Early 2015. The new Maxime Chattam, “Que ta volonté soit faite,” has just been released (Albin Michel editions, January 2). Classified under ‘Literature,’ not ‘Thrillers,’ this novel takes you straight into the Midwest and the heartland of America.
More than ten years after the release of his first thriller (“L’âme du mal”) and a detour into heroic fantasy (the “Autre-Monde” saga), Maxime Chattam embarks brilliantly on a noir novel.
Carson Mills, a small town in the Midwest, a quiet, peaceful, idyllic place with its forests and charming houses. However, Jon Petersen lives there, and for several years, he will be the person you don’t want to meet, he will be the physical embodiment of your worst nightmares. To be honest, even the Devil is afraid of him…
Kids all over America had the Boogeyman for scary stories, but in Carson Mills, they had Jon Petersen.
For his twentieth novel, Maxime Chattam steps out of his comfort zone and offers us a genuine homage to noir novels. Thanks to very meticulous writing, although one might sometimes lament the abundance of stylistic devices, we gradually move away from the thriller and dive deep into the dark depths of Carson Mills.
He narrates the story and evolution of Jon Petersen, a perverse psychopath, from his childhood to the peak of his criminal career. Spanning from the 60s to the early 80s, Que ta volonté soit faite is set almost exclusively in Carson Mills, apart from a few passages in Wichita, a larger city in Kansas. We meet numerous characters, some of whom are present until the end. We first encounter Jon’s family, his grandfather, and his aunts, Rakel and Hanna, then Joyce his wife and finally his son Riley, along with all the residents of Carson Mills. With detailed and subtle psychology, Maxime Chattam paints an uncompromising portrait of a small rural town in the deep America torn between two religious communities and haunted by heavy secrets.
Fans of the genre will feel like they are following in the footsteps of Jim Thompson or Thomas H. Cook, encountering Donald Ray Pollock and his novel The Devil All the Time in an atmosphere reminiscent of Stephen King. Maxime Chattam successfully pays homage to the masters of the genre, all while continuing to feed his plot, a plot that will keep you on edge until the end.
Que ta volonté soit faite is a noir, harsh, dense novel where violence is never far away, lurking in the shadows. The first chapter is a perfect example. Starting off modestly, it suddenly shifts into brutal, chilling violence, showcasing all the cruelty Jon Petersen is capable of.
It is also a quest for truth led by the town’s sheriff, Jarvis Jefferson, a journey leading to a disturbing and unexpected outcome.
It will take readers some time to recover and once again be able to look at a poppy field without seeing the terrifying shadow of Jon Petersen looming over them.
