to her neighbours: Vandoosler, an ex-cop, and three impecunious historians, Mathias, Marc and Lucien - the three evangelists. They agree to dig around the tree and see if something has been buried there. They find nothing but soil. A few weeks later, Sophia disappears and her body is found burned to ashes in a car. Who killed the opera singer? Her husband, her ex-lover, her best friend, her niece? They all seem to have a motive. Vandoosler and the three evangelists set out to find the truth.

I was looking for French crime authors for my #InternationalCrime meme, and I stumbled upon Fred Vargas. Winner of International Dagger Award for three times, she (Fred is shortened from Frédérique) is not just a writer, but also historian and archaeologist. I assumed that I would love her books, and I wasn't wrong.

The Three Evangelists is her first book which won International Dagger Award and it is written in 1995, translated in English in 2006. The story starts with an opera singer, Sophia Siméonidis, who wakes up one morning just to notice a big tree in her backyard, a tree that wasn't there the day before. She is a famous person and she considers this as a personal threat from a lunatic fan. The house next door is a home of four extraordinary people. Armand Vandoosler, a former police commissaire, his god-son Marc, Lucien and Matthias. The old Vandoosler names the three young men the three evangelists, Saint-Mark, Saint-Luke and Saint-Matthew. The three evangelists are historians, for different time of history and they are all live in their own world, in the time they study. Sophia asks their help for the tree, they dig it and find nothing. But soon after that, Sophia disappears. Later, her body is found burned in what suppose to be a car accident.

The three young historians with the help of the old former detective are in the search of their neighbour's killers. Who would think that the knowledge of history can help solving a murder?

Saint-Marc, Saint-Luke and Saint-Matthew are so original characters. Each one of them lives in his own world, each one of them is some kind of knight in shining armour. Some people might consider them lunatic, but they are all very intelligent and perfectly stand on their own feet. Their conversations are even more interesting than the plot itself. Their medieval knowledge is perfectly incorporated in not just the plot itself, but also in their every day fights and talks and their own very unique view of the world.

There are other characters in the story, characters that might be involved in the murder. The husband, the neighbour, the niece, they are all suspects. They all seem like nice people, all of them concerned for Sophia's death. But nothing can trick the old commissaire's eye. And with the help of his three house mates, Sophia can finally rest in piece.

It is my very first book of Fred Vargas, but certainly it won't be the last. I am hooked on her crime noir writing and I'll be definitely in the search of her other books. And they are so many.

My opinion: 4,5 / 5.

Book Review: The Collector by Anne-Laure Thiéblemont

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. *

Publication date: August 11-th, 2015.

In the merciless microcosm of Paris art auctions and galleries, some people collect pre-Colombian statuettes, while others, like Marion Spicer, collect trouble. When she inherits a prestigious art collection from the father she never knew, her problems start. In order to come into possession of her inheritance, she must first find three priceless works of art, a quest that draws her into a world where people will kill for a love of beauty.

Edmond Magni is one of the greatest collectors of eighteenth-century art and an owner of a very imposant collection of pre-Columbian art. He is so obsessed with it, those figures are more important to him than actual human beings. But when he dies of an unexpected death, his only relative is a long lost daughter who never met him. The entire collection is her inheritance now, but there are conditions: she must find three missing statues. It might be a hard work for someone else, but not for Marion Spicer. She is also into the world of art, working as a private investigator and looking for stolen art. The collection of her long lost father is not a source of income for her, but a treasure of beautiful pieces of art that have to be preserved for future generations. But the world of art is not a safe place at all. Marion throws herself into the world of thieves, fake auctions, grave diggers, smuggling and making perfect replicas. In order to find the three missing statues, she stamps on something bigger: a murder!

This is my very first book from this author and from the very first page I was captivated by the plot. A very prestigious collector of art dies and his daughter who works also in the world of art inherits the most wanted collection of pre-Columbian statues. There are some very fine pieces of art here and also a detective story. It's like Indiana Jones meeting Lara Croft. The story takes you from the most prestigious museums of Paris to the old tombs in Colombia and Peru.

But what started very enthusiastic and fully-packed with adrenaline, ended somehow diluted. Maybe it was just me, but the ending left me very disappointed. After that kind of rush, I was expecting a real BAM at the end. The end didn't surprise me nor left me with my mouth open. But, that's just my opinion.

I liked Marion as a character. I liked her hunger for justice, her hunger to finish whatever she started. I liked her passion for art, her admire of pieces of history. She sees the things as evidence of existence of the people that lived on this planet before us, not as a source of money.

Overall, The Collector is a beautiful piece of art full of mystery and action. It is an interesting and fast-paced read perfect for the fans of Indiana Jones. And everyone else, of course.

My opinion: 3,5 / 5.

You can pre-order the book on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk .