It was during its gala that the Saint-Pacôme Detective Novel Society revealed the winners of its various prizes.
It’s for his book The butterfly womanpublished by Fides, that JL Blanchard won the Saint-Pacôme prize. The fourth opus of the investigations of Inspector Bonneau and his assistant Lamouche was able to charm the members of the jury. Here is an excerpt from the president’s message, Geneviève Lefebvre: “In a tightly woven story, JL Blanchard pays homage to the great tradition of comic duos composed of radically opposed personalities, while leading a thrilling investigation into a universe until here little explored Quebec thriller. »
JL Blanchard receives a $3,000 scholarship offered by the partners of the Saint-Pacôme Detective Novel Society. The other finalists were Guillaume Morrissette for The weight of the years and Jacques Savoie for The Shame of Frank White. More than thirty detective novels were submitted to the jurors this year, which testifies to the abundant production of the genre in Quebec.
The Jacques-Mayer prize for the first thriller was awarded to Claude Guilmain for his book Welsfordpublished by Prize de parole. The president of the jury highlights its quality here: “The writing, simple and lively, is at the service of a story without downtime, which weaves between the communities and cultures of the greater Toronto area, and where we witness, fascinated, the industrial revolution of this great Ontario city. »
Finally, the Rivière Ouelle prize, which rewards a detective story by an author who has never published, was awarded to Chantal Lecours for her text The takeoff.
The awards ceremony took place in the presence of the guest of honor, journalist Isabelle Richer, with whom we recently had an interview, which you can read here.
