An evil mind by Chris Carter

Series: A Robert Hunter Thriller
Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: Pocket Books; Reissue edition (September 27, 2016)

Suffice to say that the author has plenty experience in the field of criminal beheviour... to understand that this book (and the series it seems, although I haven't read all the books) has a touch of truth that makes it very realistic!

Carter has written a book that'll grip you and never let you down from the beginning till the end. And I shall add... till the end of each chapter as he instills that kind of mini-cliffanghers that make it so hard to close your book to go to work (cause, of course, you won't close it for something as trivial as sleep!)

I never read anything by Carter, so I didn't know Hunter, his character. But a thing is certain, he can wrote some very interesting and believable characters! I really liked Hunter and I feel like reading his other books to better know him. The FBI team was great too and Folter, the evil minds, is so manipulative and sick, it's a pleasure. 

For the more septic of you, just read the first chapter... you'll see how good Carter is and what kind of read you'll envoy! And for those of you who like shows like Criminal minds ou film like Silence of the Lambs, just go for it! But beware, that book is not for the faint hearted... some description are gruesomes.

What's the story?

A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the sheriff’s department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide, but further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery—a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing, and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years.

The suspect claims he is a pawn in a huge labyrinth of lies and deception—but can he be believed?

The case is immediately handed over to the FBI, but this time they’re forced to ask for outside help. Ex-criminal behavior psychologist and lead detective with the Ultra Violent Crime Unit of the LAPD Robert Hunter is asked to run a series of interviews with the apprehended man.

These interviews begin to reveal terrifying secrets that no one could have foreseen, including the real identity of a killer so elusive that no one, not even the FBI, had any idea he existed—until now...

In a nutshell

A great book, a sick criminal, some twists you'll never see. It's a 5/5 for me!

Disclaimer: An e-galley of this title was provided to me by the publisher. No review was promised and the above is an unbiased review of the novel.

Meurtres pour rédemption by Karine Giébel

Pocket (23 avril 2012)
992 pages - 16,95 $

I met Karine Giebel at the Quais du polar festival. I had already read and loved her book Juste une ombre, so I was really happy to talk to her (invite her at the QuébeCrime festival) and ask her to choose my next book! She asked if very noir stories don't scare me, I told her that I loved them, she replied that with Meurtres pour rédemption (or: Murder for redemption), I was going to be spoiled and autographed me: Vanessa, This dive into the bowels of French prisons... Regards.

Honestly, it took me some time to bring myself to read it, because, precisely, it's set in prison and I was afraid it'll annoy me (haha, but what a mistake on my part!) and also because Marianne's pastime is to listen to the trains (which is still super annoying right?) And then I threw myself in this doorstop (992 pages is no mean feat...)

But what a dive! But what a shock! Gérard Collard (a French well-know reviewer) said about this book "a shock as I have never had!" and I'm thinking: do tell Gerard, I think you've been a bit sutble on that, right? Because it felt more like it came as a bombshell! It's dark, very dark, there is not much room for hope, but it's taking, you on the edge of the chair, you can't, you doesn't want to leave Marianne - but what if something's going on in my absence? Ha, well it can't, it's a book! - You'll want more of it and you'll stress.

Marianne, one should hate her: she killed a senior for his money, it's ugly. Marianne, she is super guilty, no doubt, and in addition she's done it again. Marianne is also the damaged girl who mastered neither her strength nor her feelings or impulses. Yet Marianne, herself, doesn't want to be that bad and she's capable of great kindness, she's extreme like that. Marianne is a character complex, moving, captivating and well highlighted by the other characters, as well written as her.

