On this spring day in 1951, a mysterious police inspector from Lyon travels by bicycle to the Drôme Department. In Crest, he finds a bloody crime scene in the Peyrambert farm. Inspector Michel begins the first investigations: The Thomas couple have been murdered with a shotgun. Juliette, their eleven-year-old daughter, has vanished. Who killed Henri and Louise Thomas, this couple of retired farmers, who arrived in the Drôme valley after a long life in the Vercors? A family with no history, a missing child, a region riddled with secrets: Inspector Michel travels the country, from Crest to the Vercors, from Grenoble to Pigalle. He will have to face silences, obstinacy, thirst for redemption and especially the torments of a war that nobody wants to talk about anymore.
François Médéline was born in 1977. After working at the sociology, politics and linguistics department of Science Politique Lyon, he was a cabinet director, and head of public relations for elected representatives. He has written four books, and is also a scriptwriter.