Alex (Verhœven series)

Alex

Cover of Alex
Author Pierre Lemaitre
Original title Alex
Translator Frank Wayne
Country France
Language English
Series Verhœven series
Genre Crime fiction
Publisher MacLehose Press
Publication date
 1 August 2013
Media type Print (hardcover)
Pages 496
ISBN 978-1-782-06748-1
OCLC 1782060790
Preceded by Irene
Followed by Camille

Alex (Camille Verhœven Trilogy #2) is a crime novel written by French novelist Pierre Lemaitre. The novel, though originally published in French in 2011, came to be translated to English by Frank Wynne [1] in 2013. Despite being Pierre Lemaitre's 2nd novel, by publication order, in the original Camille Verhœven series, it is the first novel to be translated in English.

The novel became a huge success due to its gripping story line and set precedent for English translations of other subsequent novels in the same series. Highlighting its popularity and significance among translated crime novels, it was compared to Swedish author Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy book The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[2]

It won the CWA International Dagger award 2013[1][3] amidst much international acclaim.

Plot

Alex Prevost - kidnapped, savagely beaten, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned warehouse in a wooden cage - is running out of time. Her abductor appears to want only to watch her die. Apart from a shaky eyewitness report, Police Commandant Camille Verhœven has nothing to go on: no suspects, no leads.

To find the young woman, the detective - a man with a tragic past and extraordinary abilities as an investigator - must first understand more about her.

Summary

Part I

The plot is thrown open with the abduction of a 30 year old beautiful woman, Alex Prevost with an unreliable eyewitness who identifies 'a white van' as the abduction vehicle. Citing similarities to his wife's abduction and murder a couple of years ago, Police Commandant Camille Verhœven reluctantly accepts the case. The futile interrogation at the crime scene yields no leads and he sends an indecipherable sliver of nameplate (of the van) caught on a CCTV camera to the forensics' team.

The kidnapper places Alex, unclad, in a wooden cage and leaves it hanging off the ground in a defunct mill. He supplies her with dog food and water and abandons her, to return back briefly, to click her snaps on his phone.

The van is traced to belong to 53 year old John-Pierre Trarieux. Upon recognizing the ambush set up by the police at his home, Trarieux makes a narrow escape and drives off to downtown Paris only to be cornered on a bridge. Trarieux jumps off the bridge to his death instead of surrendering. Verhœven finds Alex's pictures on his phone and another picture (in print) of Trariuex's son Pascal posing with another girl. They think of a possible link between Pascal's disappearance and Alex's kidnapping and interrogate the people with whom Trarieux had established communication prior to the abduction. This leads them to Sandrine - Alex's former roommate who identifies the girl with Pascal as Nathalie (a false name assumed by Alex) - and discover Pascal's body buried in her backyard under a water harvesting project which had been abruptly implemented by Nathalie before her untimely departure. Pascal's body had been scoured by sulphuric acid and Camille recollects two other deaths with a similar Modus operandi and postulates that Nathalie/Alex could have been a serial murderer.

Verhœven receives crucial information about Alex's location. Simultaneously, Alex smears her own blood onto the hemp rope holding her cage in place to lure rats to nibble upon the rope. The rope eventually snaps and the cage breaks apart as it falls on the floor. Alex escapes before the police get to the scene.

Part II

Verhœven convinced of Alex's involvement in the preceding two murders, interrogates the relatives of the victims - Stefen Maciak and Brenard Gattegno. Their respective wives identify Alex on a E-FIT, albeit by a different name, consolidating Verhœven's theory about Alex. Another murder of a hotel owner in Toulouse, Jacqueline Zanette, a middle aged women, leaves Verhœven puzzled. They trace Alex's current residence to a rental accommodation run by a landlady who informs them about Alex's preterm annulment of the rental contract sighting 'family problems' and of moving out luggage ensuite, a few days prior. This as well as Alex's luggage traced to a storage unit in Paris, both prove to be dead ends.

Alex on the other hand returns back to Paris and arranges a dinner date with Felix Maniere. She seduces him and kills him (her fifth murder) at his own residence. Alex then makes plans to abscond to Germany and hitchhikes a ride with truck driver Robert Praderie. Upset by her decision of abandoning her hometown Paris, she commits her sixth murder (Robert) and returns back to Paris and instead decides to reroute her itinerary, booking a flight to Switzerland. She checks into a hotel near the airport and calls her brother to schedule a meeting for later that night. She gets inebriated, bangs her head on the wash basin and empties a bottle of barbiturates into her mouth, committing suicide.

Part III

The hotel staff who discover Alex's body recounts seeing her dumping her belongings in a bin in the parking lot. Verhœven finds Alex's secret diary among her effects procured in the garbage bin. The diary puts Alex in a completely different light, for in it, she has shared incidents of being raped by her half brother at the age of 12. It delves into her memories of being prostituted by her brother to the men who's life she ended during her killing rampage. Her autopsy brings to light a barbaric act of genital mutilation by acid, inflicted upon her by one of her rapists. Her brother, Thomus Vasseur, after much denial finally owns up to his doings and is appropriately convicted for his crimes.

Characters

Reception

Awards

The novel originally published in 2006 in the French language, won the "Prix du premier roman du festival de Cognac" - an award for the best debut crime novel. This brought the novel national fame throughout France. The novel's English version won the CWA International Dagger award 2013 [1][3] and thereby catapulted Pierre Lemaitre's career into international limelight.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lemaître, Pierre. Alex, translated by Frank Wynne. London: MacLehose, 2013. ISBN 9780857051875 WorldCat
  2. ↑ "MacLehose Press". Retrieved 27 February 2016.
  3. 1 2 "CWA International Dagger shared". Crime Writers' Association. 15 July 2013. Retrieved 11 August 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/mar/10/alex-pierre-lemaitre-review
  5. ↑ https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18039275-alex
  6. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2356179/SUMMER-READS-Beach--Bikini--Book--Bliss.html
  7. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/05/books/review-in-the-great-swindle-pierre-lemaitre-spins-a-dark-postwar-tale.html?_r=0

External links

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