Varenne – a philosopher before he took up writing – has crafted an incredibly brilliant, psychologically taut thriller in Bed of Nails. At the center of the story is a troubled detective who, after a meltdown, has been assigned to Paris’s overworked suicide investigation bureau. The new post, however, hasn’t stopped him from working on a grand theory of everything, the idea that every crime and death is somehow related. Orbiting the story is a recent victim’s strange friend, who can’t quite believe that his friend would kill himself. Inevitably their paths converge, and the detective’s theory begins to make sense… This is easily one of the most well-written and philosophically informed thrillers I’ve ever read, on a par with Derek Raymond’s famed Factory Series. 

 Tom

Bed of Nails, a novel by Antonin Varenne, translated by Sian Reynolds, Maclehose Press, 2014.

Tom Roberge

Tom Roberge grew up in Connecticut and has lived in New York since 2001. In that time he's worked at McNally Jackson Booksellers, the literary magazine 'A Public Space', and the book publishers Penguin Books and New Directions. He is co-host - along with Open Letter's Chad Post - of the Three Percent Podcast.

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