Blood Wedding - Tapa dura

"Creepy, demented, and typical of Lemaitre's crime fiction: unpredictable in a deliciously depraved way. Readers . . . will not be disappointed. Atmospheric and chilling and packed with Lemaitre's trademark twists and turns."
--Kirkus Reviews


"An ingenious long con, this devious psychological thriller from Prix Goncourt-winner Lemaitre promises a satisfying eventual payoff. . . Intensely suspenseful."--Publishers Weekly

"Pierre Lemaitre strikes me as having a block of ice where his heart should be . . . This is a thoroughly frightening account of how easily and how badly an ordinary life can go wrong."
--Charlotte Heathcote, Sunday Express


"A scorching, serpentine novel . . . Lemaitre's skill shines from every page, supported at every turn by an elegantly constructed plot complete with elements of noir that would make even James Ellroy proud."
--Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail


"The best part about Blood Wedding and Sophie's bizarre tale is when he deftly pieces together the puzzle behind the heinous crime, and the whole picture is so painfully simple, so crystal clear, it beggars belief. And then his work is done and you've just finished a book about a crime that you would never have seen coming."--Indian Express

"A tremendous standalone novel . . . Lemaitre's work is inspired and disturbing and can't be trusted. Although his novels are not normally for the faint of heart, Blood Wedding is more about psychology than violence. With precise, elegant prose, he manipulates and unnerves. Like Sophie, the reader can be sure only that things aren't what they seem."
--Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)


"Lemaitre has imagined a very elaborate thriller...proving again to be a master of the what-more-can-he-heap-on-this-story school of plotting."--M.A. Orthofer, Complete Review


"Blood Wedding gave me a stroke: 'My God, please never let this happen to me!' This story is solidly in the realm of the possible, which makes it an even more terrifying book."
--Bernard Poirette, RTL TV (France)


"Fills the reader with doubt, makes him vacillate between reality and paranoia . . . takes us on a 300-page journey at top speed, leaving the reader staggering."
--L'Express

"A darkly disturbing thriller, Pierre Lemaitre's Blood Wedding gives new life to the genre with this mind-bending novel that keeps readers engrossed in excited speculation . . . Highly recommend."--Bestsellersworld.com

"A LABYRINTHINE, MATRYOSHKA DOLL OF A NOVEL, THE BOOK'S MANY LAYERS WILL SHOCK AND ASTOUND YOU." --Mystery Scene Magazine

"UNPREDICTABLE IN A DELICIOUSLY DEPRAVED WAY" --Kirkus Reviews


With a new name and a new life, Sophie Duget hopes that she'll be able to put her demons to rest for good. It soon becomes clear, however, that the real nightmare has only just begun . . .

Young, successful, and happily married-- Sophie thought at first she was becoming absentminded when she started misplacing her mail and forgetting where she'd parked her car the night before.

But then, as her husband and colleagues pointed out with increasing frustration, she began forgetting things she'd said and done, too. And when she was detained by the police for shoplifting, a crime she didn't remember committing, the confusion and blackouts that had begun to plague her took on a more sinister cast.

Now, Sophie is in much deeper water: One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her. Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online.

But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets . . .