- Author
- Franck Thilliez
- Title
- La Forêt des ombres [The Black Forest]
- Translator
- English edition not available
- Publisher
- Pocket, 2007
- Info
- 172 pages, £7,99
Novice writer David Miller is hired by billionaire paraplegic Arthur Doffre to write a novel about the “Executioner 125”, a serial killer who committed suicide after murdering seven couples.
David will have to agree to being shut for a month in a chalet in the Black Forest together with Doffre, Doffre’s wife and daughter: he is also required to write at least ten pages a day.
However, as the chalet was built around a secular oak tree and is surrounded by snow, it turns out to be a claustrophobic prison overlooking a slaughterhouse.
Moreover, the files on the serial killer prove to be so horrifying that they drive the main character insane.
Thilliez, who is quite an unusual author, switches from thriller to horror bordering science fiction, leaving his readers somewhat bewildered. This may be why he has never achieved great acclaim in some countries.
He has written a book called The room of the Dead (a really good movie available on DVD entitled The chamber of the dead based on this novel was directed in 2007 by Alfred Lot).
With “The Black Forest” Thilliez has produced and excellent horror novel which is well written thanks to a unique inspiration.
This novel is a pleasant surprise in a cinematographic and literary context which seems to leave little space for horror stories and horror films.
Translation by Graziano Fornari (edited by Sabrina Macchi)
