Review: Blood Wedding by Pierre LaMaitre

My Thoughts

Intensely suspenseful, chilling and atmospheric―
full of twists and turns that draw you deeper
into this unpredictable, addictive thriller.

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Synopsis

Sophie Duguet―young, successful, and happily married―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. Her marriage started to come apart at the seams.

Now Sophie is in much deeper water: the young boy she nannies is dead while in her care, a tragedy of which she has no memory. Afraid for her sanity and of what the police will do to her when the body is discovered, Sophie goes on the run, changing her identity and appearance to evade the law. Forced to lead a very different kind of life, one on the margins of society, Sophie wonders where everything went wrong.

Still, with a new name and a new life, she 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 . . .

My Review

This is my first taste of Lemaitre’s brand of crime fiction and I’m hooked. Brilliant, unpredictable twists and turns shape a tangled, well-plotted story that injects paranoia and evokes chills with every page. Just when you think you know the story’s direction, it flips into something else entirely, something creepier, deeply unsettling and impossible to look away from.

The story first unravels through the perspective of Sophie Duguet. We learn her life has taken quite a few turns. She’s been married, but through a particular course of events, now finds herself on her own with a job as a nanny. But when she finds the young boy she cares for dead, it seems evident that she’s killed him despite having no memory of what transpired.

Dreadfully scared, Sophie runs. The more she runs, the more blood lies in her wake as murders begin to pile up and blackouts become a recurrence. With a new name, a new life, Sophie concocts a plan for a life where she won’t have to run any longer. Inadvertently however, she’s walked right into the lion’s den and her troubles are only beginning.

Lemaitre writes beautifully, able to create a narrative taut with tension. I was on the edge of my seat, completely creeped out by everything that happens. Sophie’s story is the ultimate nightmare and her ordeal will keep you reading late into the night. I can’t recommend this book enough if you are a suspense reader.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

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