A THRILLER WITH CAPTIVATING REALISM: BLACK MATTER IS A BOMB THAT EXPLODES ONLY INSIDE YOUR BODY.
In July 2017, Jacques Canovas, a Parisian reporter for the crime news magazine Crime-hebdo, went to Savoie near Lac du Bourget: since the morning of July 15, a 22-year-old woman who had gone jogging had not been seen. He has to cover this very mediatic case, which has monopolized the columns of the local press for two days and attracted journalists from all over the country.The body of the young woman, Marion Testud, is discovered the day of his arrival. The body lies in a creek. The police, already seized of the disappearance, is charged with the case by the prosecutor. The doubts are directed towards the entourage of the victim and in particular her spouse. Tensions within the couple could have led to the drama. The man claims his innocence. After several days of research with a local informant, a former gendarme, the reporter sees another possibility: that of a murder in a longer series. A living memory of the events, a formidable weaver of links and connections, Canovas links this crime to older cases. He establishes that these women were all abducted in the direct proximity of nightclubs.Based on this new lead, which the gendarmerie did not seem to take into account, Canovas became interested in a disappearance that had occurred a few days earlier 150 kilometers away. Canovas decides to leave Savoie and goes to the Loire, where he identifies a policeman, Karim Bekkouche, who knows the mother of the missing woman. July 2017. Karim Bekkouche, "Bek" of his nickname, works as head of the BAC at the central police station of Saint-Étienne. Separated from his wife for years, he leads an austere life between his job, his passion for soccer and the difficult contacts he has with his son Rayan, a student in Paris.Anissa Djebbar, a childhood friend from the neighborhood whom he hasn't seen in years, calls him for help after her daughter Ines runs away for the umpteenth time after a party. She is convinced that the escapade lasts this time too long: the kid, major since recently, gave quickly news. No police investigation is carried out, given the profile of the missing girl and her right to be unaccountable. Faced with the mother's distress, Bek agrees to launch an informal search. He gathers elements that suggest that she may have been abducted. Bek opens up about the situation to his colleagues in the judicial services and a procedure for worrying disappearance is opened. Discreetly, supported by his assistant and Ines' stepfather, Karim continues his research in parallel with the official investigations. He discovers the hidden life of Ines. During her absences, she worked as an escort-girl in a brothel in Switzerland. Manipulated by an Albanian kingpin, pimp and drug trafficker, she was leading a high life. Bek goes to Switzerland, meets the local thugs and takes all the risks in order to shed light on the dark personality of young Ines. Having reached the end of what he could do, he receives an unexpected visit from a Parisian journalist, Jacques Canovas.
