Tarantula by
Thierry Jonquet
pbk out November 05
(Serpent's Tail)
at £7.99
Translator - Donald Nicholson-Smith
A dark and twisted tale of sexual obsession, torture and identity. Criminal Alex
Barny is on the run, his face on public display after the brutal killing of a policeman.
When Alex sees a documentary about eminent plastic surgeon, Richard Lafarge, he
plans to kidnap Lafarge's wife and ransom her in exchange for facial reconstruction.
But behind the public façade of happy and successful couple, the Lafarges are locked
into a pattern of ritual torture and humiliation, with wife Eve forced to perform sex
with strangers while her husband watches through a one-way mirror. At the same
time, a mad woman in an institution tries to mutilate herself and a man shackled in a
basement is pushed to the limits of his endurance. Narrated in alternating viewpoints
by apparently disconnected characters, Tarantula is a clever puzzle where all the
stories interlock and the seeds of past crimes bear vengeful fruit in the present. Sick,
shocking and compulsive.
(
Cath Staincliffe
author of the popular Sal Kilkenny mysteries and the series creator of TV Blue Murder)
Tarantula by
Thierry Jonquet
