Dans les Brumes de Capelans

I have to sadly admit that I'm not a great reader (I'm talking about literature, as for programming/technical stuff, political crap, history and so on I read tons of stuff). Just a few books per year (these last years a bit more, hopefully). Years ago (betwen 2009 and 2013 mainly) I was very much into Nordic Noir. I started with Stieg Larsson and continued with Asa Larsson (my favorite), Camilla Lackberg and Jo Nesbo. In Asa Larsson and Camilla Lackberg I terribly appreciated the "darkness" of many of the characters, that sadness, those difficoult existences... In recent years I've moved back into crime/thriller/police books, but this time into what I would call as "French blood noir", that is, crime-police-dark thriller novels where crimes are particularly bloody, violent, evil (involve torture, some sort of ritual, mutilations, BSDM...). It's what in Les Rivieres Pourpres (series) they call "crimes de sang". By the way, those series are really good, particularly Season 1 and 2 (season 3 and 4 felt a bit weaker to me, but have some excellent chapters also).

Since 2022 I've been reading the Sharko and Lucie Henebelle stories by Franck Thilliez. I can not recommend it enough. The crimes are horrible, bloody, sick, conducted by lonely psychopaths, organised elitist groups, pseudo-vampires... there are secret clubs that remind me of the 28 mms film, but above all I've come to love the main characters, particularly Sharko, and Nicolas Bellanger, whose nightmarish existence has become more and more important in the last books. They live a painful life, they fall, get up, fall again, overcome all sort of crap that leaves such deep scars... I should write several posts about them, but this one is not intended to that, but to a book from a different author, Dans les Brumes des Capelans by Olivier Norek.

I had previously read "Trilogy 93", that follows the misadventures of policeman Captain Victor Costa and his team tracking criminals in Seine-Saint-Denis. Pretty good, but it's more "standard crime-police literature" than the aforementiond "crimes de sang" stuff. In his real life Norek worked as a policeman in Seine-Saint-Denis, so one can imagine that there's much reality poured into those novels. "Dans les brumes de Capelans" is quite a different beast, much more of a dark thriller, of a "crimes de sang" story. Several years after the tragic end of the trilogy, Costa has managed to survive by running away from Paris and his previous life and living a lonely existence in such a secluded place as Saint Pierre et Miquelon, where works for the Witness Protection Service, managing a house by a cliff where he receives guests that have to remain hidden until they are provided with a new identity. We could say that Costa wants to remain as hidden as his guests.

This time he receives a young woman, Anna, that is the only survival of a maniac that has been seizing, torturing and murdering young girls for more than a decade, but that decided to keep her alive "for some reason". The girl is fucked up, Costa is fucked up, and strong bonds get woven between these 2 broken souls, 2 partners in pain and desolation. There are some very beautiful cathartic moments, there's the maniac killer that resurfaces, and there are many, many surprises. There's another interesting character, the policeman that dealt with Anna and the other girls disappearances and Anna's liberation. He appears only in the first and last chapters, playing an important role. Setting the story in this mysterious island adds darkness and loneliness to the story, a hard place for hard people.

I won't tell you more, go for the book and enjoy it.