The Executioner Weeps

<strong>Winner of the 1957 <em> Grand prix de la litterature policiere</em></strong>

It was fate that led her to step out in front of the car. A quiet mountain road. A crushed violin. And a beautiful woman lying motionless in the ditch.

Carrying her back to his lodging on a beach near Barcelona, Daniel discovers that the woman is still alive but that she remembers nothing - not even her own name. And soon he has fallen for her mysterious allure. She is a blank canvas, a perfect muse, and his alone. But when Daniel travels to France in search of her past, he slips into a tangled vortex of lies, depravity and murder. <em>The Executioner Weeps</em> is a macabre thriller about the dangerous pitfalls of love.

'The French master of noir' <em>Observer</em>

'Unsettling... worthy of Agatha Christie at her devious best... classic French noir' <em>Guardian</em>

'Hugely atmospheric' The Times</em>

'Spellbinding' <em>Wall Street Journal</em>

'Disturbing from the outset with strong echoes of Simenon' <em>Sunday Times</em>

Frederic Dard (1921-2000) was one of the best known and loved French crime writers of the twentieth century. Enormously prolific, he wrote more than three hundred thrillers, suspense stories, plays and screenplays, under a variety of noms de plume, throughout his long and illustrious career, which also saw him win the 1957 Grand prix de la litterature policiere for The Executioner Weeps. Dard's <em>Bird in a Cage</em>, <em>The Wicked Go to Hell</em>, <em>Crush</em>, <em>The Gravediggers' Bread</em> and <em>The King of Fools</em> are also available or forthcoming from Pushkin Vertigo.