Maxime Chattam offers us a diptych where Time is at the center of everything, two dark stories to probe the depths of men, two stories that Nice Premium shares with you.
The 20th century is just beginning, Paris is bustling with activity, the World Exhibition is ready to open its doors, the dawn of an industrial revolution is ahead of us. In this atmosphere of discoveries, inventions, progress, Guy de Timée will plunge into the depths of Evil. Having fled a life that no longer suited him, he finds refuge at the *Boudoir de Soi*, a strict yet warm brothel. It is in front of this place that he will first encounter the dark side of the world. A courtesan from the *Boudoir*, Milaine, is found brutally murdered, sweating blood and with entirely black eyes. That’s all it takes for our uninspired writer to embark on this investigation, which he feels is decisive for his life. With the help of Faustine, a sublime prostitute with enchanting blue eyes, and Martial Perotti, a young inspector in love with Milaine, Guy will enter a new, bloody, and dangerous world.
For this new story, Maxime Chattam takes us to Paris in 1900, in the richness of a world where everything is still to be done. It is very pleasant but also very enigmatic to set the story during the World Exhibition. The author describes a good part of it, and you can feel it was an incredible, rich, and overwhelming event. We go from one pavilion to another, from one novelty to another, with things that are so familiar to us today… it’s very interesting to anchor a crime story in this context, without all the new technologies, the fingerprints, the DNA, very bold. At that time, you only rely on evidence and deductions. Moreover, you can sense, in Guy’s character, the beginnings of profiling. It gives this thriller an absolutely fascinating and terrifically well-told aspect.
The book is written in the third person with an omniscient narrator, contrary to what the first pages of the book might lead you to expect. The story is quite dark, but its characters are its backbone. We grow attached to Guy, Faustine, Martial, as well as secondary characters like Julie, Gikaiko, or Hencks, the hunter. With the trio, we search until the end for who Hubris might be, this terrible killer who slays women, men, and teenagers without distinction, staging his crimes in horrifying ways. The suspense is continuous, and even if the year of the story might slightly unsettle you at first, you quickly get used to this life of carriages and without telephones!
But despite its strengths, *Léviatemps* suffers from certain shortcomings. The novel is sometimes too verbose, the hero is never wrong, and his deductions are always spot on. The ending is surprising but not very credible. You might regret the lack of verification, the confirmation of Guy’s suppositions, the story of Hubris sinks into oblivion, leaving the reader unsatisfied.
[Spoiler: and then two killers in one book, it’s too much, it’s improbable. You wonder if the author tried to do too much or if his desire was to integrate more morbid elements into a story that already had enough…]
To the readers whom *Léviatemps* disappointed, do not lose a second and dive into *The Requiem of the Abysses*!
This second part picks up exactly where we left Guy and Faustine, in exile, in the French countryside of 1900, in the heart of the Vexin, a natural region located between the Yvelines and Upper Normandy. They try to rebuild there, to heal their wounds when a teenage girl from a nearby hamlet is reported missing. The following night, her entire family is brutally murdered. Horror begins anew. A new predator brings chaos to Earth. And Guy certainly cannot remain uninvolved, without trying to help the local gendarmes, overwhelmed by this violence.
*The Requiem of the Abysses* begins as a classic thriller, with the investigation conducted at a brisk pace, the suspense growing as the plot unfolds. Suspects parade by, the atmosphere of the French countryside at the beginning of the 20th century grows heavier. Ancestral fears resurface. The crimes are sordid and relatively well described, far more gruesome than in *Léviatemps*, with more sadism present.
Halfway through the book, suddenly, the novel takes a 180° turn. *The Requiem of the Abysses* opens a second plot. Maxime Chattam offers the reader two stories in one, almost turning this diptych into a trilogy…
The entire story is very intense, pushing the heroes to their limits. An event will cause Guy to confront his own abysses. Guy even tries to do too much, he is on all fronts, losing a bit of credibility, but gradually reevaluates himself.
*The Requiem of the Abysses* conceals a work far more complex than it seems, and where *Léviatemps* had disappointed, this second opus surpasses it to offer a grand finale. This diptych on Time is revealed in *The Requiem of the Abysses*, we fully grasp it, *Léviatemps* did not give us all the answers, *The Requiem of the Abysses* fills those gaps, exceeding expectations.
As for the epitaph concluding Guy’s story, it can only leave one pondering the similarities of time passing, which ultimately only repeats itself; the end of one century, the beginning of another, everything starts over, the world moves but does not advance. A historical and frightening diptych, with a very strong conclusion, where Maxime Chattam shows us a new talent, that of resurrecting the past…
