Karine Alavi is a neurologist in a major Paris teaching hospital. Pity is her first novel.

• The rather monotonous the life of Xavier Lacour is turned upside down with the murder of his wife. Ravaged by sadness, this man is left with nothing but his seven-year-old daughter. Disgusted by the incompetence of the police he decides to set off in search of the killer.

• His search leads him on the tracks of Pierre Ferrand: courted by the pharmaceutical industry, admired and envied by his peers, this brilliant neurosurgeon with his robust and enigmatic personality has revolutionised neuroscience by inventing a brain stimulator capable of healing the most serious neurological illnesses.

• The death of Lacour's wife, who was undergoing treatment in Ferrand's clinic, coincides with the murder of the neurosurgeon's main female colleagues.

• Whether guilty of the crime or the victim of a frame-up, Ferrand is implicated. We just have to find out how.