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Pierre Lemaitre is a French screenwriter and award-winning novelist internationally renowned for his mystery crime fiction novels featuring Commandant Camille Verhœven.

Born in Paris in 1951, Pierre worked as a teacher of literature for a number of years before becoming a novelist.

Some of his awards include the Crime Writers' Association International Dagger Award which he clinched three times, once alongside Fred Vargas, for Alex (2013), and twice for Camille (2015) and The Great Swindle (2015).

His book The Great Swindle, which was originally published in French as "Au revoir là-haut” won the Prix Goncourt, the leading literary award in France.

It’s important to note that the English translation of his books was done years after he had already published his books in French.

More about Pierre Lemaitre

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Born: 1951

France

Website: http://ww1.pierrelemaitre.com/

Non Series

  • The Great Swindle - Au revoir là-haut (2015)
  • Blood Wedding - Robe de marié (2016)
  • Three Days and a Life - Trois jours et une vie (2017)
  • Rosy and John - Les Grands Moyens (2017)
  • Inhuman Resources - Cadres noirs (2018)
  • All Human Wisdom - Couleurs de l'incendie (2020)

Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy

  1. Alex - Alex (2013)
  2. Irene - Travail soigné (2014)
  3. Camille - Sacrifices (2015)
Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy

Detailed book overview

Non Series

The Great Swindle

The year is 1918, the war on the Western Front all but over. An ambitious officer, Lieutenant Henry D'Aulnay-Pradelle, sends two soldiers over the top and then surreptitiously shoots them in the back to incite his men to attack the German lines.

When another of D'Aulnay-Pradelle's soldiers, Albert Maillard, reaches the bodies and discovers how they died, the lieutenant shoves him into a shell hole to silence him. Albert is rescued by fellow soldier, the artist Edouard Péricourt, who takes a bullet in the face. The war ends and both men recover, but Edouard is permanently disfigured, and fakes his death to prevent his family from seeing him as a cripple. In gratitude for Edouard's rescue, Albert becomes the injured man's companion and caregiver.

Finding that the postwar gratitude for the soldiers' service is nothing more than lip-service to an empty idea, the two men scramble to survive, ultimately devising a scam to take money for never-to-be-built war memorials from small towns. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Pradelle has married Edouard's sister Madeline and is running a scam of his own that involves the exhumation of war victims.

In this sorrowful, heart-searching novel, the interwoven lives of these three men create a tapestry of the human condition as seen through the lens of war, revealing brutality and compassion, heroism and cowardice, in equal measure.

See You Up There
Director: Albert Dupontel
Cast: Albert Dupontel, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Laurent Lafitte, Niels Arestrup, Mélanie Thierry, Émilie Dequenne
Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Au revoir là-haut
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1848665798
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Blood Wedding

"Sophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget."

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...

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Robe de marié
First Release: 2016
ISBN: 978-1848666009
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Three Days and a Life

In 1999, in the small provincial town of Beauval, France, twelve-year-old Antoine Courtin accidentally kills a young neighbor boy in the woods near his home. Panicked, he conceals the body and to his relief--and ongoing shame--he is never suspected of any connection to the child's disappearance.

But the boy's death continues to haunt him, shaping his life in unseen ways. More than a decade later, Antoine is living in Paris, now a young doctor with a fiancée and a promising future. On a rare trip home to the town he hates and fears, Antoine thoughtlessly sleeps with a beautiful young woman from his past. She shows up pregnant at his doorstep in Paris a few months later, insisting that they marry.

Meanwhile, the newly discovered body of Antoine's childhood victim means that the case has been reopened, and all of his old fears rush back. With the gravitational pull of his hometown strengthening its grip, Antoine may finally be forced to confront his past. Is he prepared to do what he must to keep his darkest secrets buried?

Three Days and a Life
Director: Nicolas Boukhrief
Cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Pablo Pauly, Charles Berling, Philippe Torreton, Margot Bancilhon, Jeremy Senez
Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Trois jours et une vie
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-0857056658
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Rosy and John

Jean Garnier lives on the fringes - a lonely nobody who has lost everything dear to him. His girlfriend was killed in an unexplained accident, his mother has just been sent to prison - he has even lost his job after the sudden death of his boss.

