{"product_id":"9781623651268","title":"Bed of Nails","description":"Winner of the Prix Quai du Polar, Antoin Varenne is a rising star in the exciting new wave of French crime fiction. Hard-boiled Paris police lieutenant Richard Guerin thought he knew the depths of human tragedy and perversion during his years investigating suicide cases--not to mention his childhood, raised by his prostitute mother (who left him nothing but her foul-mouthed parrot). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But when a slew of cases that are way too bizarre to be straightforward suicides end up on his desk, Guerin begins to suspect that he is up against a nihilistic evil beyond anything he's encountered before. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e First, there is Alan Musgrave, an American man who bleeds himself to death on stage during a sick S\u0026amp;M show in an underground Paris nightclub. Another runs naked into traffic with arms outstretched and is splattered to pulp by a heavy truck. Yet another hurls himself from a museum balcony to death by impalement on a whale skeleton.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Guerin's corrupt police colleagues ridicule his determination to find the connections between these horrifying deaths. Yet he presses on, plunging into the seamy sadomasochistic underbelly of the City of Lights that most never see.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Unexpected help comes from a friend of Musgrave's, an eccentric and resourceful rich American named John Nichols who has recently arrived in Paris toting a bow and arrows. The bloody trail leads them to the upper reaches of both the Parisian police force and the American embassy, while Guerin begins to suspect that the ultimate answer may lie somewhere in Nichols's past.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eBed of Nails, \u003c\/i\u003eVarenne does for Paris what James Ellroy did for vintage Los Angeles: He expertly throws a bright light on a fashionable city's hideous hidden face.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Quercus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47171026256112,"sku":"9781623651268","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781623651268_p0.jpg?v=1763862956","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781623651268","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}