Not so sure about this one. 
 Of the trilogy, for me, Alex was the out and out best - a thrilling, shocking roller coaster of a book. So dramatic it gave me palpitations and I never knew where it was going next. 
 This one is gritty and shocking, but it doesn't have the same sense of movement, though it did have some well plotted surprises. The author works hard to inject "real time" pace, by heading his chapters with the time of day in the aftermath of the book opening attack but I didn't feel like the clock was ticking. I also didn't find it terribly convincing overall, but that said, it's certainly a bit different from your average thriller. Lemaitre just set the bar so high with Alex, it was probably always going to be a bit of a come down.