The story is set in a lot of prisons, yes with an s, because she goes in many of them, this is what happens when you're a rebel like Marianne. And dammit! There's a lot going on in jail! Never a time out between the low blows, the fighting, friendship, love and hate, it's a microcosm that Karine Giebel details for us with a writing so powerful it prevents us from releasing the book. Result: 992 pages that pass surprisingly quickly in a mass of feelings we feel in turns. It's poignant, sad, desperate, but ends on a great philosophy touch and a heartbreaking fullness. Because Giebel doesn't content herself with writing a great book, she gives us a message, a reflection on freedom. The freedom to love, to travel, to live, but is one ever free even without prison bar? Marianne will eventually find her freedom and gives us a good lesson of life.

The blurb

Marianne twenty years. Bars as the only horizon. Life for the killer.

Indomitable, uncontrollable Marianne stands against hatred, brutality and daily humiliations.

No hope to escape this hell, or only in a dream, thanks to drugs, to books, to roll train that carries the spirit beyond the gates. Thanks to the friendship and the passion that carry light in the heart of darkness.

However, one day, a door opens. A chance of freedom.

But the price is terrifying for Marianne who only aspires of redemption...

In a nutshell

You already know it: go read that hell of a book. It's dark, hard, nervous, not relaxing, but if we wanted to sleep we would read a Goncourt, right? This is a 5/5 for me!

Good to know : Her books are translated in Italian, Dutch, Russian et Spanish

La conjuration primitive by Maxime Chattam

Pocket - 12 janvier 2015
537 pages - 15,95 $


Maxime... my favorite French author... the first who caused me to spend my first sleepless night reading (the trilogy of evil is the antithesis of sleeping pills!) And here he do it again, with La conjuration primitive.

Is it that good?

Oh yes! Because as usual, he managed to create super cool characters, lovable, intelligent and different. This time we follow French police officers (he often set his book in USA with private detective ou FBI agent or journalist), divided into several teams because of the scope of the investigation. Especially we follow a team led by Alexis, a fan of the New York Giants. He is intelligent, able to feel things and managed to get on board a famous profiler, Richard Mikelis, who had vowed not to take this kind of investigation anymore. He is accompanied by Ludivine and Segnon which become more present as story unfold. Oddly, the specialist, although important and really committed, is not the most prominent character in the story. It's really a team effort, but with a little extra complicity between Alexis and Ludivine. It seems that Chattam like to put couple in his stories, because it often results in a couple (whether official or not) investigating.

Because as usual, he managed to create a completely insane story, with really really twisted villains with particularly Machiavellian ideas. WATCH OUT! Sensitive hearts should refrain: the descriptions of the scenes are not always easy to read. But for well hung hearts, you will not be disappointed! Chattam is excellent in the twists and this time, he outdid himsef... big time! I was dumbstruck at half the book, then I loooved the nod towards the end of the book (and there, it's better if you read his other books) (but it will not hurt anything if you have not read them... you'll just miss the nod) (but it's still a pity...) One thing is certain, his stories are always different from what you can read and they always question about evil. Is it contagious? Hmm... you'll have to read the book to know the answer!

And what's more, we travel with The conjuration primitive (in addition to France): in Poland, where we visit the St. Kinga chapel that is located in the town of Wieliczka. I did not know that this place existed and despite the circumstances of the book, it really makes me want to visit it (a chapel more than 100 metre below the earth and made of salt!!) Maxime Chattam always does research before writing so as to be as realistic as possible, and he succeeds. I know from having read on Twitter that he even scoured the parking of heavy trucks in Poland to soak up the atmosphere (he had posted pictures of the place) and better transcribe it in this book. We also travel in Quebec, in a city with a ficticious name (too many horrors happen there to place the action in a specific city) (because honestly no city would have liked to be used in this part of book), (but people of Quebec will probably recognize the city of Fairmont (and its windscreen building long of 1.3 km).

But what's the story?
And if only  evil could fight evil?

Investigators call them The Beast and The Phantom... If the murders they commit are not alike, their savagery is incomparable. And what about that mysterious common signature - *e - which negates the isolated track of serial killers? Did he killers know each other?
But soon, The Beast and The Phantom are no longer alone. Atrocious crimes multiply, first in France and then across the whole Europe.
Predation in the rough. Competition in the horror...
In order to combat this epidemic, and try to understand: a brigade not quite like the others, backed by a famous profiler.

