Syndrome E — Franck Thilliez

In the French city of Lille, single mother and police detective Lucie Hennebelle receives a frantic call from an ex-boyfriend: after viewing an obscure 1950s short film bought at an estate sale, he has gone blind. In short order, everyone connected with this film starts dying, and Hennebelle must match wits with Franck Sharko, a veteran Paris detective with a shadowed past. They will have to travel from the south of France to Belgium to Egypt and Canada before the dark outlines of the film's legacy come into focus.

With its two unlikely but dedicated detectives, its cinematic echoes -- from The Manchurian Candidate to Jason Bourne -- and a twisting procedural plot that uncovers a heinous chapter in the history of neuroscience, Syndrome E is both a homage to the American detective novel and a page-burning thriller that keeps readers guessing until the very end.