DTheir women are discovered murdered in Alsace. A double homicide that the assassin tried to cover up by setting the house on fire. But the fire quickly extinguished, revealing all the horror that had occurred in these places: the bodies of a young woman and her aunt, tortured and tied up. And the killer visibly focused more on the young woman. Constable Mina Lacan and her team of behavioral analysts are dispatched to the scene to help the investigation by developing a profile of the killer. At the same time, they are also asked to establish that of a serial rapist, who strikes in winter in Megève and in summer in Saint-Tropez. Then are called to the Somme, where a young girl was discovered strangled in a field. A case which is reminiscent of another murder previously committed in the Creuse… And the team of behavioral analysts is not at the end of its task because the requests, coming from all over France, are raining in. While having to face, each time, the skepticism of the investigators present on site regarding his working methods.
“It’s like this almost every time, Mina thinks, seeing her doubtful audience. They’ve heard about us and they’re happy to see us come back – they’ve even asked for us – but until they’ve worked with us, they don’t really know how we work. Most of the time, they imagine something a little esoteric, or even downright magical, like super-intuition-of-death, which will make the culprit appear, as if by magic. You surprise me that they sometimes have trouble taking us seriously. So there is always a moment when you have to explain, explain, explain. »
Grit one’s teeth is the second novel featuring Mina Lacan, the Gendarmerie’s first profiler. The authors are still Marie-Laure Brunel-Dupin and Valérie Péronnet. The first is lieutenant-colonel of the gendarmerie, head of the Unsolved Affairs Division (DiANE). A criminologist by training, she specialized to join the National Gendarmerie and become a behavioral analyst in 2001. She set up, structured and commanded the behavioral sciences department, today an integral part of DiANE. The second is a writer, journalist and co-author of numerous works. As saying that Grit one’s teeth is as good in form as in substance. Added to the strength of impeccably reported investigative work is the construction of endearing characters. Including the stubborn Mina who, despite a hierarchy which never ceases to put obstacles in her way without succeeding in depriving her of her sense of humor, is determined to prove that her group is “ one of the flagships of the future of the Gendarmerie »…
