Wow, a real thriller. Great characters, killer plot, some science and history and a little sex. But seriously, the ending? I was so invested in those damaged detectives I feel upset that they might not live happily ever after! Hope there's a sequel in the works. ( )

“This goddamn film. It’s brought harm to everyone who’s come in contact with it.” And it’s got some extremely disturbing images on it! The eyeball, the girl and the bull, and the children and the rabbits…

And what’s the connection to the film and the five dead bodies that were found buried? And the dead girls in Egypt? And the French Legion? And the CIA? And orphans in Canada?

It's a pretty intense plot, with lots of loose ends and tough leads for Sharko and Hennebelle to follow. I really liked the first half and felt like the second half got bogged down in a lot of science and political complications that didn't really hold my interest. And the ending was not what I wanted either. Still, I would like to check out another book in this series on the strength of the beginning of this book! ( )

Well-paced thriller with an intriguing premise -- brain altering films from the 1950s. Creepy and very violent. ( )

A taut thriller set in France, Belgium and Cairo, Egypt. Enjoyed it very much. ( )

Part of the appeal of "Syndrome E" is that it's hard to classify. It's part police procedural, part Michael Chriton style medical thriller, part docudrama and completely French.

It stinks of a gritty, uncompromising, almost fatalistic realism while embracing some on-the-edge-of-credible ideas. It is fundamentally about violence, the degradation of the human spirit, mental illness and the corrupt use of power.

It contains scenes and ideas that are truly repellent but which avoid exploitative voyeurism through a crusading need to find the truth and right wrongs.

It weaves horrific real events and conspiracy theories into a story about an evil obsession, powered as much by art as by science. The plot is woven from dark threads of French and Canadian history from the Fifties onwards, avant garde cinema, inhumanly relentless science, and a disturbingly credible view that there are no limits to what those with power will do to the rest of us.

The story moves forward through two French detectives: a man in his fifties who has lost so much that his mind has broken and a woman in her thirties who has already started to be ground down by the things she sees in the work she cannot abandon. There is love here and perhaps a little hope but these are occasional rays of sunlight pushing through the dark clouds of duty, depression, and deadly menace.

The book works well until the final few chapters. There is suspense, action, tension, violence, exotic locations and sex. What more could you ask for from a thriller?

Sadly, when the evil force behind it all is finally confronted, the book degenerates into a long let-me-tell-you-all-the-wicked-things-I've-done-and-why speech that is disappointingly clumsy. As for the epilogue, I'm sure it was meant to be clever but I found it annoying. I wished I stopped one chapter earlier. ( )