Eight dead bodies are found in a mountain hut, each of them killed with a screwdriver. 4 months later, Lucas Chardon, the killer, is found hanged in room 27 of a psychiatric unit for difficult patients.
Suddenly the phone rings and Ilan Dedisset is surprised to hear his ex-girlfriend, Chloé. She says she has found the entrance to Paranoïa, a mythic role-play that every treasure hunter is looking for, but which rules are unknown.
After a disturbing selection process, Ilan and Chloé, together with 6 other candidates, are gathered in a mental hospital isolated in the mountains that is very similar to Ilans nightmare.
The game starts, candidates playing alone or against each other, going through the game challenge by challenge. Two players soon disappear although no corpse is found. Hour after hour, night after night, the plot thickens: how did Ilan dream of a place hes never been to? Where does fiction starts? What is reality?
- Action, extreme tension, moral dilemma, hidden secrets, ambiguous characters, unexpected developments, an amazing twist a favorite for the genres lovers.
- Puzzle has been introduced as a serial in the daily newspaper Les Echos from 8th July to 4th September 2013.
- A combination of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and the movie The Game by David Fincher.
Franck Thilliez is the author of a dozen successful thrillers including La Chambre des morts, awarded the Quai du Polar Readers Prize in 2006 and the SNCF French Thriller Award in 2007.
"With hellish settings, among which a closed down psychiatric asylum, characters manipulated like puppets, Franck Thilliez has all the key to a great suspense. And all the pieces of the puzzle fit perfectly." Aujourd'hui en France