Sleeping Beauty, Phillip Margolin, Pierre Girard

In one night, Ashley Spencer's life changes forever. Her father stabbed, her best friend raped and killed. Traumatized, grappling with survivor's guilt, Ashley is on the verge of collapse when she receives unexpected help: a scholarship to continue her studies at a prestigious institution. Just as she seems to have found her footing again, Terri, her mother, is murdered not far from the school. The only disturbing clue: she had just attended a public reading of a novel whose plot eerily resembled the tragedy her daughter had experienced... A relentless and disturbing suspense where fiction dangerously takes over reality and confronts us with the irrational.

"Sleeping Beauty will keep you up all night." Harlan Coben

Review A terrible fate follows Ashley Spencer. She narrowly escapes when her father is murdered and her best friend is raped and killed. A few months later, she resumes her studies at the Oregon Academy, where Joshua Maxwell, a successful writer, is in residence. During one of his public readings, Ashley's mother hears a too-realistic account of her husband's murder: she is killed in turn before her suspicions can be confirmed. Maxwell is quickly accused and claims innocence. So how did he know details that the police had not revealed? Why would he have read such a compromising passage? Is his escape during his appearance not an admission? Margolin, a specialist in legal thrillers, offers a diabolically well-crafted story, with twists and a surprising ending. Denis LeBrun,

9782226173584