- With his first novel “Requiem for a Republic” (Gallimard), Thomas Cantaloube won the Quais du Polar- “20 Minutes” prize this year.
- In this period of confinement, the editorial staff of "20 Minutes" strongly advise you to read this fascinating thriller where historic figures, battered crooks and great manipulators meet.
Special conditions. This year, due to the containment measures imposed by the government to stem the coronavirus pandemic on the territory, the Quais du Polar festival took place virtually last weekend. This did not prevent Thomas Cantaloube from winning the Grail by winning the Quais du Polar readers' prize - “20 Minutes” for his detective novel Requiem for a Republic (Gallimard). A first novel and a master stroke upon arrival.
The writer-journalist immerses readers captivatingly in the late 1950s. Back in the fall of 1959. The Algerian war is raging. In Paris, led with an iron fist by the prefect Maurice Papon, a lawyer close to the FLN was murdered. His wife and children did not escape the massacre either. So much for the starting point of the story in which three destinies will quickly become entangled. Those of three men that nothing can bring together. Three characters, animated by different convictions and life paths, radically opposed.
Collabo, drug trafficker and inexperienced cop
Antoine Carrega, a former Corsican resistance fighter, left the maquis to settle in the capital and discreetly dispose of a few shipments of drugs in the community. One of his friends, the father-in-law of the victim, instructs him to shed light on this murder and to find the author. Sirius Volkstrom is also determined to find the suspect. But not for the same reasons. This former collaborator, accustomed to performing the low tasks for the officials in power, has a head start. He knows the identity of the shooter, who has evaporated into the wild. But barely get his hands on it. And yet, he must make sure to liquidate the felon to prevent it from swinging the names of the sponsors.
On the side of the police responsible for conducting the investigation, Luc Blanchard, a young naive and idealist cop, freshly landed in the criminal brigade, will quickly understand that his superiors will not make his task easier by trying to cover the tracks. And that the orders could even come from much higher.
Miterrand, Papon and Le Pen invite themselves into the story
Betrayals, reversals of the situation, improbable alliances, the three protagonists will confront each other from a distance, get in the way of the wheels and finally unite over the 500 pages of the story that we literally devour. A story in which we meet Papon, Mitterrand, Le Pen, Pasqua.
Thomas Cantaloube follows the chapters subtly, without leaving room for boredom or weariness. He manages to mix fiction and historical facts without confusing the reader, caught up in the script and the intensity of complex but detailed characters. Barbouzes, crooks with a code of honor ... The bastards at the start end up moving, gradually revealing a part of humanity that we thought was secretly buried. Without the story falling into redness. Much more than a historical novel, Thomas Cantaloube signs a real thriller, fascinating and instructive. For sure, the revelation of the year.
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