The Lost and the Damned: The Times Crime Book of the Month

(Paperback)

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Description

"Slick, sick and not for the faint-hearted. It will make you cry out (for more)" - Mark Sanderson, The Times

"Exhilarating . . . This is not conventional crime" Barry Forshaw, Independent

Introducing Olivier Norek: Former police officer, writer on Spiral and an award-winning, million-copy bestseller.

A corpse that wakes up during the autopsy.

A case of spontaneous human combustion.

There is little by the way of violent crime that Capitaine Victor Coste has not encountered in his fifteen years policing France's most notorious suburb - but nothing like this.

As he struggles to find a link between the cases, he receives a pair of anonymous letters highlighting the fates of two women whose deaths were never explained - two more blurred faces among the ranks of the lost and the damned.

Why were their murders not investigated Coste is not the only one asking that question. Someone out there believes justice is best served on a cold mortuary slab.

What readers are saying about The Lost and the Damned

You can see the similarities with the TV series Spiral, which can only be a major positive!

A hard hitting and gritty French crime read that makes an impact.

A great thriller, sardonic, humorous, dark.

I loved this book. Well written and had an authentic feel to it. A complete page turner.

Translated from the French by Nick Caistor

Reviews

Norek displays the mastery and assurance of an old hand. -- Bruno Corty * Figaro. *
The French crime-writing revelation of the year. -- Barnard Lehut * R.T.L. *
The suspense is sustained until the final page. A masterful crime novel. * L'Express. *

Spiral obsessives will recognise the same gritty northern Paris suburb, Seine-Saint-Denis, with is no-go drug estates, as well as the wearily nonchalant detectives and city bigwigs shepherding their own crooked agendas.

* Strong Words *
The Lost and the Damned hits the ground running and never lets up . . . This impressive debut is slick, sick and not for the faint-hearted. The first 30 pages contain what must be one of the most shocking scenes ever committed to paper. It will make you cry out (for more). -- Mark Sanderson * The Times Crime Book of the Month *
This is not conventional crime. Reading this full-throttle piece is a both a troubling and an exhilarating experience. -- Barry Forshaw * Financial Times. *

Author Bio

Olivier Norek served as a humanitarian aid worker in the former Yugoslavia, before embarking on a eighteen-year career in the French police, rising to the rank of capitaine in the Seine-Saint-Denis Police Judiciare. He has written six crime novels, which have sold a million copies in France and won a dozen literary prizes.