Restless

by William Boyd
A novel split between World War II and 1976 as a mother unfolds a hidden past to her adult daughter. This was a really enjoyable read and had me hooked from the first few pages. 9/10

Irene

by Pierre Lemaitre

This is the book that precedes Alex but was published in the UK after this.
It is violent to the point of being gratuitous and thereby losing some of its tension. Camille the main investigator in the trilogy is caught uop in a series of brutal murders undertaken by a serial killer who copies scenes from books written at the darker edges of the genre(Ellroy, Brett Easton Ellis etc). The trail leads to a dark and horrific ending.
I did not enjoy this as much as Alex but still an intriguing tale. Some of the tension was relieved by having read Alex first, which gives away the ending to this book. 6/10

Arab Jazz

by Karim Miske

A really enjoyable crime novel set between the 19th in Paris and New York. The story follows Ahmed, who has been mentally injured by a crime seen some years before, following the discovery of a brutal murder in the flat above his own apartment. Peopled with interesting characters across varying cultures and backgrounds it sits nicely between the violence of Pierre LeMaitre and the quirkiness of Fred Vargas 8/10

Dog will have his day

by Fred Vargas
A dog craps near a tree in Paris, that after rain leaves a small piece of bone, a bone that turns out to be human. This sets Louis Kehlweiler on a trail that leads him and his acquaintances (Marthe and the three evangelists) around Paris and on a trip to Finistere.
A murder mystery develops, complete with the quirkiness we have come to expect from Fred Vargas. Great fun 8/10

Portrait of the Writer as a Domesticated Amimal

by Lydie Salvayre
A 2007 novel from a winner of the Goncourt prize in France, This is a satire based around a writer brought in to write the biography of a fast food mandate. Against her better judgement she enjoys part of the lifestyle, and who wouldn't enjoy meeting with Robert de Niro! ...... or Bob as she called him. The subject of her biography is called Tobald and he is in all ways obnoxious. This leads to some very funny passages as the foundations of modern society success is examined, and found wanting 8/10

White Hunger

by Aki Ollikainen
This book is set in 1867 Finland where a failed harvest has led to an appalling winter of famine.
The book is bleak and there is little in the way of happy outcomes and yet the language-even in translation- is beautiful, and helps paint the horrors of the individuals involved. 8/10