In a nutshell

Endearing characters, a very well done plot, a cold and dark atmosphere and incredible twists, it's a 5/5 for me! So just go ask English editors to translate it!

L'enfant des cimetières

Sire Cédric

Science Fiction - Fantasy

Pocket - 2011

527 pages - $ 13.95

ISBN: 9782266203654 (2266203657)

I can't remember how I discovered this author, probably through fans of Maxime Chattam as both authors give in the fantastic kind... It seems that Sir Cedric is in any case a rising figure in France, so I was happy to discover his book that is my second book in the R.I.P. VIII challenge.

Synopsis

A gravedigger living near a cemetery is taken from a hallucinatory madness and kills his entire family before committing suicide.

A teenager, believing he's chased by shadows, threatens occupants of a hospital with  his weapon and kills Kristel, a painter. David photojournalist - and Kristel's partner - decides to discover the origin of this wave of sordid murders and suicides, which is increasing. Soon he will face the unimaginable...

What I think of it

There's undoubtedly strengths in this novel... but also some weaknesses that have hindered me.

About the strengths, Sire Cedric knows how to generate dizzy spell, anxiety and apprehension among his readers. I have experienced very unpleasant sensations several times while reading passages. I admit I even have hesitated to continue reading the book after some time in the night, because I was not sure of being able to sleep ! Sometimes there is an atmosphere like in Hitchcock's " The Birds": you know from where the danger comes, it's all around, but you do not know when it will attack... and that, that's nerve-racking!

I also liked the characters whose emotions are well transcribed, particularly the mourning of David, who seeks to find the origin of the evil which has taken his partner. Everything is done with subtlety, you feel his grief, his denial of his loss, his need to foresee if only an image of the woman he loves. It's nice to read, despite the pain. As for the anxiety or irrational fears that the other characters experience... it's sufficiently well written that I wanted to look under my bed ! When the young Villeneuve explains what he saw, you feel close to him, you hear him, you're part of his team (a not so winner team in the game of cat and mouse...), you begin to stress. Clearly, this is a strength of the author.

I appreciate that the so imposing cop with so boorish manners is not a caricature of the asshole cop without finesse. Instead Vauvert proves to be able to take into account what the majority of people refuse to believe. He does not necessarily believe in spirits, demons and other supernatural aspects but as he puts it: "What I think does not matter, replied Vauvert, I'm trying to prevent people from dying. That's my job." There is a duality between the scientific evidence and what the victims experience. The fact that the characters do not believe in supernatural phenomenon in principle but seek a logical and technical explanation makes the esoteric side even stronger.

What I dislike about the book concerns two points, probably less important to some people but it bothers me a lot. Very often when it comes to demons, there is sex, or at least some sensuality and this book does not lack it. But the inclusion of children in the sex scenes, THAT, it bothers me. I think it's sick and regrettable. The author is very good to make us feel emotions so if he wanted us to feel a mixture of desire and embarrassment, the fact that there are women and men of all ages who are shadows or rotted corpses in the scene is enough, right?

The second weakness relates to certain shortcuts used by the author to advance the story. Honestly, when do we have seen a person who has coincidentally ALL the ingredients for magical protection? Because frankly, if the devil comes home today, I 'm screwed! Apart from the salt... I have no other ingredients. There are other shortcuts in the book, but fortunately, they are not so numerous. It's just that when reading, I've been saying a few times... Duh! as if it was that easy!

In a nutshell

A novel which reads very quickly, whose plot includes several tracks that come together, well done with some weaknesses. I do not know if I can recommend it, especially because of the children (unacceptable in my case), but it will appeal to fans of the genre. I give it a 3/5.

My thought on closing the book : It's a shame, those small gaps...