Bed of Nails

Description

It's as if he's being mocked from beyond the grave... When John Nichols arrives to identify the body of an old friend, he is instantly caught up in the wreckage of Alan Mustgrave's life. This is the side of Paris the tourists don't see, where everyone has a past but very few count on a future. But what can he expect from a man who bled to death in his own S&M show? Now there's a maverick police lieutenant on the prowl who thinks that Mustgrave was murdered. As the horrific extent of police abuse is revealed, the race is on to find the link between a slew of apparent suicides - and the key to it is buried deep in Nichols' past.

Antonin Varenne travelled a great deal and completed an MA in philosophy before embarking on a career as a writer. Bed of Nails is the first of a new series of crime novels set in the Paris underworld. Si n Reynolds is the translator of Fernand Braudel, and of CWA award-winning crime novels by Fred Vargas.

'An intriguing read, with a bold and surprisingly moving ending' Guardian. * Guardian * 'Imaginative and disturbing' The Times. * The Times * 'Both the plot and the characters are strikingly original, and the story's pessimism is balanced by Varenne's inexhaustible human sympathy' Sunday Times. * Sunday Times * 'Simply superb' Joan Smith. * Joan Smith *