In one last, desperate cry for help, Jean sets up seven lethal bombs, hidden all over Paris and timed so that one will explode every 24 hours.

After the first detonation, Jean gives himself up to the police. He has one simple demand: his mother must be released, or the daily explosions will continue.

Camille Verhoeven is faced with a race against time to uncover the secrets of this troubled young man and avert a massive human disaster.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Les Grands Moyens
First Release: 2017
ISBN: 978-1529416800
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Inhuman Resources

Alain Delambre is a fifty-seven-year-old former HR executive, drained by four years of hopeless unemployment. The only job offers he gets are for low-level, demoralizing positions. He has reached rock bottom and can see no way out.

So when a major company finally invites him in for an interview, Alain is ready to do anything--borrow money, shame his wife and his daughters, and even participate in the ultimate recruitment test: a role-playing game that involves taking hostages.

Alain vows to commit body and soul in this struggle to regain his dignity. But if he had realized that the odds were stacked against him from the beginning, he never would have tried to land the position. Now, his fury is limitless. And what began as a role-playing game could quickly become a bloodbath.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Cadres noirs
First Release: 2018
ISBN: 978-1635060829
Publisher: MacLehose Press
All Human Wisdom

February, 1927. The great and the good of Paris gather to attend the funeral of the powerful millionaire, Marcel Péricourt. His daughter, Madeleine, is poised to take charge of his financial empire, but it seems fate has other plans for her. Her young son, Paul, with one unexpected and tragic act, will place Madeleine on the path to ruin and degradation.

Faced with the adversity of men, the greed of her time, the corruption and the ambition of her associates, Madeleine will have to deploy reserves of intelligence, determination and also a Machiavellian instinct to survive and rebuild her life. This task is made all the more difficult in a France that can only watch, helpless, as the first flames of the inferno that will soon ravage Europe begin to take hold.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Couleurs de l'incendie
First Release: 2020
ISBN: 978-0857059000
Publisher: MacLehose Press

Commandant Camille Verhoeven Trilogy

Alex

EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT HER IS WRONG

In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial. After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none. Alex Prévost - beautiful, resourceful, tough - may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out.

Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope. All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van.

The enigma that is the fate of Alex will keep Verhoeven guessing until the bitter, bitter end. And before long, saving her life will be the least of his worries.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Alex
First Release: 2013
ISBN: 978-1623651244
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Irene

HE'S ALWAYS ONE CHAPTER AHEAD

But his blissful existence is punctured by a murder of unprecedented savagery. When his team discovers that the killer has form - and each murder is a homage to a classic crime novel - the Parisian press are quick to coin a nickname...The Novelist.

HE HATES HAPPY ENDINGS

With the public eye fixed on both hunter and hunted, the case develops into a personal duel, each hell-bent on outsmarting the other. There can only be one winner. The one who has the least to lose.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Travail soigné
First Release: 2014
ISBN: 978-1623656645
Publisher: MacLehose Press
Camille

MEET COMMANDANT CAMILLE VERHOEVEN OF THE PARIS POLICE

WITH NOTHING ELSE TO LOSE

Anne Forestier finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time when she blunders into a raid on a jeweller's on the Champs-Élysées. Bludgeoned beyond recognition, she is lucky to survive. But her ordeal has only just begun.

HE CAN BREAK ALL THE RULES

Lying helpless in her hospital bed, with her assailant still at large, Anne is in mortal danger. Only one thing gives her hope: Commandant Camille Verhœven.

TO PROTECT THE WOMAN HE LOVES

For Verhœven it's a case of history repeating itself. He cannot lose Anne as he lost his wife. This time he faces an adversary whose greatest strength appears to be Verhœven's matchless powers of intuition.

Author: Pierre Lemaitre
Original Title: Sacrifices
First Release: 2015
ISBN: 978-1681449531
Publisher: MacLehose Press