Archives par mot-clé : F.Y. Richard

Une idée de cadeau

Tout ça pour vous dire que l’édition française de « Commissioner B. goes south »* est téléchargeable depuis hier sous le titre « B. comme Bongarçon ». Encore sous le coup de l’émotion je me contenterai pour l’instant de vous balancer quelques lignes à sniffer gratos ↓

Concilier respect de l’environnement et développement de l’activité économique est un double objectif aussi louable que voué à l’échec. La zone industrielle de Rochebourg en était la preuve. Quelques cerisiers du Japon anorexiques et autant de troènes gruyérisés tentaient en vain de séparer les hangars, entrepôts et bâtiments à l’abri desquels on assemblait, peignait, réparait des trucs et des machins. Concession ultime à la végétalisation urbaine, le « Garage Automobile A. Pype SARL » et ses 15 tonnes de charpente métallique, sa couverture multicouche et son bardage double peau en tôles nervurées essayait de faire survivre une bande gazonnée le long de sa clôture.

Le commissaire Brieuc Bongarçon, 3ème circonscription de sécurité publique de Port-Léon, franchit le portail au pas et trouva facilement une place sur le parking visiteurs. Avant même de détacher sa ceinture, son passager ajusta l’espèce de casquette en skaï doublée fourrure synthétique qui, dans ses rêves, lui donnait un look « aviateur de la 2ème guerre mondiale ». En ce début d’après-midi hivernal balayé par un petit vent d’est vicelard, le réchauffement climatique n’était pas au rendez-vous et le lieutenant Castagna était fragile des oreilles.

Négligeant le hall d’exposition, quoique le commissaire commençât à songer sérieusement (et non sans une certaine mélancolie) à remplacer sa bonne vieille Audi A4, les deux flics se dirigèrent vers l’entrée du maous atelier. La porte coulissante, haute d’au moins cinq mètres était entrouverte. Casta risqua un oeil à l’intérieur. Pour s’entendre dire que le garage était fermé le lundi.

Bongarçon prit la relève : « Même pour deux braves fonctionnaires de police qui se les gèlent?

– Ah ok ! J’arrive. » Le gros type en salopette vert bouteille marbrée de cambouis et d’huile de moteur sortit de sous le pont élévateur, remisa la clé à pipe dans sa poche ventrale et s’avança à découvert en s’essuyant les pognes dans un vieux « marcel » déchiré reconverti en essuie-mains, avant de le rouler en boule et le balancer sur le premier établi à portée. Arrivé à hauteur de ses visiteurs, il leur tendit un poignet à peine plus clair que le bouquet de francforts endeuillées qui lui servait de main droite.

B. s’en empara sans faire la chochotte, « Alain Pype ?

– Si seulement ! Nan, moi c’est Nico. Nicolas Bois, son chef d’atelier. Le jour où vous verrez M’sieur Alain mettre les mains dans le cambouis… Vous venez pour la « Mondéo » ?

– Tout juste. Je suis le commissaire Bongarçon et voici le lieutenant Castagna.

Nico Bois arborait une cinquantaine bien nourrie. Sa gestion de l’espace évoquait celle d’un plantigrade en quête de miel. Il précéda ses visiteurs au fond de l’atelier, fermé par le frère jumeau du panneau coulissant de l’entrée.

 

Amazon Kindle  

Fnac et Fnac Kobo devraient se réveiller d’ici 1 jour ou 2 avec le format Epub.

* Epub / Kindle

Thai break

Watch out for that ICE, Joe! You’re talking too much! You’re lucky to be just another awesome character in an even more awesome book by F.Y. Richard ↓

He was genuinely pleased to see Joe. He knew a good guy when he saw one. And Joe’s cooking was definitely worth the trip. Now the fact that Amandine’s former student’s family restaurant was located at the corner of Jacques Dorset Boulevard and « massage alley » also played a part. He waited for the Khao Niao Ma Mouang, a dessert that Joe mastered to perfection, before letting his “work commitments” resurface. As the restaurant owner refilled his cup for the umpteenth time, he pushed forward his first pawn: “By the way, Joe, although I only followed the case from afar, I understand that you lost a neighbor  last year? A pity, really! After this sumptuous meal, a digestive massage at the Phuket Sun would have been very welcome!”

