criticism of Eric Fouassier’s detective book, Le Bureau des affaires occultes

Maison de la presse award 2021, the book by Eric Fouassier, The Office of Occult Affairs is a historical novel that is both intriguing and chilling.

We are in 1830, Louis-Philippe, King of the French, took power: it is the beginning of the July monarchy. The young police inspector, Valentin Verne, has two irons in the fire: the pangs of his past and the hunt for plotters of the old regime.

The thriller is not historical

It never is, in fact, for the vile instincts of the human soul transcend the ages. Rape and murder are timeless.

The rest, the context, is a photograph of the time. The descriptions of Paris, its people and its sociology are remarkable. Throughout the pages, the reader puts on the frock coat, puts on the top hat, and accompanies the policeman in the stinking dens and taverns. There he will meet Vidocq.

A world is awakening

In these troubled times, when the monarchy does not want to give way to the republic, science is hatching. The author, a pharmacist by trade, takes pleasure in guiding us in this new world. The plot of the thriller is built around advances in medicine and pharmacy: the work of Pelletier, the most faithful friend of the policeman’s father, discoverer with Caventou of quinine and strychnine, the famous alienist Dr. Esquirol, the hypnosis and even post-traumatic syndrome. It is also the visit of the capital of the suburbs and the loves.

The novel is rich in proven anecdotes. Indeed, Professor Éric Fouassier puts his taste for pedagogy at the service of the reader.

A world opposes

Valentin Verne bathes and investigates in an unstable political society. He seeks to infiltrate a secret society, a revolutionary group that meets with Crowned Pheasants (the name of the inn announces the color). With the help of Vidocq, he also goes in search of notables who plan to assassinate the former ministers of Charles X. And all this against a background of occultism.

And a perverted world

The police inspector, following his father, investigates a bad guy, nicknamed the Vicar. He is a sexual predator: intelligent like any good pervert, he is difficult to corner. Valentin Verne will stick to this affair as if he made it his own.

The words of Damien, the kidnapped kid, are chilling: “And that day, oh yeah, that day I wished I was just that… A dog.” His dog. His dog rather than his thing ”.

This is the strongest part of the novel. Fouassier describes with finesse the psychology of the Vicar, and especially that of abused kids. The modest presentation of the rapes accentuates the effect of astonishment.

To plagiarize Michel Fugain, it is a beautiful novel but it is not a beautiful story. It is only the story of a kid who, with great resilience, will become a man, a real one.