Frozen Dead - (Commandant Martin Servaz) by Bernard Minier (Paperback)

About the Book

A suspenseful and chilling murder mystery set in a high-security asylum for the criminally insane and the snowy mountains of the French Pyrenees

Book Synopsis

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Saint-Martin-de-Comminges is a small town nestled in the French Pyrenees. The kind of place where winters are harsh and unforgiving and where nothing ever happens.

Until the winter morning when a group of workers discover the headless, flayed body of a horse, hanging suspended from the edge of a frozen cliff.

On the same day the gruesome discovery takes place, Diane Berg, a young psychiatrist starts her first job at a high-security asylum for the criminally insane, just a few miles away. She is baffled by the slightly unorthodox methods the asylum's director uses, and then greatly alarmed when she realizes that drugs are disappearing from within the fortified institution while someone seems to be slipping out at night.

Commandant Martin Servaz, a charismatic city cop from nearby Toulouse fond of quoting Latin, can't believe he has been called out over the death of an animal. But there's something disturbing about this crime that he can't ignore. Then DNA from one of the most notorious inmates of the asylum, a highly intelligent former prosecutor, accused of killing and raping several women, is found on the horse carcass . . . and a few days later the first human murder takes place. A dark story of madness and revenge seems to be unfolding.

Servaz and his colleague, the mysterious Irene Ziegler, must use all their skill to solve the terrifying mystery and best one of the most fiendish and clever opponents they could ever imagine.

Review Quotes

"Bernard Minier's The Frozen Dead is a terrific thriller that will keep you up long past your bedtime. The French Pyrenees make a wonderfully atmospheric setting for this complex story of past crimes, madness and revenge. Servaz and Ziegler are a fascinating cop duo, and I hope to see more of them in the future. Excellent." --Peter Robinson, author of Children of the Revolution and Watching the Dark

"The pervasiveness of evil in this tense and disturbing novel makes for very compelling reading, with the suspense bordering on horror." --Booklist (starred review)

"Minier's assured debut adroitly combines a genuinely creepy series of crimes, a literally chilling atmosphere, and a dogged detective. Minier's execution equals his considerable cleverness." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Minier...exploits the unusual setting exceptionally well...an absorbing effort.... A high-altitude thriller, this novel is a great summer read for more than the usual reasons." --Kirkus Reviews

"Complex, fast-paced, and completely absorbing, Minier's wickedly plotted mystery has already been published in numerous languages and found a place on international best sellers lists." --Library Journal

"A publishing sensation in France, where it's rushed up the bestseller lists, this is Minier's first crime novel and this translation justifies its vast French reputation....With a villain possessing the intelligence of Thomas Harris's immortal Hannibal Lecter, this is great story-telling, with a creeping sense of dread that would not disgrace Stephen King at his best." --Daily Mail

"This densely written and very atmospheric thriller is Minier's first novel. It has been a bestseller in France and, in this well-translated English edition, deserves to be one here." --Literary Review

"Revenge is at the heart of this clever mystery, which involves a plot as cold-blooded as the slaying of the horse" --Sunday Times

"An enjoyable and fast-paced thriller." --Sunday Business Post

"The writing is razor sharp and nothing goes to waste. Enough to make other authors jealous." --Femme Actuelle

"Remember the name Bernard Minier... he might well take his place among the masters of French thriller writers." --Le Figaro

"The Frozen Dead is a boiling-hot success." --Le Point

"Chilling." --Elle

About the Author

BERNARD MINIER grew up in the foothills of the French Pyrenees. He had a career as a customs official before publishing his first novel, The Frozen Dead, in 2011. The novel has been translated into a dozen languages and has garnered critical acclaim as well as several literary prizes in France. Minier lives in the Essonne, south of Paris.