W3 – Evil for Evil is the second volume of the series written by the “CamHug” duo, which began with The Hangman’s Smile. It brings back most of its protagonists, notably Lara Mendes and Léon Castel. Released last January, Nice Premium takes you to the heart of 800 pages of tension.
After enduring a terrible kidnapping in the first volume, journalist Lara Mendes wants to rebuild her life away from the media and the capital. The news site W3, which she established with her friends, continues to operate.
While Léon continues his daring actions, police officers are being killed or disappearing all over France. The W3 team thinks they may have stumbled upon another sensational case.
But many individuals are determined to prevent the Web TV from operating… And despite her best intentions, Lara finds herself caught up in turmoil once again.
This new volume, co-written by Nathalie Hug and Jérôme Camut, picks up exactly where the first one ended, just four days later. Just as dense as The Hangman’s Smile, Evil for Evil offers an intense and complex narrative that takes its time to unfold.
The action is less prominent than in the first installment, as the authors take care to describe the settings and characters. These characters are numerous, and while many familiar ones return, new ones are introduced. Lara heals her wounds, Léon’s actions lead him to prison, and Jo Lieras endures a terrible tragedy from the first pages. The characters of Demian Obolansky, Lieras’s partner, Yanna, and Romane Mariani, Sookie’s psychiatrist, will be central to several chapters. And let’s not forget, the mysterious Ilya Kalinine, whose shadow continues to loom over Lara.
In W3, there is no main hero but a multitude of characters of all ages, genders, civilians, and police officers, which is the strength of this novel. Readers become attached to them, want to protect and accompany them. Above all, they are human, ambivalent, and capable of doing both good and evil…
This second volume full of sensations and emotions is offered by Jérôme Camut and Nathalie Hug. It keeps readers’ hearts racing, making them vibrate and hope. The middle of the book is relatively calm, then everything speeds up, leading to a simply deafening finale. It’s a torment for readers to have to wait after such an incredibly violent twist.
Inevitably, there is an echo of the events of January and the importance of press freedom, and in this fiction, W3 takes on the role of a revealer.
The authors’ writing once again creates strong, vivid dialogues with words that sting and skillfully construct delicate relationships between characters, notably between Lara and Demian.
An intelligent, sometimes violent thriller, W3 relentlessly challenges both readers and characters, exposing human deviations. Now, all that remains is to be patient while waiting for the third installment’s release.
