Annoyingly this is the first book in a crime series, and yet it is the second one to have been translated into English. Like the majority of other English readers I read Alex, the second book, first so the ending of Irene was a little bit spoiled. Despite this though I found this to be an absolutely enthralling crime novel; dark, graphic and with many twists and turns. Even though reading Alex had given the ending away the method used to arrive at the inevitable conclusion was so clever and so unexpected as to keep you guessing. The idea of murders with a literary bent is ingenious, and has given me some new ideas for things to read in the future. The massive twist that comes towards the end of the novel turns the whole story on it's head, so that you are left doubting if anything you thought you knew about the plot up until that moment was actually true, it's so cleverly done, that by the end my initial response was simply 'wow!'
As with Alex I did find a few of the references to Verhoeven's height to be a little annoying, but they didn't grate as badly as they did when I read Alex. I don't know if that's because they didn't occur as frequently in Irene or if I was simply expecting them, either way they didn't mar my enjoyment of this one.
Having now read two of his books I am even more impressed by the writing of Pierre Lemaitre, and am already looking forward to the third book being released in English.
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