That was a rather heavy pawn, to be sure! Momentarily taken aback, Joe didn’t shut himself off like a Bangkok oyster. Instead, he chose to bounce back. “A digestive massage!  Commissioner sir! I have the weakness of thinking that my cooking rivals the lightness of a hummingbird alighting on a frangipani flower!” Then, in a more serious tone: “Regarding the Phuket Sun, what can I say except that you can’t hide an elephant’s corpse under a water lily leaf? Everyone here knew that sooner or later it would end this way. If Frémaux Street has such a bad reputation, it’s because some of my fellow citizens…” Joe paused. Wasn’t he straying a little too far from the code of silence that was de rigueur in his profession? His voice dropped to a whisper. “…Encouraged in their abuses, it has to be said, by…” Now he was about to criticize the inhabitants of his adopted country!

B., not at all shocked—quite the contrary—gave him a hand. “…By local perverts. Honourable scum, let’s not mince words, my dear Joe!”

Read more? Download Commissioner B. goes south

Epub / Kindle

Nobody’s perfect

A pair of boobs like Ingrid’s didn’t come in every bra! Too bad her older brother was a Gendarmerie officer! She had reassured him right away, though:

“There’s a gendarme and a gendarme. Oscar doesn’t always confide in me, but I know he’s, well, broad-minded. You need to be broad-minded when you have expensive tastes! You, for example, if you want to keep a chick like me…”

“Melons like yours you mean? ‘Oscar’! What a name. What got into your parents?”

“I’m sorry, but ‘Achilles’…”

“That was my grandfather’s name. He was an artist. He taught me to pick my first locks. He just shouldn’t have been a boozer, that’s all.”

“You mean your gramps, his heel was his liver?”

“?”

Achilles was better at burglary than general knowledge. Ingrid had to explain to him that the ancient Greeks—he didn’t want to hear about the modern ones—celebrated a guy by the name of Achilles. “A kind of Marvel superhero, as it were. When she’d plunged him into the Styx, a river that made local bathers immortal (provided they were completely immersed, his mother had had no choice but to hold him by the heel.”

“As long as she didn’t hold him by his willy…” In addition to her legendary breasts, Achilles found it flattering to sleep with an intellectual. Not to mention that over the years, his collaboration with her Oscar of a brother had proved more than fruitful for both. At first, of course, Oscar had been discreet about his extra activities at the barracks. But between brothers-in-law or almost, sooner or later, secrets come out. “You’re a broad-minded gendarme, I’m a thief who’s anything but ungrateful. Why not explore the coincidence in our respective best interests?”

Read more? Download Commissioner B. goes south

Epub / Kindle

 

Okay, okay !

Okay, so you don’t speak French and you couldn’t care less about French writers. Down with Rabelais, Marcel Proust, and whoever came in between, before, or after! Okay,  all you wanna know is that Commissioner B. is about to head south!!!

Okay, okay! But don’t you want to take a quick look at one last excerpt? To make sure that after downloading Commissioner B. Goes South as soon as it’s available, you won’t regret wasting nearly $3 with no chance of getting a refund from those crooks at Amazon…

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Bongarçon had time to stop by the nick to check the contents of the briefcase. When he pulled into the parking lot, he ran into Chomsky and Repu. They were wrestling with Santa Claus. Handcuffed, disheveled, his beard askew, Santa had left one boot behind in the police car. He was clinging to the door with all his might, determined not to spend Christmas Eve in a cell.

“Cut the crap, you bastard!” Sub-Brigadier Chomsky was not in the mood for niceties that evening, it seemed.

“Can we get some information?” Bongarçon inquired.  “Did Santa Claus double park his sleigh or something?”

“We picked him up on the sidewalk in front of the Modern Galleries, sir. He was exposing himself to customers. The security guard didn’t know what to do.” With that, Chomsky landed another slap on the miscreant, who let go of the door and slid to the ground. Now they’d have to carry this fat drunk!

Commissioner B. would have gladly lent a hand to his men, but it was much too cold in the parking lot. He slipped away and entered the station. At the front desk, Travers was tidying up his counter before calling it a day. He eyed the shabby briefcase.

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Still wanna risk your almost 3 bucks ?