Irene by Pierre Lemaitre
Genre: Crime fiction.
For Commandant Verhoeven life is beautiful: he is happily married, expecting his first child with the lovely Irène.
But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. Worse still, the press seem to have it in for him – his every move is headline news. When he discovers that the killer has killed before – that each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel – the fourth estate are quick to coin a nickname… The Novelist…
With both men in the public eye, the case develops into a personal duel, each hell-bent on outsmarting the other. There can only be one winner – whoever has the least to lose…
My Thoughts:
Last year I read Alex by Pierre Lemaitre, blogged, or rather raved about it Here and then listed it as one of my top five reads of 2013.
As it turned out, Alex was the second novel in the Commandant Verhoeven series, but the first to be translated to English from the first language of French. The debut novel Irene, Commandant Verhoeven’s first outing was released in the UK after Alex had received rave reviews. Because I loved Alex so much and I loved the writing style and twists of Lemaitre, I snatched Irene up when I saw it in my local library.
Now I wish I hadn’t been so fast about it.
I will start this review by disclosing that I have only read half of this novel, but of a 400 page novel, I think reading roughly 200 pages gives me enough of a feel for the book to give my view. I won’t be finishing it. I just don’t want to pick it back up.
The novel starts with some pretty horrific murders and when I say horrific, I mean horrific. Every detail is described and it’s grim and violent in the extreme. In a way that we discussed about violence being gratuitous in the blog post Here. Two women are dismembered as well as having other rather violent things done to them. It’s not a brief description either. Lemaitre seems to drag it out as though this is what crime fans love about the genre. And I guess some do. But it’s sickening. I skim read several pages just to get past the description of the scene.
As it turns out, the murderer is simply following descriptions to the letter from past crime novels, so there are novels out there that are already this sickening!
Commandant Verhoeven is only 4 foot 11 inches and this is played on A LOT. I am only 5 foot tall so there’s only one inch between us. I admit that for a male, there is a massive difference for him with his colleagues, but there were comments about his height in relation to everyday items around him and how difficult it was for him. For instance sitting on chairs. His feet were dangling and not able to touch the floor. Well unless he’s not proportioned properly, all he’d have to do was sit on the edge of the chair and it’s better. I think in this respect, with it being the debut, Lemaitre wanted to firmly show he had a detective with a difference and it was overplayed a little. So much so, it sounded as though he had fully genetic dwarfism instead of him just being ridiculously short for a bloke. It wasn’t played on so much in Alex. (I’m sorry I can’t help but compare it to Alex.)
I also know due to the fact that I’ve read Alex, one of the major plotlines that will occur in Irene, and I just didn’t want to read any more gore and nastiness. After all, only halfway through, I’m sure the murderer was going to kill again as well.
If you’re going to start this series, I do recommend you start with Alex and go from there or start with Irene and know that it’s a decent enough debut (Remember his writing style is good) and the series gets much much better, but I don’t recommend going backwards if you’ve read Alex.
Disappointed.
mihrank says
You have a wonderful theme and style. Do you only consider your interviews with writers?
Rebecca Bradley says
Thank you. I have the First Draft Q&A with writers on a Friday.
readingwritingandriesling says
I agree – will not be reading anymore by this author (the ending was grim).
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m glad I stopped reading then!
Margot Kinberg says
Rebecca – Sorry to hear you were disappointed in this one.It sounds like a clear illustration that extreme violence does not make a novel better. The plot doesn’t really call to me, either. Hmmm…maybe I’ll give this a miss.
Rebecca Bradley says
I’m not sure you’d enjoy it Margot. It did seem as though the violence was there just to shock.
FictionFan says
I’ve seen so many glowing reviews of both these books, but the level of violence has put me off trying them…and now I’m very glad I haven’t. This sounds like the very worst of what’s going wrong with crime fiction these days – both the violence and the detective with an ‘issue’ that gets dragged into every paragraph. But then so many people seem to enjoy it…
Rebecca Bradley says
Alex is a great book and I’d recommend that one. Irene is a different book altogether. Alex doesn’t have the level of descriptive gore that Irene suffers with.
emaginette says
Good to know, because like you I love a good mystery. They can keep the gore. I’m there for the puzzle. 🙂
Anna from Shout with Emaginette
Rebecca Bradley says
That’s it and there are so many crime books out there to suit everyone’s styles. I’m sure lots of readers like the descriptive stuff. I just didn’t enjoy it. It didn’t add to anything. It’s like the saying, less is more, he could have done with remembering that.
Jacqui Murray says
Interesting review. I’ve at times read follow-on novels from authors that weren’t nearly as good. Sometimes, I think it’s simply the author has only one good book in himself, like Margaret Mitchell. Who knows. I appreciate your honesty. I might still read Alex because the 4’11’ detective is a unique characteristic.
Rebecca Bradley says
Alex is a good read and Irene isn’t the follow in, Alex is, so it may be he’s improved as he’s gone along. You’d probably enjoy Alex Jacqui. It’s different.
Carol Balawyder says
I truly appreciated your honesty in this review. I dislike extreme violence and gore in any form of “entertainment”. I like that you stopped reading half way through. There are too many other books waiting in line. 🙂
Rebecca Bradley says
Thanks Carol. That’s my way of thinking nowadays. My TBR pile is overwhelming so I don’t see the point if I’m struggling with a book and I know if I’m really struggling when I don’t want to pick it back up again when I’ve put it down at night time.
cleopatralovesbooks says
Thanks for a well considered review Rebecca. I’m not a fan of extreme violence in my books and most of the time a good writing style doesn’t balance this out. I also quickly tire or detectives with an issue and being quite petite myself like you I think issues with his height would soon wear thin. The only problem I have is reaching the top shelf in supermarkets!
Rebecca Bradley says
Absolutely with the top shelves! There are some real life issues we can’t do because of our height, but it was reading as though he couldn’t even sit on a chair properly. I’m sat here typing quite fine with no problems!
MarinaSofia says
I don’t know what the publishers were thinking of, translating and publishing them in the wrong order. I too knew the ‘end’ and that spoilt the read for me.
I agree the violence was quite extreme – although, to be fair, the scenes are an accurate depiction of the violence in the original books that the killer is copying. And Alex was also quite graphic in parts. Still, I think he’s a fine writer (I also enjoyed his non-crime novel, about the survivors of the First World War) and that these shortcomings (pun unintended…) were ‘first novel’ mistakes. Alex is much stronger in all respects. I also plan to read the third one (in French probably, as it doesn’t seem to be translated yet) and will report back to you how it compares.