The latest novel by G. Martin - Chauffier is, it seems, to be called a political novel about a cultural background, which at first glance could be mistakenly labeled a crime novel. For it is not the investigation of the guilty about the death of an Arab teenager that turns out to be a key topic. The unmasking of all connections in the structures of power comes to the fore.
In the depths of the structures, the narrators introduce the first-person to the reader. Narrators, because there are many of them - each chapter is a different narrator, and in total there are ten of them. Applying such a procedure, the author allows the reader to assess the situation from different points of view, from the mouths of people involved in various state structures. Among the narrators, we find three policemen (Giquel, Mehut, Duval), a stationist from the police station (Bouyx), director of the ministry's office (de Savay), two lawyers (Meyssan and Desdieux), editor-in-chief of a popular magazine (Vincourt), delegate of the Mercenary (Saidi), and finally the mother of the dead boy (Aslass).
It should now be explained to what all the above narrators refer to. Well, the subject of their actions and reflections is the situation that happens one day in today's Versières (time: year 2016, place: Versières, France). The day after the police patrol, in which a young apprentice is assisted by policeman Giquel, the body of an Arab teenager is found in the Versières district called Cité Noire. The relationship with police patrol is that the patrolling couple was photographed the day before by a teenager, as a result of Giquel's challenge. Does his intervention have anything to do with the boy's death? Where is the truth?
This outline seems to foretell an immersive criminal novel whose main topic will be the investigation. Nothing could be more wrong, because it's not about the investigation, it's not in its classic dimension anyway. Only at the end of the novel, as if by accident the reader learns who was at fault. And all this to obliterate the reader from illusions, stereotypes, representations. Demascation occurs in every chapter, the attitude to investigation, or rather the desire to avoid it, increases.
The novel draws in as soon as the reader dips his nose in the novel. Probably it is related to a simple language (much less poetic than in the case of "Maitres et esclaves") used by all narrators. Interestingly, the French language in the narrative of the Arabian hero is the same, or there are very small differences, like the language of the French narrators. So there are some common areas for both nations.
