The Breath of Night, Alexandre Galien

The new novel by Alexandre Galien, winner of the 2020 Quai des Orfèvres Prize.

"Valmy’s silences on the phone had resonated in their ears like the whistling of a body falling straight into the abyss. Yet when the head of the Crim’ had uttered the words 'murder', 'doll riddled with scars', 'voodoo', and 'Bois de Vincennes', an unusual tension had filled the room. Jean and the commissioner couldn’t tell if it was his breathing that had changed, or if he was possessed by an unknown force, but the Valmy they knew had returned."

From the suburbs of Barbès to the gilded halls of embassies, between prostitution and black magic, Philippe Valmy's group reassembles to track down a bloodthirsty killer who reopens the scars of the past.