Commandant Solane - Jérémie Claes

érémie Claes makes very clear - even brutally clear - the source and nature of the conflict at the heart of his second novel, Commandant Solane; immigration. The scene is set by the shock opening section detailing the brutal killing of a Muslim shop owner in Belgium, but it's the border between Italy and France that is to become the centre of attention when forty-two bodies are washed up on a French Mediterranean shore. Former police officer Bernard Solane, who has retired to the Provence region, is shocked at the state of the carbonised dead bodies, many of them children, washing up on La Bocca beach in Cannes. Solane's instinct is to fish the bodies out of the sea, but the inaction of the horrified holidaymakers sunning themselves on the the beach is just as shocking. Despite a similar unusual reticence on the part of the local politics and police force to investigate, he is determined to find out what happened.

The conflict that arises out of this incident then is not difficult to identify. On one side are those with a far right anti-immigration agenda, one stoked up by local politician Anaïs Prigent, niece of Marie-Louise Prigent who is the president of the Rassemblement patriotique. (Their real life counterparts should not be difficult to identify). On the other side of the argument is Jasmine, the sister-in-law of Anaïs, who lives in the border village of Breil-sur-Roya and keeps a watchful eye on the mountainous terrain looking to help any immigrants who have crossed the border from Italy before the authorities seize them. She rescues a young boy Moussa who has made the journey all the way from the Ivory Coast, but in the vicinity she also discovers a mutilated body that doesn't appear to be an immigrant. There are other horrific and grisly discoveries in the mountains between Italy and France, including sightings of the Devil himself.

The police are reluctant to get involved considering the sensitivities and attitudes towards migrants in this part of the country, attitudes that the higher ranks seem to hold themselves. The chief of police, Fauchard, is close to the politicians and wants to put a lid on the investigation and even prevent the reporting of the incident on the beach, much to the frustration of Solane who can't believe that there isn't more of an outcry. As an autopsy reveals new information about the remains of the charred bodies, and the police become aware of a site of burnt ground, this clearly isn't going to be able to be kept under wraps for long. Solane realises nonetheless that his best chance of finding answers is to make contact with the young woman notorious for defying the authorities and helping immigrants crossing the border.

The incident at the centre of this is by no means minor, but there are plenty of other matters to keep the novel ticking over and anger building. Yvan, husband of Anaïs Prigent and brother of Jasmine, is a bit of a loose cannon capable of stirring up plenty of drama all on his own. He has had trouble with drugs and alcohol in the past, but now clean and acting under divine instruction, he is trying to clean up the source of the problems in the south of France in his own way. He is lucky that his politician wife has Fauchard in her pocket, but even his activities are going to be difficult to cover up for long. It's nothing however to the increase in attacks carried out by a group of masked vigilantes whose activities are becoming more extreme by the day.

There are a lot of things to like about Commandant Solane's original approach to the subject of immigration in a French police thriller. The humanity and inhumanity of the characters tends to the extremes; a mission for the Virgin Mary on one side; Solane against Sitane in another - but Claes makes it feel real and convincing, and in places utterly horrifying. The approach also allows for great unpredictability, the story constantly surprising you with how the unexpected can happen, how mistakes can lead to all kinds of results: just like real life. The writing also has style, is insightful and makes occasionally poetic (but not flowery) observations that are there to dig deeper rather than for literary show. It goes to some extraordinary places, almost horrifyingly hallucinatory at some points, but in them it captures a sense of the political and ideological reality of extremism. In every respect however, it's a compelling and involving read, as much for the subject as in the wonderful way it treats its characters - the good and the bad.

Reading notes: Commandant Solane by Jérémie Claes was first published in France in 2025 by Éditions Héloïise d’Ormesson. I read the Pocket paperback edition. It can be read standalone from the series, but now I feel compelled to go and read the first acclaimed book in the series, L’Horloger, published in 2024. Claes's latest Solane book Cavillore has also just been published by Éditions Héloïise d’Ormesson. Definitely an author worth following and perhaps maybe someone might even pick up the series for English translation.