Dans les brumes des Capelans - Olivier Norek

There aren't many contemporary French crime writers that make it into English translation, which includes a complete absence of a major writer like Franck Thilliez. Olivier Norek - another truly great writer - has been a little more fortunate with his Banlieus trilogy making it over, but aside from these Captain Coste thrillers there is a bit of catching up to do and all of them of a very high standard. It's gratifying to at least see Entre deux mondes due to make an appearance in translation next week as Between Two Worlds. Although the latter is a masterpiece, what everyone really wants is the new Coste novel, and even though he quit the SDPJ 93, Paris and indeed France at the end of Surtensions, that only intrigues where the writer might take him next. The answer is in Dans les brumes des Capelans - in the Capelans fog.

We were given some clue about where he was headed, but despite now being located some 1,500km away, Coste is still technically in France. He is also still in the police force, but located now on the remote frozen island of Saint-Pierre, a French Territory between Newfoundland and Greenland. An island of five thousand inhabitants, there is not much crime, the police force there is small and none are aware of Coste’s secret activities, believing his ‘légende’ to be customs officer for the special status of the islands. In reality he is in charge of a safe house for the witness protection agency, and you have to agree that this one would take some finding. His latest guest is a computer expert who will give the encryption key to the darkphone service used by a vast network of criminals in Europe, but there is another guest coming his way who is likely to attract a certain amount of interest - Anna Bailly.

Although not previously considered one of the victims of a series of abductions of nine young girls over a ten year period - it was assumed that 14 year old Anna Bailly ran away leaving behind a diary recording abuse by her father - a breakthrough on the case leads the police to a house where it is discovered that she had actually been the first of the killer's victims. The police are unfortunately too late to rescue Garance, the latest victim, and there is evidence that the previous victims have all been brutally murdered, but Commander Russo who is in charge of the investigation is able to recover Anna, the first girl taken and incredibly still alive. As Anna is the only witness and only concrete lead they have to the killer, she is taken into the Witness Protection Programme, but her experience has left her not in any condition to be all that helpful. Despite some reservations about Coste's troubled nature, particularly after what happened when last in Paris, it is felt that the best safe house for Anna Bailly would be 1,500 km away in Saint-Pierre.

Despite winning prestigious awards (Norek is currently racking them up as well with his new novel in France, Les guerriers de l'hiver), Les brumes des Capelans is for me a little disappointing for a Victor Coste book and a little disappointing for any kind of Olivier Norek book thus far, in that for the larger part it's more a conventional cat and mouse serial killer thriller. Norek has never been conventional, always surprising and taking unexpected angles on serious real contemporary crime issues. It's true that there are twists and surprises here and enough doubts and ambiguities to keep you guessing, but I didn't find it totally convincing. It's inevitably going to be a different world now with Coste alone, away from the 93 and his team there, and you expect him to have an extra edge after events in Surtensions - which is definitely there - but elsewhere, despite the afterword noting that most of the characters are based on real officers in Saint-Pierre, the characterisation and behaviours are lacking credibility here. That's not to mention the novelistic device of the fog of the Capelans, the thickest fog in the world apparently, descending to give a meteorological atmosphere and tension to the denouement.

Of course it's not about the plot or even about the behaviours of the characters; it's all really about Victor Coste, what he does next and where indeed he might go from here. Les brumes de Capelans in Saint-Pierre is where Coste has lost himself, tried to hide from his past in its thick fog. It's about him finding a way to cut through the enveloping mists and see clearly what is in front of him, but perhaps most importantly, it's an effort to redeem the mistakes made back in the force in Paris and find a way to bring him back from the dead. Although figuratively speaking - and mixing some metaphors - that's indeed not without some considerable hurdles to overcome, and it's by no means assured that he achieves that, or indeed whether it doesn't make his condition even more precarious. That edge and ambiguity, as well as what is still a satisfying thriller, might just about make the whole wild tale worthwhile.

Reading notes: Dans les brumes des Capelans by Olivier Norek was first published in France by Michel Lafont. I read the mass market Pocket paperback edition. I've been saving this one up since I bought it while in Grenoble in France in 2023, perhaps expecting to be disappointed. I did enjoy it, just not as much as his previous books, including the last one Impact, which was outstanding. But Coste is back and who knows where he will be found next, if indeed he comes back at all. (I can't see that not happening).