À l'abri des regards - Alex Sol

Absent from the second book in the series while Élise Duromain undertook a solo adventure - definitely going out on her own in À bout de souffle - Lucas Lievens returns for his own solo investigation in the third book in Alex Sol's series, but going solo is the only option for Lievens. Already retired from the police even before the start of the series, he is still unable to shake off his own personal loss, Lucas now operates a Private Investigator service with only one real purpose; to find missing children. Yes, it seems like the missing person theme is continuing after the previous two books in the series, but as you would expect there is a subtle difference in each investigation that expands into something entirely different.

Lucas Lievens operates to his own rules then, and in the case of his investigations, he only helps find abducted children: hopefully alive but it's more often the case that after several days of police investigation without result, he is searching for a body. He's not interested in investigating or bringing the abductor or killer to justice; that's a police matter and not his concern, but when he is asked to look into the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Katia Morin, the circumstances this time are different. Katia has disappeared only two days ago and no body has yet been discovered.

The reason that might be significant is that three other young girls of the same age went missing ten years ago in the region, which suggests that it is the same abductor, but there is a break in the pattern here. Then, the girls were found the day after their abduction, two of them alive with no memory of what had occurred, one of them dead. There is a chance then that Katia might be found alive. There is another reason why this is an interesting case and that's because the person who has engaged Lucas to look into the disappearance of Katia is Vincent Jiménez, whose daughter Paola was one of the earlier victims, and who was the prime suspect ten years ago of having abducted his daughter with the other two girls.

After the previous book, there is a considerable change of pace in À l'abri des regards ('Out of Sight') and by the same token it's not quite as compelling to merit over 600 pages. Set in the provinces some 100kn from Toulouse, what this third book does have is the advantage of the characteristics of this type of small town thriller. There are a closed group of villagers who all know each other and who are aware of each others character and behaviours. That means there is a lot of gossip and speculation and - considering the murder of a young girl ten years ago and the disappearance now of another - a lot of suspicion thrown in there as well. You have people behaving strangely, keeping secrets, but the most obvious suspects nonetheless all appear to have a solid alibi.

Lucas has his work cut out finding a way into this close knit community, and he doesn't have a lot of time with the clock ticking against the likelihood of finding Katia alive. There is a hint of a dark turn towards Twin Peaks territory, but obviously nothing quite as dark and surreal as that. In a similar but more conventional setting there are however definitely horrors to be found in a situation involving child abduction. But you can see that's what drives Lievens to a certain point anyway, as his past experiences prevent him from getting too involved. He sees his role as finding the missing girls - usually dead - and leaving the work of catching the killer down to the police.

That risks causing problems and it even causes Lievens some deep misgivings and personal turmoil, but as you can imagine - it wouldn't be a complete thriller otherwise - circumstances force him to reconsider his position. Despite the change of pace, Alex Sol's writing for this third book in the series remains consistent. The story is somewhat drawn out this time, lacking the urgency we have come to expect, but when it gets to where it's going, it provides a compelling scenario that although a little over-convoluted in how it opens up, will take you by surprise and bring about a reasonably satisfying conclusion.

Reading notes: À l'abri des regards by Alex Sol, first published in 2024, is self-published by the author. The series is hugely popular to judge by the comments, reviews and ratings on Amazon. There are paperback editions available, but I picked up a Kindle edition that collects the first three books in the Les enquêtes d'Elise Duromain et Lucas Lievens series. The books are published in French and there are no English language editions, but the author's writing seems to me to be very easy to read in French at pace; simple and direct with short chapters, even if there are fewer cliff-hanger moments this time.