Brûlez tout - Christophe Molmy
The success and the significant mark that Brûlez tout makes is in how it turns its attention not just to rather more contemporary issues, but how it looks behind the front page headlines and considers some of the underlying issues that have the potential - the extreme likelihood rather - of occurring again in the future. If it doesn't delve too deeply into the sense of unrest that is fuelling extremism and terrorism, it at least considers the technologies, the social media and the proliferation of fake news that allows such dangerous ideologies and conspiracies to take hold, as well as focussing - perhaps a little too optimistically maybe - on how the authorities can keep up with technology and new threats posed.
At the start of Brûlez tout, we are introduced to a small team operating within the Crim' section of the Police Judiciaire in Paris. Under the command of the experienced Sasha, they are tracking the movements of a group of activists who they believe are planning something big, possibly a robbery or an abduction. It's the first sign that they underestimate the changing nature of criminal activity in the city. They are aware however that it is a delicate operation and there is a need to tread carefully and choose their moment, but it all goes wrong and the failure of the operation and the injuries sustained by the team hit them deeply.
Again, the team are slow to recognise that there is also something more to the murder of a night watchman at a science laboratory. It seems to offer no clues or reason for killing, but they come to suspect that it might be connected to several other random incidents that are taking place in the city. There is an attacks on a TV personality philosopher in the street and small explosions taking down 5G network pylons. What connects these attacks is that they are filmed and start being posted on a social media site under the username of 'Watchmen'. They suspect that that all the incidents are coordinated by this person or group of disaffected anarchist terrorists that is gaining a growing following and approval across social media sites.
The crimes might be small scale disruption that the police are well equipped to handle, but the real challenge that they face which is rather more extensive and out of their control (and comfort zone) is the policing of social media. Brûlez tout presents those challenges well, noting that more than 80% of French people use social media, and as such, it has never been as easy for disruptive elements to reach them and "point them in the right direction". "Ces réseaux, c'est l'ubérisation de la connerie", remarks Louis, the team's only tech expert. And where there is dissatisfaction, it only needs someone to "souffler sur les braises et entretenir le feu".
It's a big subject admittedly and there is only so much that a relatively short novel can undertake, but it has to be said that Christophe Molmy perhaps takes some shortcuts in order to highlight the scale of the problem. The dividing line is fairly clear between the police on one side and militant anarchists on the other. Which you would expect of course, but it is much harder to deal with the issues that lie in between. The novel doesn't really take in the political dimension that the police have to deal with nor - except in the most basic terms - does it address those underlying smouldering ashes ready to be blown on by bad actors and fired into action through social media by those with "legitimate concerns".
The establishment, the politicians, the business leaders and bankers don't come into the equation here, except perhaps as "legitimate targets". The trouble is caused by "militant anarchists" spurring on street protests and urging insurrection. Sure, that's definitely something that Paris and France is familiar with, but despite the limitations of the focus here, it's clear nonetheless that the real issue is how that can be exploited further in other ways and how difficult it can be to put a lid on it. There is a real sense of concern about that. The nature of the way that the police and security forces are organised also comes under attention here, their inability to adapt, being caught up in old ways of procedure and rank, not to mention coming under considerable stress and pressure in their personal lives, exemplified by the team leader Sasha, injured and apparently still shook up after the incident of the pursuit of the stolen car. His reactions are off and he is afraid of becoming obsolete.
There is a sense that the French policier also has to adapt and be alert to the new age of technology and crime and find inventive ways to make it interesting. There is still a place hopefully for the game playing serial killers of Franck Thilliez's Sharko novels, for the eccentricities of Fred Vargas and her Adamsberg series, but even Olivier Norek can no longer see a place for the banlieu crime faced by Captain Coste. There are signs of a change in perspective with writers like Armand Delpierre combining fiction with real-life events and Ludovic Deblois taking on the larger scale path of direction in his big future conspiracy thriller Inversion, so it definitely doesn't mean that the future of the crime novel has to be any less thrilling.
Christophe Molmy succeeds in highlighting the issues as well as making it more interesting through the personalities of the the PJ team (now no longer at the famous 36 Quai des Orfévres but located in the Rue de Bastion in the NW outskirts of Paris, an indication also of changing times). If there is a conceptual weakness here in Brûlez tout, it's that it doesn't take the threat seriously enough or try to understand where it is coming from, conflating far-left and far-right ideologies, populism and conspiracy groups. Or perhaps that in itself is recognition that social media in the hands of dangerous activists and bad actors is capable of appealing to whatever public concerns are necessary to achieve their own aims. There is a valid and present concern here, but the resolution through a mix of old techniques, non-standard procedure and a bit of minor rule breaking, as well as a little technological knowledge and sense of justice, seems a little optimistic.
Reading notes: Brûlez tout by Christophe Molmy is published in France by Éditions Fayard, 2025. I read the French language pocket paperback edition. As the cover indicates, the novel is the current winner of the 2026 Prix du Quai des Orfèvres. The winner was chosen by a jury led by the actual director of the Police Judiciare, so on the one hand you would expect it to lean towards a book that shows the PJ in a good light, but it also suggests that there is authenticity in the writing. Since Molmy is also a former member of the Paris anti-gang group BRI (Brigade Recherche et d'intervention - The Search and Intervention Brigade) and is currently director of Brigade for the Protection of Minors, you can be sure that there is authenticity here.
I'm never sure about prize winning books. Sure it's a sign of some kind of ‘quality control’, but it is also restrictive, pointing readers in a certain direction, a sign of conformity and playing to conventions. The Prix du Quai des Orfévres almost by definition seems to be one appealing to a specific committee supporting the work of the police, but there is nothing inherently wrong with that. Ultimately however, I think the book is well-written, a good read and a worthy winner, for what that's worth.
It's interesting to note that the name of the social media anarchist group 'Watchmen' seems to be a reference to Alan Moore, who of course was also the author of V for Vendetta, which was taken up by the activist group Anonymous. Moore of course was prescient a long time ago of the direction of civil unrest with political oppression - V for Vendetta coming out of the Thatcher era - and Watchmen, concerned with the rise of fascism, also shares concerns that remain just as relevant today.
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