Pierre Lemaître

In kidnapping cases, the first few hours are crucial. After that, the chances of being found alive go from slim to nearly none. Alex Prevost, beautiful, resourceful, tough, may be no ordinary victim, but her time is running out. Commandant Camille Verhoeven and his detectives have nothing to go on: no suspect, no lead, rapidly diminishing hope. All they know is that a girl was snatched off the streets of Paris and bundled into a white van. The enigma...

Alain Delambre is a 57-year-old former HR executive, drained by four years of hopeless unemployment. All he is offered are small, demoralizing jobs. He has reached his very lowest ebb, and can see no way out. So when a major company finally invites him to an interview, Alain Delambre is ready to do anything, borrow money, shame his wife and his daughters and even participate in the ultimate recruitment test: a role-playing game that involves hostage-taking....

"The Pelletiers are a prominent French family living in 1948 Beirut. The patriarch, Louis, has built a successful business that he hopes to pass on to his eldest son. With no head for management, Jean nearly sinks the company, then marries a materialistic young woman who insists they emigrate to Paris and join high society. But there is another reason Jean must leave-he has committed a terrible crime. Youngest son Etienne is sent to make his fortune...

"The year is 1918, the war on the Western Front all but over. An ambitious officer, Lieutenant Henry D'Aulnay-Pradelle, sends two soldiers over the top and then surreptitiously shoots them in the back to incite his men to attack the German lines. When another of D'Aulnay-Pradelle's soldiers, Albert Maillard, reaches the bodies and discovers how they died, the lieutenant shoves him into a shell hole to silence him. Albert is rescued by fellow soldier,...

Louis Pelletier zbił fortunę na mydle. Ma nadzieję przekazać świetnie prosperującą fabrykę w Bejrucie najstarszemu synowi, Jeanowi. Ten jednak nie ma głowy do interesów i zamiast rozwijać rodzinne imperium, doprowadza je na skraj bankructwa. Jego żona marzy o Paryżu i splendorze wyższych sfer, więc namawia go na wyjazd. Ale jest jeszcze jeden powód, dla którego Jean powinien opuścić Bejrut - popełnił straszliwą zbrodnię. Tymczasem...