IRENE is the prequel to Pierre Lemairte's Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award-winning novel ALEX. The architecture of this highly taut book is braced with death scenes from contemporary novels such as AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis and THE BLACK DAHLIA by James Ellroy.

As the story opens, Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his team are called to a ghoulish crime scene. Two women are dead but not just in an "ordinary" way. They have been tortured and cut up into many pieces. No clues are found near the crime scene, but the names of the dead females are discovered by the detectives. "Suddenly [Verhoeven] felt that the discovery of the bodies...was about to turn from a battle of wills into open warfare."

The discovery of another death scene is clearly the work of "The Novelist," the name the media calls the murderer. Everyone now understands that a serial killer is hiding among them. Readers are lured into the sketches of the killings while reading through their fingers, which are covering their eyes. That is how tense and surreal the narrative seems to feel. Verhoeven is in control of the investigation, and his crew is loyal to him. Or are they?

"The cat-and-mouse game gathers tension as the book progresses. The twists and turns of the plot, which is tightly written, will keep readers on the edge of their seats. That may be a cliché, but in this case it is true."

Verhoeven is a father-to-be, and his wife, Irene, is the center of his life. He has reached a point where he is happy with the choices he has made but is unprepared for what "The Novelist" has in store for him. He is only 4’11”, but his reputation and solve rate "belies his stature."

The team brings in Dr. Crest to help them understand what they are up against. Everyone in the meeting room listens carefully as the doctor tells them: "We are dealing with a classic case that is archetypal in construction...he is obsessive [but] does not have murderous fantasies. He is a possessive [and] seeks to possess women." But this does not satisfy him. He is fixated upon demeaning women in the ways that he kills them. By using scenes from crime novels, he thinks he is performing an ingenious way to continue killing.

Dr. Crest continues with his analysis. This man is "meticulous" in staging the scenes without leaving "marks" to symbolize his "work." After all, he took the time to leave a fingerprint on the wall with the words "I AM BACK." The woman in charge of all of this is concerned that the murderer wants to be a "celebrity" and that is why he left a signature. As the detectives earnestly listen to the doctor, they take copious notes but have no way of fingering the killer until he strikes again.

The media stays hot on the story, especially the tabloids. One particular journalist seems to be needling Verhoeven, who ignores him. He has no time for hack writers when dealing with such a big case. He is Monsieur Buisson, and he buttonholes the commandant to try to work out a scheme wherein Verhoeven would pass little tidbits of information to give him a head start on the stories.

The cat-and-mouse game gathers tension as the book progresses. The twists and turns of the plot, which is tightly written, will keep readers on the edge of their seats. That may be a cliché, but in this case it is true. Lemaitre knows how to keep his audience in suspense from first page to last, making IRENE a keeper.