"A bathtub of blood" to refresh your ideas this summer

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• Today, "A bathtub of blood" by Béatrice Hammer, published on July 8, 2022 by Éditions d'Avallon.

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, thriller published on July 8, 2022 by Éditions d'Avallon and signed Béatrice Hammer whom she interviewed.

His favorite quote:

Why this book?

• Because you remember

  Millenium

  ?

  At first, it's a matter of anonymously sending dried flowers.

  But the further we go, the wider the ramifications of the plot.

  This is also what Béatrice Hammer did in a book that opens with the discovery of a lifeless body, like in a classic thriller, before revealing that the victim worked for the

  Unleashed Rabbit

  , which augurs well. an investigation that will go far beyond the skills of a neighborhood police station.

  Let's go for a story that will take you very, very far from the starting bathtub!

• Because the novel alternates between chapters

  told in the first person by someone with a bruised childhood, who remains mysterious for a long time, and chapters where we follow Gloria, the investigator.

  And when you follow her, you never know if the scenes with her colleagues will lead to a candlelight date or a twist in the investigation.

  Investigation ?

  Let's talk about it... the further we go, the more the leads multiply: is Gloria investigating family secrets, or an industrial scandal?

  Of course, everything is linked;

  but to understand how, you have to read to the end!

The essentials in 2 minutes

The plot.

The police are called to places where a young woman is literally bathing in a blood red bathtub: it is not easy to say whether it is a suicide or a murder.

And it is not the contradictions of relatives or the disappearance of clues that will simplify the work of the investigation...

Characters.

Three women, three men: so many possibilities!

Gloria, a single mother policewoman, Mina, a lost young woman, and Orfeuil, director of security.

And then Rachid, a young and attractive colleague, Kalter, a disturbing lawyer, and Dutilleul, an untouchable CEO.

Ah yes: and a horse called Julien!

Places.

Obviously, a thriller always ends up converging on a police station.

But the same thing is at stake there as everywhere: when Rachid or Kalter defend Gloria, is it their colleague they are defending, or the woman who shows them that she is sensitive to their masculine gaze?

And vice versa !

The time.

If you knew of a modern era where we would not need to denounce pharmaceutical scandals on a planetary scale, then I would really like you to tell me which one... in any case, it would not be, alas, that of A bathtub of blood.

The author.

There is always a book by Béatrice Hammer for every moment of life and every desire!

This time, it is with the thriller of the summer that she returns to us: the assurance of having an excellent time between false criminal leads, real games of seduction between colleagues and unfortunately realistic plots.

This book has always been read with

the same pleasure of rediscovering the humor of Béatrice Hammer.

Because even in a book that bears a bloody title, one must redouble inventiveness to explain the smell of dung in the service vehicle.

A perfect novel to relax intelligently after a difficult year!

Béatrice Hammer, how did the idea to write this novel come to you?

I've wanted to write a thriller for a long time.

Indeed, as a reader, I love it.

For me, black literature is real literature, sometimes with something more.

So when, after devoting myself to writing screenplays and directing films for several years, I decided to get back to writing, I wanted to try the thriller adventure.

I wanted to write one that would be a little different from my usual reading, populated by male detectives, tortured, divorced, alcoholic, often unable to communicate with their offspring, and dream creatures who fell into their arms .

I decided to stage a "normal" investigator, reasonably neurotic,

a mother who would take care of her two children as best she could and would do her best to reconcile her career, her family life, and her life as a woman.

Also with some attractive men around – attractive, but not perfect.

“A tub of blood” goes far beyond “whodunit”.

Could the story of Gloria, Julie and Mina have been written without recourse to the thriller universe?

My answer is yes, without hesitation.

The construction of a plot, the twists and turns, the suspense, all of this amused me.

But the greatest pleasure I took in writing this book was that of building the characters, a pleasure that I experience for all my novels.

The problems encountered by Gloria, the investigator, in reconciling her career with her life as a woman while taking care as best she can of her two children interest me, and I appreciated her way of breaking the rules to progress in his investigation.

I also have a particular tenderness for the character of Mina, a child from the DDASS who became homeless, whose intimacy the reader is brought to share.

She is a very endearing character, with a lot of violence but also a lot of strength and tenderness in her;

Agatha Christie justified the writing of crimes by the fact that one was assured that the culprit was always punished.

Let's reassure the readers: this is indeed the case in "A bathtub of blood".

But there is also the intervention of complex global issues in the pharmaceutical industry.

Were you inspired by a true story?

Unfortunately, yes.

When I built my plot, I researched a lot, both on the world of pharmaceutical industries, and the embezzlement that can occur there, as, for example, on the situation of children abandoned by their parents.

The fake drugs put on the market, the guinea pigs recruited at low cost in poor countries, the sad fate of non-adoptable minors and the way in which we stop taking care of them as soon as they are of age, all of this does exist. , as well as the temptation, at the highest level, to leave the powerful unpunished.

From all these points of view, my thriller is rather realistic.

I am the first sorry.

Can you use three words to describe “A tub of blood” and convince your future readers to slip it into their vacation suitcase?

Three words ?

Read this book!

Seriously, I think it's light enough to entertain, deep enough to think about, and – I hope – a little touching!

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