Gallic crime fiction at its finest, Norek's absorbing and topical thriller about two young policemen – one French, one fleeing Syria and stuck in a refuge camp in Calais – who make a pact to assist one another mines a rich seam of the searing injustice and darkness permeating the migrant crisis.
Adam Sirkis needs to flee Syria. A captain in Assad's military police, he's about to be exposed as a covert member of the Free Syrian Army, and he knows exactly what fate awaits him.
His first move is to send his wife and daughter to Libya, where they can find a boat heading for Europe. Adam himself winds up in France in the Calais Jungle, the infamous camp for migrants seeking passage to the fabled Youké.
Bastien Miller, a police lieutenant freshly transferred to the Calais police force, arrives at about the same time. His wife is drowning in grief for her late father and their teenage daughter may never forgive them for the move.
When Adam risks his life to protect a young migrant, the two officers make a deal - information on Adam's family in exchange for intel from the Jungle. Then a body is found in the camp, and the deal becomes an alliance, uniting them in a common cause to do one good deed in a world where vice is a virtue.
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
ISBN: 9780857059215
Number of pages: 320
Dimensions: 236 x 160 x 34 mm
Weight: 520 g
Language: English
Extraordinary . . . a police procedural unlike anything else in contemporary crime fiction, drawing on Norek's experience during 18 years in the French force - Joan Smith, The Times
Diamond-hard, unrelenting Gallic crime fiction with a telling strand of social history - Barry Forshaw, Financial Times Best Summer Books of 2024
My expectations were more than met . . . Vivid scene-setting and a fine translation by Nick Caistor keep the narrative flowing quickly in this absorbing, topical story - Financial Times
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The Secret of Secrets
The Killer Question
We Chase Shadows
Exit Strategy
The Hallmarked Man
Not Quite Dead Yet
Broken Country
Clown Town
The Cut Throat Trial
Silent Bones
The Impossible Fortune
The Murder at World’s End
The Killing Stones
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