2023-08-18 22:50:00
Catherine Lafrance is a lover of journalism and this is the richness of her thrillers starring the reporter Michel Duquesne.
To find out how an investigative journalist reasons, you have to read Catherine Lafrance’s second detective novel, The last breath is the shortest.
It begins with a suicide in the metro during the morning rush hour, during a historic snowstorm, that of January 2019. Something to add to the chaos that reigns in Montreal.
Michel Duquesne, senior reporter, is caught up in the crush. Immediately, he asks himself: why does someone choose to die like this, at this precise moment, knowing the repercussions of his gesture? Such are the journalists: always asking themselves questions!
The reporter is even more intrigued when he learns that the subway victim is a respected cardiologist. Curious, right? Of course, suicide is a drama that can affect anyone. But Duquesne only accepts evidence when it is proven.
However, by chance, he learns that the victim has been the subject of disciplinary reports for negligence, while his entourage assures us that he was an exemplary doctor. A dichotomy like that awakens all the journalist’s instincts, and Duquesne is a formidable investigator.
We will therefore see him picking up bits of information that are a priori insignificant and feed on the collaboration of his colleagues to gradually develop a whole report. This is a faithful reflection of journalistic work, which Lafrance practiced for a long time.
Medical equipement
The plot thus leads to the little-known world of medical equipment, where both scientific discoveries and big business are brewing – and where economics and politics end up overlapping.
Some details, however, make this second volume of the adventures of Michel Duquesne less exciting than the previous one. The astonishing memory of ice cream. Thus, to give flesh to her journalist who has a complicated past, the author attributes to her manias, which she underlines, alas, on all possible occasions. This slows the pace of the story.
In addition, Odile Imbeault, Duquesne’s spouse, also drags dark baggage – it is in itself interesting, but to the point of grafting a new mystery on it? That’s a lot for just one couple!
That said, the heart of the story is gripping, right up to the ending. Moreover, as in his previous work, Lafrance knows superbly how to describe winter. It also paints an accurate portrait of newsrooms and the vagaries of the race for scoop for the reporters, caught between adrenaline and the need to always have to start over.
Finally, it should be noted that exchanges in English, which are part of Montreal life, are translated. A reflex that should prevail and yet has become extremely rare in the world of Quebec publishing. Fortunately, Catherine Lafrance’s novel makes no concessions in this regard.
The very quality of his writing testifies to his respect for the French language, adding to the pleasure of reading.
1692413599
#detective #Quebec #worth #detour
