1991 by Franck Thilliez, released last May by Fleuve Éditions, is actually a journey back in time, tracing the steps of young police inspector Franck Sharko, freshly graduated from the academy. The author offers us here the first investigation of the character who will become his iconic figure.
December 1991, Franck Sharko arrives at 36 quai des Orfèvres, where he is the “number 6 and last of his investigation group, a basic ‘ripeur’ attached to ‘the case of the Disappeared of the Southern suburbs of Paris’.” Three women were kidnapped, raped, and murdered from 86 to 89. An unresolved case despite countless hours of work and research. Sharko is tasked with bringing a fresh perspective and dedicates all his time to it. It is after a day devoted to the Disappeared that Sharko meets a panicked man who has just found a photo of a woman lying down, tied up, with her head in a bag. Sharko, being a meticulous cop, decides to go to the address indicated on the picture…
For this first investigation, Franck Thilliez spares no one, neither the readers nor his hero, who will quickly be thrown into the deep end!
Immersing everyone back to the 90s, Thilliez succeeds brilliantly in reconstructing this era with its references, its codes, its more relaxed procedures, and this more animalistic, instinctive way of investigating due to the absence of technologies that would appear later.
Thilliez’s writing also adapts to this journey into the past. For fans of the character, it is a delight to discover Franck Sharko as a young investigator, engaged to Suzanne, a bit naive, eager to protect her from the horrors of his job, but who nonetheless senses that it will be hard to do so.
Upon his arrival, Sharko joins Titi’s team, and the author creates cohesion similar to what will be seen later when Sharko becomes group leader, with the cracks of some, the flirting with legality, the struggle to maintain a private/professional life boundary. “The tension was palpable inside the car. Observing the expressions of his colleagues in the dim light of the overhead lamp, the image of a wolf pack came to Sharko’s mind: they lived in unison for such hunting moments. Pure adrenaline, administered intravenously, keeping them alive.”
Thanks to a particularly skillful plot, Franck Thilliez weaves a network of false leads and takes investigators into the murky worlds of voodoo, magic, and mentalism. He handles suspense well, dispensing true clues and dead ends throughout the narrative. One believes everything until the final outcome.
A plot full of tension, dark, and thrilling for this first investigation of Franck Sharko, a success!
