New thriller from the former divisional commissioner of the Judicial Police, *La porte du vent* by Jean-Marc Souvira (*Fleuve Éditions*) is a subtle blend of crime and historical novels. Published earlier this year, it marks the return of Jean-Marc Souvira to writing after the releases of *Magician* (2008) and *Black Sirens* (2015).
Commander Dalmate is in charge of investigating a series of violent confrontations between the Jewish and Chinese communities, bloody clashes where bodies pile up and the police lack leads. Following a surveillance operation, he finds himself in the largest British military cemetery in France, in Étaples-sur-mer, observing two elderly men paying homage at a Chinese grave. This encounter puts Dalmate on alert as they are leaders of very powerful criminal organizations, one from China and the other from Israel, with connections extending worldwide.
In this dark and dense thriller of nearly 600 pages, the first part focuses on Commander Dalmate investigating several murders that resemble retaliations between Chinese and Jewish families, two communities that seemingly get along well or even ignore each other. Dalmate and his team struggle to understand the origins of this surge of violence, let alone the longstanding connections between these communities. Dalmate’s investigation leads him to the Pas de Calais, where the novel takes a new turn and opens into a powerful historical narrative.
## A Story Within History
This narrative, almost a book within the book, begins in 1916 in the heart of China, until then spared by the world conflict. The reader follows Zhang, a brilliant young man forced to flee his family and his native region. He embarks for France, joins the “Chinese Labour Corps,” and finds himself near the trenches. France, exhausted and drained by two years of war, sought cannon fodder from the other side of the world, men who could be exploited at will, to be used by the French and British armies. The reader is abruptly immersed in life on the front lines, alongside ordinary men turned soldiers, hearing the bombs, the whistling bullets, smelling the gunpowder, the blood, the death.
Jean-Marc Souvira skillfully merges the two types of narratives, gripping the reader with both the current gang wars and Zhang’s story. The author highlights a little-known aspect of World War I, drawing on his knowledge of the Chinese and Israeli underworld through a careful, descriptive, and well-paced writing style. Are the ties of the past strong enough to end this bloody escalation of violence? Will the new generation understand the significance of what happened in the trenches? It is in the last part of *La porte du vent* that the reader will find the answers to these questions.
