The French author Sonja Delzongle made a name for herself with her series about profiler Hanah Baxter (Dust, Quand la neige danse…), and she returns this year with Thanatea, her first release with Fleuve Éditions, a dark novel of friendship and death.
Layla, Esther, and Hélène have been friends since their teenage years, almost forever. They are bonded, perhaps more strongly than others, by their challenging careers as police officers, by life’s hurdles, and by pain. They are strong, they are united. Yet, at almost 40, Esther gives it all up: her job as a cop, life in Lyon, her friends, her ex-husband. Layla and Hélène struggle to understand her new life choice: to become a coffee attendant at a private club on an island in Lake Geneva…
But it’s a somewhat special enterprise Esther joins; Thanatea is a high-tech funeral company with rather strict rules. By getting closer to death, Esther hopes to finally find peace.
Three Strong Women
At the center of this new thriller by Sonja Delzongle are three powerful and combative female figures. Life hasn’t spared them, and they have all experienced difficult times: Layla with her violent ex-husband and her daughter whom she can’t see as often as she’d like; Hélène in remission from breast cancer, married to Gauthier who has gradually become addicted to video games and cannabis; and Esther, Esther with her many secrets that will be uncovered throughout the book…
These ordinary heroines are the central figures of this thriller, and without them, the story wouldn’t have the same depth. It actually starts rather quietly, anchoring Layla and Hélène in their daily lives as cops and women, while Esther is settling into her new job where everything is very sanitized and controlled.
But one day, Esther comes across a paper bird, a blue origami. An object that takes her far back in time and at the same time, has no reason to be there… who left this small memento in Esther’s new life? Who could possibly know?!
The plot then takes a new turn, becoming more intense, the suspense increases, the clues multiply, and everything accelerates. The author’s writing, sometimes poetic, sometimes more raw, leads the heroines to reveal certain secrets and immerses the reader in a reflection on death. This topic, at the heart of the island of Thanatea, is perfectly presented by Sonja Delzongle, never falling into melodrama but instead raising important societal questions. It is accompanied by other strong and current themes like the role of women (in society, in a high-risk profession), end of life, or harassment…
Made dense by these themes, Thanatea is a powerful thriller with an oppressive atmosphere that will leave a strong impression on readers once they reach the end of the book.
