"Women are lascivious in the dreaded sun" sang Brel in tribute to the Marquesas. It is in this island, at the other end of the world, that Michel Bussi set the scene for his new thriller "Au Soleil redouté", in bookstores on Thursday.
But in the writer, women are not lascivious. They are five readers, Clémence, Martine, Fareyne, Marie-Ambre and Éloïse, and they have just won a competition to participate in a writing workshop with their favorite author. On paper, the program is pretty cool. Except that very quickly, one of them disappears. Then another ... The paradise stay turns into a murderous game. Which of them will write the word end?
At first glance, an altogether classic intrigue that smells good of Agatha Christie and more particularly the "10 little negroes": an open-air camera and characters who, a priori, have nothing in common. But that's without counting on the talent of Michel Bussi who signs here one of his best thrillers by playing like never with our nerves from the first to the last page. And especially on the finale where the king of the “twist” (reversal of the situation) sets the bar very high. We may have been on the lookout, we didn't see anything coming. And it's very annoying.
“The intrigue was very complicated to assemble, does not hide Michel Bussi, faithful to his legendary modesty. I even thought I was not going to get there, because at first it did not work. Either people found very quickly, or they didn't understand anything. So the author started over several times until "finding the right balance, the one that causes 90% of readers to be fooled." Congratulations to the 10% who will have guessed before everyone else.
As usual with Michel Bussi, we are struck by the intrigue at the first word. Here no love story as in his last thriller, but murders. And not just anywhere. In the Marquesas Islands, where the painter Paul Gauguin and the singer Jacques Brel are buried, whom he admires so much, and so far from home that there are few tourists who venture there.
"It's important for me to take the reader away"
Before even discovering the archipelago, Michel Bussi had chosen his place. For its history, its culture and, in particular, its Tikis, its strange statues which watch everywhere on the island. For his unique atmosphere that perfectly matched the one he wanted to give to his new thriller. Because contrary to what one might believe by listening to Brel who gives a "peaceful, sleepy and peaceful image of the Marquesas", there, the sublime but rough landscape is different from other Polynesian islands with their lagoons so popular with tourists.
Newsletter - The essentials of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more
Before starting the writing, the author left on the spot to pose his scenes with his cap of geographer researcher (before becoming a successful writer, Michel Bussi was professor at the university of Rouen). There too, he fumbled to find the right balance. "I didn't want to drown my reader of information on the Marquesas and annoy him," he says, "but I wanted him to discover with this novel this incredible and little-known place. It is important for me to take the reader far, the literature must allow to escape. Successful mission, the Marquesas under the pen of Michel Bussi are grandiose.
EDITOR'S NOTE: 4/5
“Au Soleil redouté” by Michel Bussi, Editions Presses de la Cité, 428 p. 21.90 euros
Donations to Secours populaire
Michel Bussi does not like to talk about money and even less that we know that he makes significant donations to associations. With "Au Soleil redouté", he decided to donate 10% of his earnings to Secours populaire. “One of the causes that the association defends, the children's holiday, touches me a lot. I did a lot of it when I was young. We are in a world where inequalities are widening, it is a banality to say it, but it is unfortunately a reality. We all have our share of responsibility and I have no glory in doing that. I am fortunate to have an editor who plays the game very well. ”