We no longer have to introduce Jean-Jacques Pelletier, the long-distance runner of the Quebec thriller. His gargantuan work already has more than 10,000 pages divided into more than fifteen large novels, short stories and essays. Pelletier is a world in itself, a reflection of ours. The universe he has created over time is based on the demonstration of human stupidity and greed. And this brand new opus, Nothing…, is immediately in the same line. It is a hard, relentless and, unfortunately, particularly lucid book.
Nothing… takes place at a hectic pace. Once again, the plot is multiple and quickly overflows the radius of action of the SPVM (Service de police de la Ville de Montréal) even if we find Henri Dufaux and his team of young investigators nerd : Kodak, Parano and the three Sarahs in slightly different roles. As if to underline the dimension and the importance of the investigation that is beginning, we will even see the reappearance of old characters, such as Natalya and Victor Prose.
All these fine people face, from the outset, an assassination linked to a case of domestic violence, but Dufaux and his team will soon be confronted with the conspiratorial movement and, even more serious, with an organization with international ramifications. Without divulging anything, we will see them forced to fight people who carefully prepare the apocalypse in order to make the most of it. By trying to unravel the threads of the scheme which has implications in Quebec, Dufaux will even find himself the tutor, despite himself, of a teenager struggling with Asperger’s syndrome…
To tell all this, Pelletier jumps from one plot to another with mastery while using, as usual, quotes from social networks and more “official” media. It’s his trademark and he knows how to use it like no one else to underline with a red line the gap and the fatuity of what is now perceived as information. This is also where a very compromising video emerges: Dufaux finds himself at the heart of a spider’s web woven from scratch and which makes him a pedophile abusing the teenager in his care. THE deepfake is so convincing that everything changes.
The proof has been made, we can no longer even trust the “truth” of the images… which further underlines the extent to which the words found on social networks no longer have any weight. It will therefore be necessary for Dufaux and his team to invest mountains of creativity and perseverance to succeed in reversing the current and… “saving the world”. For now.
Beyond the complexity of the plot, we will note here how the plot is brilliantly orchestrated by those who intend to take advantage of the apocalypse. The references to what has become our daily reality, particularly to the suicidal dogmatism that often hides under the concept of “freedom of expression”, are likely to make you shudder…