Valentin Musso
Le murmure de l' Ogre
(2012)
427 pages
Editions de Noyelles
(220x145x30)mm
Weight: 510grs

Nice, 1922. Two prostitutes are murdered, their heads shaved and their bodies covered with strange symbols. Soon, children disappear and are found with their throats cut in the four corners of the city in a macabre scene. Louis Forestier, a commissioner of the mobile brigades created by Clemenceau, sets out on the trail of the one the newspapers have nicknamed "the ogre". He is supported by Frédéric Berthellon, a specialist in mental illness from the Sainte-Anne hospital who came specially from Paris, and by Raphaël Mathesson, a wealthy scholar and aviator in his spare time. Very quickly, they discover that the killer follows a ritual inspired by ancient tales about the descent of mortals into the world of Hell. The case takes on a new dimension when the son of an American millionaire is kidnapped by the killer. The countdown begins: from the miserable alleys of old Nice to the luxurious villas of the winter residents, each clue is interpreted symbolically to try to understand the ogre's motivations and to follow his trail.