The Narbonnais author Manuel Garcia presents his latest work “All roads do not lead to Compostela”, in which the judicial police officer he was reopens a “cold case”, a drowning in the Canal du Midi initially classified in suicide.
Even if Manuel Garcia’s books are studied at the police academy, it is in the manner of novels that they tell of cases that he carried out or that he had to know when he was in office. He willingly agreed to be questioned in the offices of the Independent.
What were you doing from 2000 to 2014?
It was during this period that I wrote many of my works. It is the publishing house, TDO Éditions, which decides on the publications.
In “All roads do not lead to Compostela”, what led you to reopen a closed case?
A police officer in the area had informed me of a pseudo-suicide case closed hastily; the public prosecutor of Béziers authorized me to resume the investigations and to validate the theory of a crime. The reader will read if the culprit has been discovered.
Independent – PHILIPPE LEBLANC
You have written around ten works. What is your motive?
During the filming of “Bring in the accused” on the Albert Fouché affair which was published in 2011, Christophe Hondelatte advised me to write. It was he who gave me the idea of writing as if it were a novel. I sent him my first five pages. He answered me “you are in the right tempo; keep on going.” In all my novels, when talking about the investigation, I have the pleasure of highlighting the region.
So are you telling us the truth or are these fictions?
These are always investigations that have actually been carried out. However, out of respect for the families, I change the names of people, places or times. Many of these stories speak of a time when DNA was not a factor in investigations. Our tools were scent, surveillance, shadowing, telephone investigations, etc.
It is rumored that you are in contact with the director Alain Rudaz for a “Murder in Narbonne” inspired by your investigation among the Freemasons “Towards a Secret World”, is this true? Are you going to do it again?
For the moment, nothing is certain yet, but I have been contacted. Currently, the project I am working on is a work which will deal with important criminal cases in Occitania from 1891 to the present day.
Are you going to work alone or do you have accomplices?
For this book, I investigated with Robert Laffont, from the Narbonne archaeological commission.
We can find Manuel Garcia at the Narbonne Book Fair on May 25 and 26 at the TDO editions stand
You can find out about Manuel Garcia’s various publications on his site https://www.manuelgarcia.fr/
