It is 1870, and Paris is in turmoil. As the social and political turbulence of the Franco-Prussian War roils the city, workers starve to death while aristocrats seek refuge in orgies and seances. The Parisians are trapped like rats in their beautiful city but a series of gruesome murders captures their fascination and distracts them from the realities of war. The killer leaves lines from the recently deceased Charles Baudelaire's controversial anthology Les Fleurs du Mal on each corpse, written in the poet's exact handwriting. Commissioner Lefevre, a lover of poetry and a veteran of the Algerian war, is on the case, and his investigation is a thrilling, intoxicating journey into the sinister side of human nature, bringing to mind the brooding and tense atmosphere of Patrick Susskind's Perfume. Did Baudelaire rise from the grave? Did he truly die in the first place? The plot dramatically appears to extend as far as the court of the Emperor Napoleon III. A vivid, intelligent, and intense historical crime novel that offers up some shocking revelations about sexual mores in 19th century France, this superb mystery illuminates the shadow life of one of the greatest names in poetry.
Author
Flemish author of more than 40 books. You'll find them on my website in three languages: Dutch-French-English. Currently published in The Netherlands, Belgium, USA, Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Argentine, Germany, Sweden. Winner of the Hercule Poirot Prize for the best crime novel of the year 2007 with "De Wraak van Baudelaire" (Baudelaire's Revenge). Baudelaire's Revenge is published in the US by Pegasus Books in hardcover in 2014. The paperback edition was published in 2015. "Baudelaire's Revenge" won the USA BEST BOOK AWARD 2014 in the category: Fiction:mystery/suspense. In April 2015 the Anaphora Literary Press published the collection of short stories, "Dangerous Obsessions," in paperback and e-book version in the US, Canada, Australia, and the UK. The collection is translated and published in Italy, Brazil, Sweden, and Spain. "Dangerous Obsessions" was hailed as "best short story collection of 2015" by the San Diego Book Review. Crime Wave Press (Hong Kong) published the novel "Return to Hiroshima" in May 2018. The quality English book site Murder, Mayhem & More chose "Return to Hiroshima" as one of the ten best international crime books of 2018. Readers' Favorite rated the novel Five Stars. In 2018, The Anaphora Literary Press published "Heart Fever," the second collection of short stories. With this collection, Laerhoven became the only non-American author to be selected as a finalist in the Silver Falchion 2018 Award, in the category "short stories collections." In August 2021, Next Chapter published the third novel in English: "Alejandro's Lie," set in a fictitious Latin-American dictatorship. "Alejandro's Lie" is voted "Best Political Thriller 2021" in the Best Thriller Book Awards 2021 on BestThriller.com
