She’s a police officer… and she writes thrillers. Psychological thrillers, precisely, including the second and most recent, The second housecompletely captivated us with its rhythm, its atmosphere, its characters.
Charlène Desjardins is not even 30 years old, but her maturity is immediately evident. As a teenager, she dreamed of being an investigator. And she read, a lot, imagining herself writing her own stories.
Despite everything, she first studied human sciences at CEGEP, telling herself that the patrol and the police might not be for her after all.
“It was during these two years that things clicked,” explains Charlène Desjardins. I watched the shows S.Q. on TV, then I realized that it’s really something that interests me. So I went to do my three years in police techniques. »
His first novel, Fraction, she wrote it precisely during this period. “I wrote lots of books when I was young, but I never finished them; I wrote it haphazardly, I didn’t have a plan,” she says. She works on Fraction for three years before deciding to finish it. Once it was published, in 2021, she was able to start thinking about the next one, which she ultimately wrote in seven months; and already, she has two more in the works.
The second house tells the investigation of Jack, a defense lawyer who lives in Boston and whose sister, Emily, has disappeared. All she left behind is a bloody crime scene at the family cabin. Without any clue allowing them to find his body, the investigators therefore decided to drop the case. This is where her brother begins to search on his own, unable to resign himself to abandoning his sister; but throughout his research, he gradually discovers that he did not know her as well as he thought.
“For me, the crime that is in the novel [et qu’on tait pour ne rien divulgâcher], it’s the most serious thing there is, she said, suddenly losing her smile. It was important for me to talk about it because there are far too many women who hide in silence. And then we think it’s because what they experienced isn’t true. »
Complementary professions
Through the plot, The second house addresses glaring current social issues, which Charlène Desjardins’ profession inevitably fuels.
In the police, we see a lot of human distress, we often have calls regarding mental health. We come into contact with these realities and it is certain that it must have an impact on my writing. I guess it helps me build characters that are deeper.
Charlene Desjardins
“And I have a lot of knowledge now that I can use to bring a little more realism to my books,” she adds.
Between the profession of policewoman and that of a novelist, there are many more similarities than one might believe, in fact. Charlène Desjardins is convinced that the two are completely complementary, and she would not give up either.
“The main quality to have in the police is to be able to adapt. It’s the same thing in a book, because sometimes your characters take you somewhere you didn’t expect, and you follow them there. The big difference is that in a book, you have all the time to think about it; in the police, it’s: go, let’s go! »
But to continue to love writing, she will never force herself to do it if the inspiration is not there. And when she starts with an idea, she chooses a place on the map, somewhere other than Quebec, with the aim of creating a story that would be universal, in a way. “Plus, it makes me discover the city at the same time as I write,” says Charlène Desjardins.
And in all this, what do her colleagues think of the fact that she writes? “They think it’s sick,” she says, laughing. “I wasn’t originally writing to be known, I was just writing for fun. For me, it’s like a dream to be published. »
The second house
Schooner
277 pages