He is one of the favorite authors of the French, who impatiently await his new novels every year. A geographer by training, Michel Bussi has sold no less than 12 million copies of his books, including Nothing erases you (2021) soon adapted on TF1 with Gwendoline Hamon and Fauve Hautot. After Prisoner Island broadcast on France 2 last year, the 69-year-old author also wrote the script for The Valley in danger, still for the same channel, filming of which is planned soon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
In this month of October 2024, Michel Bussi is back with The Assassins of the Dawna dark thriller set in the earthly paradise of Guadeloupe. It is there that the police officers Valéric, Amiel and Jolène track down “The Harpooner”, a serial killer targeting tourists passing through the island. A change of scenery guaranteed thanks to this page-turner, which also gives pride of place to the history of the island, its discrimination and its past and current struggles. Between several meetings with his audience on the roads of France, the writer took the time to tell us more about this new vintage.
How was this novel born?
Michel Kissi : It’s a plot that I had in mind for a long time, just like its main investigator and its killer, but without knowing precisely where this story could take place. Then, a few years ago during a stay in Guadeloupe, I said to myself that this novel could well be set there. And it went from there!
Why Guadeloupe, precisely?
I had already written quite a few novels that take place overseas: in Reunion, the Marquesas, Corsica… I had this idea of making a detective novel with a unity of place that was both well-known and touristy. and with its specificities. And Guadeloupe appealed to me for that: there is both the beauty of the island and a relationship between the inhabitants which seemed interesting to me to discuss, particularly against the backdrop of the legacy of slavery. It seemed to me to be a strong enough frame, powerful enough to accommodate The Assassins of the Dawn.
You are writing a committed thriller and do not hesitate to describe the crises that are shaking the island…
In fact, it is difficult, I think, to talk about Guadeloupe without mentioning the high cost of living and “profiteering” [néologisme qualifiant le profit injuste, ndlr]. That’s what interested me: being a pure thriller but with local issues constantly in the background. While trying to understand this territory with my investigators who represent several possible perspectives on the island: Amiel, a homosexual who is confronted with homophobia there, Jolène who has just arrived and has more of a tourist’s outlook in the West Indies, and finally Valéric who is suffering from trauma and wanted to move away to succeed and escape family pressure.
It was a way of anchoring my characters in a Guadeloupean reality. Somehow, it was difficult to write a thriller that takes place there and not have the protagonists leave a hotel club. [Il rit.] It’s not my way of writing novels. And, as a geographer, I want everything geographical to be verified and worked on. What interests me is that the reader walks around and finds these places in the novel.
Also discover: A Sunday with Michel Bussi
Your title is a nod to the poem New goodness by Aimé Césaire. Why this choice?
I had this idea of crimes happening in the morning. When I came across this poem, I said to myself that it fit perfectly! Aimé Césaire’s text itself had an element of mystery and I didn’t look any further, it worked. [Il rit.] There is still this little discrepancy between the title of the book, The Assassins of the Dawnand the expression of the poem, The Dawn Assassinswhich does not all mean the same thing. In Césaire’s mind, these are those who kill light and hope. It also allowed me to have depth around the title! I then declined the expression for the different chapters of the novel: The Concrete Worker of Dawn, The Dawn kidnapper, The Invaders of Dawn…
Related News :