The Dead of Winter Book

It is Christmas Eve in Ste-Anne-de-Beaulieu. Madaleine Blais is a beautiful actress whose spirit of freedom has been crushed by the recent massacre of feminists in the local University. Pierre Rousseau, a handsome lawyer and Madeleine's ex-husband, is impatient for her to arrive in the neighbourhood so that he can tell her how much he still loves her. But Madeleine is hanging from a noose in her grandmother's barn and Pierre's confession is too late. Driven by despair and a conviction that this is not suicide, Pierre begins his own investigation into a case which leads him to memories he would rather forget, and a rigorous self-examination that persuades him that he is not, perhaps, the innocent ex-husband. The snow-muted Canadian landscape provides an eerie backdrop to this psychological murder mystery. Pierre Rousseau, who narrates the story, is a complex creature and Appignanesi manages him with skill. As with the best fiction, the writing resonates with different layers of meaning as the murder investigation becomes an externalised version of Pierre's emotional journey, while the narrative loops through its stages of discovery, keeping the reader in the dark right up until the final chapter. This is an intelligent crime novel which will particularly appeal to fans of Donna Tartt's The Secret History. --Hannah GriffithsRead More