"They tear you apart... They leave no trace..."
Five years out of the Marseilles Judiciaire, Daniel Jacquot is happily retired, bringing up his two daughters on a beach in the Caribbean. But when an old friend pays an unexpected visit, retirement rapidly becomes a battle for survival...
"The girls didn't see the first shark... They didn't see the second or the third one either..."
"They tear you apart... They leave no trace..."
Five years out of the Marseilles Judiciaire, Daniel Jacquot is happily retired, bringing up his two daughters on a beach in the Caribbean. But when an old friend pays an unexpected visit, retirement rapidly becomes a battle for survival...
"The girls didn't see the first shark... They didn't see the second or the third one either..."
In 1972 a gold bullion convoy is hijacked in Marseilles. The security trucks and hijackers are swiftly rounded up, but a ton of gold has disappeared.
More than twenty years later, Daniel Jacquot receives an unexpected gift from an old fisherman. At the same time, a Marseilles lawyer called Claude Dupont receives an equally unexpected gift from a dying gangland boss.
When the Marseilles police become involved following a series of gruesome murders, the investigation is headed by Chief Inspector Isabelle Cassier. An old friend and sometime lover of Jacquot's, Isabelle discovers that the years haven't lessened her longing for the maverick Marseilles cop, and that her feelings for him are far from professional.
Together they embark on a cut-throat hunt for the gold, with hit-men from the Polineaux and Duclos clans hot on their heels. But after nearly thirty years, is the gold still there? And if it is, who will get to it first?
The Jacquot series is set in the 1990s – the years of Mitterand's and Chirac's presidencies – so there's no real emphasis on technology or advanced forensic science to crack the cases Jacquot finds himself involved in. Rather, it's bloodhound work, and he's the bloodhound – passionate, incorruptible, and often inspired.
It's also France with francs not euros, a golden age when you could smoke in a bar and Calvados didn't come with a health warning. Jacquot is not a drunk, but nor is he the kind of man who counts 'units'. What a horrible word. What a horrible concept. Jacquot would not approve.
MARTIN
BRIEN
O'
JACQUOT & THE WATERMAN
Daniel Jacquot always jokes that he joined the police so he could earn a living and still play rugby. And play he did, for France, scoring the winning try in a Five Nations final against England at Twickenham. Twenty years on, Daniel Jacquot is still remembered for that mighty try. A handshake here, a drink there, a nod, a smile of recognition. But now he's a chief inspector, working homicide with the Marseilles Judiciaire.
Like playing rugby, tracking down killers is a game that Jacquot understands. And Marseilles just happens to be his own home ground. Every brash, bustling, sun-splashed square centimetre of it. It's here, in this city by the sea, that a shadowy, elusive killer steps onto the field of play, drugging, raping and drowning three young women in as many months.
With a new partner, a rising body count, and only a three-word tattoo to work with, Daniel Jacquot tracks down his quarry, gradually closing on a methodical, yet sometimes whimsical killer the Press have christened The Waterman.
Reviews
"O'Brien's evocation of the hot, vibrant, and seedy port in which everyone seems to be either a cop or a criminal, and sometimes both, is as masterly as Ian Rankin's depiction of Edinburgh."
– The Daily Mail
"British writer O'Brien makes an impressive debut with this gritty procedural set in the south of France."
– Publishers' Weekly (US)
"Chief Inspector Daniel Jacquot of the Marseilles PD is a marvellous invention and deserves to be discovered quickly."
– The Globe & Mail (Canada)
"Tightly written and engrossing, with details picturesque and horrific, as well as revealing of character, Jacquot is someone we hope to meet again, soon."
– The San Antonio Express-News (US)