| The City of Unspeakable Fear | |
| Author: | Jean Ray |
| Title Orig: | La Cité de l'indicible peur |
| Orig Lang Code: | fr |
| Translator: | Scott Nicolay |
| Country: | Belgium |
| Language: | French |
| Publisher: | Les Auteurs Associés |
| Pub Date: | 1943 |
| English Pub Date: | 2023 |
| Pages: | 188 |
The City of Unspeakable Fear (French: La Cité de l'indicible peur) is a 1943 novel by the Belgian writer Jean Ray. It is a murder mystery set in an English small town, with elements of detective story, horror and parody.[1]
It was first published in Belgium eight days after Ray's most famous work, the novel Malpertuis, in 1943. Both works were written while Ray was living in Ghent under Nazi occupation.[2] The book was the basis for the 1964 film , directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky and starring Bourvil.[3] It was translated by Scott Nicolay in 2023 and published in English as The City of Unspeakable Fear.
The story follows a retired Scotland Yard officer, Sidney Terence Trigger ("Triggs"), who moves to the fictional town of Ingersham in Southeast England. Expecting to settle down into a tranquil rural life, he instead finds that the residents of Ingersham anticipate a "great fear" striking the town. A series of deaths and apparent supernatural incidents draw Triggs into the role of detective, trying to identify what is real in an environment of paranoia.