After a detour into mainstream literature with Les intrépides, Hervé Commère returns to the dark world of crime fiction in 2025 with Dernier cri, published by Fleuve Éditions. It’s a dark and social novel that brings its hero back to his hometown, Elbeuf, for a deep dive into the heart of temp agencies and the lives of the working poor.
Étienne Rozier, a former cop turned opportunistic lobbyist, spends a night in Rotterdam with a journalist, Anna Dufossé. During a brief moment when Anna finds herself alone, she is murdered. Rozier is the perfect suspect: he has just secretly spent an entire night with the victim and his fingerprints are all over the hotel room. To avoid the humiliation of an arrest and the discovery of his affair, Rozier flees. Taking refuge in a ZAD, he decides to shed light on Anna’s murder and thus prove his innocence. He traces back to his last investigation into the working poor in temp agencies, in Elbeuf, his despised and long-abandoned birthplace.
A hero, former cop turned lobbyist
After struggling as a police officer for many years, Étienne Rozier changed course 5 years ago. He accepted a position at a lobbying agency that allowed him to quickly rise up the social ladder. At the Barns cabinet, his tasks are simple: convince anyone of anything. Regardless of the cost or method. Rozier’s techniques are varied, ranging from minimal nuisance—cutting off your internet connection—to much more concrete threats—blackmail, poisoning with GHB, surveillance, etc., all with a tripled salary, Rozier has little morality left, many contacts, and a free hand to achieve his goal.
Here, in a few lines, is the portrait of the “hero” of Hervé Commère’s new crime novel. But the author will not leave us with such an unempathetic character for the rest of his novel.
No, Hervé Commère will push his hero over the edge and show him that he can lose everything in the blink of an eye! Both to clear his name and to understand what happened to Anna, Étienne will make a 180-degree turn and once again, change his life.
His investigation will then lead him to Elbeuf, a former textile town where the collapse of the textile industry has gradually transformed the city into a depressing territory. To blend in, Rozier will join a temp agency that will send him to a cleaning company, Demain.
At the heart of precarious workers
Returning to crime fiction, Hervé Commère offers with Dernier cri an immersive journey into a small French town abandoned by businesses where residents try to survive as best they can, taking any jobs, especially those that the rest of the population doesn’t want to do. The accurate descriptions of Elbeuf take readers into this Norman locality, too far from Paris to be its suburb and benefit from its influence. The author, a native of Normandy, provides a striking insight into this small town that resembles so many French towns.
The hero of Hervé Commère’s plot is a protagonist whom the reader will follow despite his actions and choices, and his flight might be akin to a quest for redemption. To counterbalance Étienne Rozier’s cynicism, Hervé Commère introduces once again a cast of strong and endearing characters, notably the new contacts he makes upon arriving in Elbeuf, Niki, Stéphanie, Christian. And his life in Elbeuf will allow readers to discover his childhood and adolescence, memories that Rozier would have preferred to forget.
After a very fast-paced first part, Hervé Commère sets his story and spins the thread of his plot more patiently in a second part dedicated to more social themes. Perfectly documented, Dernier cri reveals the underside of a world that society often refuses to see and gives its hero a second chance.
