In “Prime Time”, an 8 p.m. star is taken hostage. A thrilling thriller… that will raise the audience!
Star of MD1, the channel that crushes the competition, Paul Daki-Ferrand reigns over the news with unfailing calm and confidence. Until a hooded and armed individual burst onto his set. The man, who claims his name is Kratos, threatens to kill him at the slightest interruption in the newspaper. Head of publishing, Charlène soon enters into dialogue with the madman to try to save Paul and his colleagues trapped with him. She is soon supported by Yanis, the GIGN negotiator, who teaches her to adapt to the psychology and demands of the exalted hostage taker, mixing political diatribe and huge ransom demands. Mission all the more delicate as Kratos informs his interlocutors and the public, fascinated by this unique reality show, that his alter ego, Demos, kidnapped Daki-Ferrand’s wife and daughter at the same time. And that they will be executed in the event of an assault…
The rest after this ad
In an atmosphere worthy of “24 hours flat”, Maxime Chattam combines a fast-paced thriller with relevant reflection on a media world that has gone crazy since the infernal competition of the Internet. A parallel universe where we lick, release then lynched in a few moments. The well-oiled mechanics of the high mass of information can therefore only get out of hand, and when a #MeToo affair arises we guess that any resemblance between the indestructible Paul Daki-Ferrand and PPDA would not be purely fortuitous .
“I identify the reader’s expectations to better circumvent them”
“We will read everything we want to see,” laughs Maxime Chattam, “because a novel is unassailable! The advantage of fiction is that I can say whatever I want to say, starting with the loss of nuance in society. As social networks have no framework, it is a place where the essential criterion is no longer reason – which should be the case in democracy – but passion…”
Goodbye reflection, nuance and presumption of innocence. Make way for the total chaos imagined by the author which multiplies the most unexpected chain reactions. But, fellow conspirators of all kinds, don’t involve his wife Faustine Bollaert in the equation. On the contrary, Chattam had long refrained from plunging his suspense thrillers into the media maelstrom “for fear of being judged”, he wrote in his thanks.
On the other hand, we suspect the man of experiencing a malicious pleasure in taking us hostage until the very last page. Behind the citizen-oriented author, is there actually a dangerous manipulator hiding? “The principle of a thriller author is to be a negotiator. He must reconcile the laws of suspense and the desires of the public. I try to identify the reader’s expectations to better circumvent them, reveals Maxime Chattam with a smile. In order to bring it to where it suits me. In fact, it’s a magic trick: I show with one hand ‘look what’s happening there!’ while the other hand gently places the cards on the table… » The art of diverting attention to better bring the tension to life. A great illusion that would have delighted even the legendary hero of “Usual Suspects”, the awful Keyser Söze…
“Prime time”, by Maxime Chattam, ed. Albin Michel, 556 pages, 22.90 euros.
© DR
Belgium
