Pyrenean Thriller

[Ariège Author]

Just finished a thriller set in the valleys around Bagnères-de-Luchon by French author Bernard Minier. Originally called Glacé, it was a bestseller in France and is now available in English as The Frozen Dead (interesting title change!). It's a decent thriller but for me his take on the Pyrenees as a brooding, sinister place filled with menace was fascinating in that it's so far removed from my own portrayal of the area as majestic, inspiring and filled with life. Well worth a read.

[Frecossais]

I'll be looking on Amazon for this, sounds "thrilling".

[mint]

AA, you know how something you read decades ago can sometimes come back to haunt you?

Well, before my first visit to the Pyrenees a couple of years ago, the ONLY thing I can remember about the mountain range is this:

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/hilaire-belloc/tarantella/

And, sure enough, I thought I was going to DIE from insect bites!  And, no, that's not an exaggeration...I had visions of blood poisoning, anaphylatic shock from the bites, my body and face getting so swollen that I'd be unrecognisable to even my nearest and dearest.

OK, so my imagination did run away a bit....[:-))]

I agree the Pyrenees are beautiful but I can also imagine that they can be brooding and inhospitable.  For a start, the skies can be beautiful and blue and sunshiney but can also be louring (is that how you spell it?) and hostile and threatening.

As for the translation of the title, I have found this quite often with French books, the translated titles bear no relation to the original.

Wait a minute, I am sure we have discussed this on some other thread and I will look for it in a minute and, if I find it, will put it in the next post.

For the moment, I want to talk about thrillers! 

I am a very recent fan, of thrillers, I mean.  I started reading "polars" to improve my French and then I "inherited" lots of thrillers from some friends who are going to live elsewhere and left me 3 large bags of books (In fact, I grumbled  on the Forum about being saddled with the books which were not to my taste and not my usual reading material).

Then, a few nights ago, I saw Dean Koontz being interviewed on TV about one of his books that has been turned into a film.  Next thing I knew, I found this book by DK called "Fear Nothing" amongst my 3 bags of rejects.  I'm only about half way through the book but have already found lots to make me think, look at some taken-for-granted things from a whole new perspective, found plenty of amusing and imaginative ways of expression, not to mention many familiar words used in a totally unexpected way.

Sometimes I think my reading has not been adventurous enough.

 

[mint]

You may or may not like the contents of this thread, AA, but I love the Fred Vargas thrillers and have learnt some very useful colloquial French reading them![:D]

http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance/cs/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=any%20Fred%20Vargas%20fans%20out%20there&f=&u=

[NormanH]

Not too expensive second hand...one for 3,73€

https://www.amazon.fr/Glac%C3%A9-Bernard-Minier/dp/2266219979

Décembre 2008, dans une vallée encaissée des Pyrénées. Au

petit matin, les ouvriers d’une centrale hydroélectrique découvrent le

cadavre d’un cheval sans tête, accroché à la falaise glacée.

Le même

jour, une jeune psychologue prend son premier poste dans le centre

psychiatrique de haute sécurité qui surplombe la vallée.

Le

commandant Servaz, 40 ans, flic hypocondriaque et intuitif, se voit

confier cette enquête, la plus étrange de toute sa carrrière. Pourquoi

avoir tué ce cheval à 2 000 mètres d’altitude ? Serait-ce, pour Servaz,

le début du cauchemar ?

---