Cellule Poison #5

The fifth volume of Laurent Astier's Cellule Poison arrives with a cover that quietly commands attention: a small child in a vivid red coat and boots trudges through falling snow, clutching a stuffed rabbit, while the legs of a tall, elegantly dressed woman loom in greyscale behind her. The stark contrast between the child's warm color and the cold, monochrome world around her lends the image an immediately poignant tension. Comptines — "nursery rhymes" — is a beautifully unsettling title for what promises to be another sharp, atmospheric chapter in this French espionage series.