Bernard Minier

Bernard Minier grew up in the foothills of the Pyrenees in Béziers and chose the area as the setting for his prize-winning first novel, The Frozen Dead. He was a prodigious reader as a child and was drawn to books that had a map at the beginning (Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Verne’s L’Ile Mystérieuse, Tokein’s Lord of the Rings). He studied in Tarbes and Toulouse and now lives with his family in L’Essonne in the Ile de France.

After university he joined the French customs service where he worked for 30 years. Minier has written since he was an adolescent but had to wait until just after he turned 50 before he was encouraged to send his manuscript to a publisher. His debut novel, The Frozen Dead, published in France in 2011, is set in the depths of winter in the Pyrénées. It was shortlisted for six prizes and won three, and was translated into 15 languages.

Books by Bernard Minier

Night

Detectives Kirsten Nigaard from Norway and Martin Servaz from France join forces in search of a notorious cunning serial killer on the run. All clues point to Martin’s earlier personal painful history with the murderer, but this time the life of a five-year-old boy is also at stake.

Reviewed on 26 October 2019 by Ewa Sherman

Don't Turn Out The Lights

When Christine Steinmeyer finds a suicide note in her mailbox, her busy life begins to unravel.

Reviewed on 14 April 2017 by Kati Barr-Taylor

A Song For Drowned Souls

A young man is found at the house of a teacher, brutally murdered. His mother asks Commandant Servaz for help. Servaz fears that an escaped serial killer may have been involved.

Reviewed on 29 August 2015 by Chris Roberts

The Frozen Dead

The grisly display of a horse carcass in an isolated mountain town initiates a police operation which soon widens when a macabre murder follows.

Reviewed on 08 May 2015 by Chris Roberts