In 2025, Franck Thilliez reconnects with his iconic duo of heroes, Franck Sharko and Lucie Hennebelle, in a thrilling and gripping 14th case! Diving once again into the meanders of the human brain, Delayed takes readers into the darkest madness…
The brain and madness are themes dear to Franck Thilliez as they are at the heart of several of his thrillers – Phantom Memory (2008), Dizziness (2011), Fracture (2009) – along with science and medical research, especially with Pandemia (2015). And yet, the author manages to renew himself and offer readers atypical, scientific, and terribly realistic plots. Delayed is no exception!
In the difficult patient unit (UMD) of Chambly, in Oise, Eléonore Hourdel’s team receives a new patient: deemed unfit for a classic custody, he was found on a train platform after pushing a passerby onto the tracks, delirious, feet bloodied, trying to open his belly with his fingers to “kill […] slimy green things.”
Fifty kilometers further south, in Seine-Saint-Denis, Sharko’s team faces a grim discovery. A man is found murdered in his home, naked, the lower abdomen riddled with at least forty stab wounds, a funnel shoved into his mouth and filled with lye. Unusually, the apartment lacks any DNA or fingerprint trace, and the deceased has absolutely smooth fingertips…
Who are these two unidentified men? Are they connected? Sharko’s group – Nicolas, Lucie, and Pascal – is going to have their work cut out for them.
Bloody Murders and Immersion into Madness
With Franck Thilliez, as readers know, the crimes are gory yet not excessive, and especially not without reason. The thriller author always provides real depth to his novels, thanks to thorough research and a scientific approach to the subjects tackled, with his knack for demystifying generally complex themes.
To achieve this and to offer readers the most realistic narrative possible, the author was able to integrate the UMD of Rouvray and convey the atmosphere, the work of the medical staff, the patients, and their various pathologies.
Echoing current events – mental health is the national great cause for 2025 – Delayed brings out the harshness and difficulty of dealing with a disease that sometimes never heals. As discussions about this topic become more open, especially among high-level athletes, it becomes crucial to break the taboos still attached to mental illnesses.
Relentless Efficiency
But Delayed is above all a thriller of relentless efficiency! We find Sharko’s team after the painful ordeal they faced in their last case (The Fault, 2023), in the midst of reconstruction, yet the group is on the verge of tipping over… The author also gives prominence to the character of Nicolas Bellanger, Sharko’s second-in-command. The latter is somewhat in the background, and a secondary plot revolves around the lieutenant.
Meanwhile, readers meet psychiatrist Éléonore Hourdel, who has been working at UMD Ulysse for six years. It quickly becomes clear that she will play a crucial role in this investigation.
The codes of the thriller, perfectly mastered by Thilliez, snap into place, and the machine starts at full speed. The author alternates immersive chapters with more paced ones, with cliffhangers strategically placed, unfolding the pieces of a sprawling puzzle that the reader will be compelled to assemble and solve!
Madness, parasites, but also neurobiology, art, and mainly outsider art, are themes that compose the structure of Delayed. Not forgetting, a crucial point for Franck Thilliez, the human element, the people behind the facts, the victims, the patients, and the widespread incomprehension regarding these crimes, prevailing among the public. Franck Thilliez does not shy away from addressing burning social issues such as civil responsibility – he had already discussed brain death and end-of-life in The Fault (2023) – and highlights the sometimes brutal opposition between psychiatrists who wish to understand and help the patients, and the police and victims’ families who want a culprit to be condemned.
– he had already discussed brain death and end-of-life in The Fault (2023) – and he highlights the sometimes brutal opposition between psychiatrists who wish to understand and help the patients, and the police and victims’ families who want a culprit to be condemned.
Under the guise of entertainment filled with twists and turns and a complex and dense plot, Franck Thilliez highlights the complexity of these situations, showing all the aspects of such an investigation.
