The story: Belgian movie buff Ludovic Sénéchal goes blind after watching a short film he bought from the estate of a dead film collector in Lille, Belgium. Unable to see, Ludovic pokes his speed dial and happens to call a woman he used to date, Detective Lucie Henebelle.
Henebelle sends an ambulance for Ludovic, then collects the movie clip and watches it. The film has some disturbing scenes - like a woman's eyeball being cut open and a child slitting a bull's throat - but this doesn't explain Ludovic's condition.
Henebelle then takes the reel to a movie expert to be analyzed, frame by frame. Turns out the film has subliminal frames spliced into it.....shots that are bizarre, violent, and shocking. Meanwhile, someone is desperate to get the short film, and is willing to torture and murder to obtain it.
In a parallel story line, five mutilated bodies are dug out of a pit in a French town. The corpses are missing their eyes and hands, and the tops of their skulls have been sawn off.
Chief Inspector Franck Sharko of the 'Paris Violent Crimes Unit' is put in charge of the case, but he's a troubled man. Sharko lost his wife and daughter in tragic circumstances five years ago, and now has schizophrenia - which manifests as hallucinations of a young girl named Eugenie.
Eugenie 'accompanies' Sharko wherever he goes, freely expressing her opinions. For instance, she doesn't like dead bodies. (Rough for a homicide detective!) Eugenie also loves cocktail sauce and candied chestnuts, and Sharko has to purchase these items every day (though I'm not quite clear on who eats them. LOL).
Before long a connection surfaces between the freaky film clip and the the five mutilated bodies in France, and Detective Henebelle and Chief Inspector Sharko start to work together.
Sharko learns that the bodies of three girls - missing the tops of their skulls - were found in Egypt 15 years ago. Thinking this could be connected to his current case, Sharko travels to Egypt. However the Egyptian authorities aren't very helpful, and Sharko is put into grave danger. The Inspector does manage to discover, however, that the girls' death has something to do with 'Syndrome E.'
For her part, Henebelle learns that clues to the investigation might be found in Montreal, Canada. So off she goes. In Canada, Henebelle garners important information about a dastardly secret program, conducted after World War II, to control people's brains and induce violent behavior. The worst thing about this project is that institutionalized little girls were used as guinea pigs. Henebelle's life is also put in danger, and it's clear that some evil cabal DOESN'T WANT THIS CASE PURSUED.
The Canadian trip takes a toll on Henebelle, who's a driven detective as well as the single mother of two young girls: one at vacation camp and the other one sick in the hospital. The ailing youngster is being looked after by Grandma, who's a rather fun and entertaining character.....kind of a bright spot in this grim story.
Eventually, Sharko and Henebelle discover exactly what happened in the past and present, who's involved, what Syndrome E is, and how all this is connected to insidious movies with 'hidden messages.' This is intriguing, but it gets overly convoluted and - to some extent - doesn't quite make sense.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
The part about people making copies of the odious movies and hiding them in various places to 'protect themselves' doesn't add up (IMO)
END SPOILER ALERT END SPOILER ALERT
For romance fans, there are sparks between Hennebelle and Sharko. And for worried readers, Ludovic has hysterical blindness - which can get better.
All in all I enjoyed the story, which is well-written, kept my attention, and has an interesting premise about subliminal messages. (In case you're interested, the Colombo episode entitled 'Double Exposure' is also about subliminal messages.) I would probably read another book by this author.
I'd recommend this thriller to fans of the genre.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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