BOOK. “A good thriller is about delving into the underbelly of society”, Olivier Truc, guest of honor at the detective literature festival

Dominique Manotti and Olivier Truc are the godmother and godfather of this 16th Toulouse Polars du Sud festival from October 11 to 13. They will be surrounded by around fifty French and foreign authors. Olivier Truc presents the 5th volume of the Rennes police investigations.

In Toulouse, the 16th edition of the International Festival of Police Literature takes place from October 11 to 13 under a big top in Basso Cambo.

On the program: author signings, literary prize ceremonies, round tables, “speaking room” interviews and many activities (introduction to role playing, writing course, game library, investigation games dedicated to young audiences, manga workshop). Several exhibitions will also be discovered under the marquees.

Dominique Manotti et Olivier Truc are the godmother and godfather of this 16th festival. They will be surrounded by around fifty French and foreign authors.

Olivier Truc was born in Dax in 1964. He began his career as a journalist at Midi libre, at the Montpellier agency, in 1986. He then worked for various media including Libération and TF1. Since 1994 he has lived in Stockholm where he has been a correspondent for RTL radio, the weekly Le Point, Libération and then Le Monde (2005-2016). A specialist in the Nordic and Baltic countries, he is also a documentary filmmaker and screenwriter.

He is notably the author of “The Impostor”, “Cartographer of the Boreal Indies”, “The Obscure Paths of Karachi” and a series of novels around the Rennes Police, thanks to which he became known to readers thrillers. “Le Dernier Lapon”, the first opus of this series published in 2012, has been translated into more than twenty languages ​​and won around twenty literary prizes including the Quai du polar prize 2013, the Mystère de la critique prize 2013 and the Michel prize. -Lebrun 2013. The series continues with “Le Dtrait du Loup” in 2014 and “La Montagne rouge” in 2016.

Twelve years later, he still continues to take us on a journey to Sami lands with “The First Reindeer”, the last in the series which has just been published in Editions Métailié and which he presents at the festival.

5 questions for Olivier Truc

You continue your exploration of Lapland. Can you tell us about your new work?

“This is happening at the time of marking of reindeer and fawns which is a very delicate period. A tragic event happens: a herd of reindeer is decimated by a mineral train. This will lead to extremely strong tensions within a clan reindeer herders…

Is it about the survival of a people in the face of the voracity of the mining industries?

It is a current fact that an enormous deposit of rare earths was recently discovered in Lapland. The Swedes need it in particular to manufacture the engines of electric cars. To date, China has almost a monopoly. For the energy transition, there is a real strategy at the European level to develop this type of mineral.

But Lapland covers around 40% of Swedish territory. We can imagine how this could create conflicts with different interests who would say that we cannot reserve 40% of the territory just for reindeer when we need these minerals. It is an endless source of conflict.

It’s the ore you’re helping extract from this mine that’s making you all blind and killing our reindeer! And you haven’t yet understood that the rare earths they found are right on our pastures?

A reindeer herder. Excerpt from Olivier Truc’s book “The First Reindeer”

Some reindeer herders are also forced to work in the mine to improve their income. Does the fight seem completely unequal?

Apart from a few climate skeptics who smell rancid, everyone sees that climate change is here and that it is urgent to take measures and the switch to electricity is one of them. But for these needs, we will sacrifice territories where a population of reindeer herders, although respectful of nature. It’s absurd, in the name of ecological transition, we are going to condemn a people. Faced with the steamroller of this need for ecological transition, the few reindeer herders will not carry much weight.

But this problem does not only concern Lapland and Sweden, it has a universal scope. This is happening on a global scale.

“The First Reindeer” is the 5th volume in your series. Can it be read without having read the first four?

The stories are all independent of each other. In the four books that followed “The Last Lapp”, I always arranged systematically to ensure that there were the essential elements for understanding the development of the characters. They didn’t mind the feedback from readers who picked up the books out of order.

What are the ingredients of a good thriller?

This is a very difficult question. For personal taste, I’m looking for a good story that will engage me, credible characters, dialogue that holds water and I want to learn things. What I also expect from a thriller is to delve into the underbelly of society to explore dysfunctions.

Olivier Truc will also be present at:

• Figeac, October 24 at the bookstore Le livre en fête
• Agde on October 25 at the La Promenade au Phare bookstore
• Montpellier, October 30, at the La Cavale bookstore
• Montpellier, December 5 at the Opuscule bookstore