Olivier Marchal has never hidden it. Working in the police means accepting a difficult daily life. In December 2023, he confided in the podcast Shadows and lights : “I stayed 12 years, but I'm still paying for it, at 65. You pay for this job for life, like a guy who's been to prison. But thug friends, who have been in jail, don't have the same reflexes as everyone else.“If he no longer works at 36 Quai des Orfèvres, he puts his knowledge and talent in the field at the service of cinema. But not only that.
On Tuesday, November 5, the father of 3 girls with Catherine Marchal attended the presentation of the Quai des Orfèvres prize at the headquarters of the judicial police in Paris. Like many other people, he came to applaud the winner Olivier Tournut for his novel Post Mortem.
Olivier Marchal was able to find some of his knowledge of the profession, such as Claude Cancès, former director of the Parisian PJ, Catherine Perez, HR director at the management of the Parisian PJ, Laurent Nunez, Paris police prefect but also Martine Monteil, former director of the Parisian PJ and Richard Marlet, former head of the judicial identity department of the Parisian PJ.
Among the other personalities present were Frédéric Péchenard, former director general of the national police, Loubna Atta responsible for communications at the Paris police headquarters, Fabrice Gardon, new director of the Paris judicial police, Michel Mary, judicial columnist in the program Touche pas à mon poste, Ange Mancini, honorary prefect and former boss of RAID, Alexandra Gomez, police/justice journalist at BFM, Christophe Molmy, former boss of the BRI, Margaux Russo, literary director at Éditions Fayard, Christian Flaesch , former director of the PJ, Pierre Charon, former senator of Paris as well as Jean Marc Bloch, former boss of the BRI.
Two rewards for the price of one!
As the Actu Paris site explains, the prize, created 80 years ago, rewards a detective novel. The jury is made up of police officers, magistrates and journalists in particular. This year, Olivier Marchal was the godfather and it is therefore Olivier Tournut who won over the jury with his novel Post Mortem. The latter, still according to actu.frreceived two awards. A financial first amounting to €777. The second: the printing of 50,000 copies of his work by Fayard editions.
