The Dead of Winter - Hardcover

Appignanesi, Lisa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593043901 ISBN 13: 9780593043905

Publisher: Bantam Press, 1999

Synopsis

This is a chilling and psychological thriller is about why some men love woman yet are ready to kill them. The author unravels the intricacies of human relationships while exploring with raw honesty the irrational reasons behind sexual jealousy. Madeleine has a deep-rooted suspicion of men, she is found dead, suicide? or murder?

About this title

Review

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 Griffiths

From the Back Cover

A deranged assassin has gunned down fourteen women students in Montreal. Celebrated actress Madeleine Blais is hanuted by a sense that somewhere out there, where her filmed image roams so freely, someone is determined to kill her too. Her old friend and lawyer, Pierre Rousseau, can do nothing to shift her growing despair. So when on Christmas morning she is found hanging in a barn close to her grandmother's cottage in the small Laurentian town of Ste-Anne, the obvious verdict is that Madeleine's depression has driven her to suicide. Only her grandmother's unshakeable belief in Madeleine's love of life induces the police to launch a murder investigation.

As the police begin to conduct their inquiries, Pierre decides to take things into his own hands: he trusts neither the canny Montreal detective called in by the mayor nor the lazy police chief. But when certain intriguing facts about Madeleine's past unfold, it emerges that Pierre himself has secrets to hide and, until he confronts them, the mystery of Madeleine's death will remain forever unknown.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bantam Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0593043901
• ISBN 13: 9780593043905
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368