The Awkward Squad

The Awkward Squad is a quirky, off-beat crime novel, set in Paris. In some respects, it reminded me a little of the BBC series New Tricks (a cold case unit made up of misfits), but in other respects it was very much its own brand of oddness.

After a fatal shooting incident, Commissaire Anne Capestan is appointed head of the Awkward Squad (a French UCOS), where she has to overcome a series of setbacks, mainly the run-down offices and the rag-tag band of officers under her command. The book is written with pace and humour, and the character of Anne Capestan, and many of the other outcasts, is easy to warm to.

The underlying operating added-on pleasure of this effective-enough if a bit muddled police procedural is that we are rooting for this team of 'rejected' police officers. Headed up by Capstan, a wild shooter who let loose at wrong time in her past (and so she's assigned here only without a gun - she has one at home though), a jinxed colleague whose colleagues find association to him lethal, a retired novelist who is also an officer (with small dog in tow), etc we want them to succeed in the cold cases they are assigned. Their anomalous presence sometimes helps them find what they seek since they are under the radar - sorry of unseen - and they solve cases. Everyone seems to follow different cases though, and that's where, for me, things fell down a little - got kind of confused. But I still read on, and I hope series will continue. Very entertaining.

I really enjoyed this book - it got a bit police procedural for me, after the original beginning, but I enjoyed the clear image of Paris and the distinctive characters. A few terms were difficult to get used to, the rankings of the officers for instance, but that was just a little bit. When it centered around the main characters it flowed really well.

I would like to thank Netgalley and MacLehose Press for an advance copy of The Awkward Squad, a Parisian police procedural.

Commissaire Anne Capestan has been suspended from duty for six months, pending an investigation into her shooting of an unarmed suspect. She is facing dismissal but to her surprise she is re-instated and put in charge of a new cold case department which will be the dumping ground for all officers they would like to but can't sack (think Mick Herron's Slow Horses). This ragtag team start with a couple of murders but soon discover there is more to both the murders and their setup than meets the eye.

I enjoyed The Awkward Squad. It is a fairly light read but the murders are well plotted and held my interest throughout. Initially I found the constant swapping between the two plotlines a bit annoying and distracting (the copy I have doesn't give any notice of the POV change) but I soon got used to it and enjoyed the contrast of styles and characters.

Much of the novel is taken up with the characters and their backstories of how they came to be on the squad and how they mesh together to become an effective team. It is a bit of a cliché of the career down and outs rising to the challenge but Ms Hénaff manages it with aplomb and draws the reader in with her inventive characters and light humour - it will take me a while to forget the memorable scene of a police pursuit in a street cleaning vehicle!

There is much to like in The Awkward Squad and it is a very pleasant read so I have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

This is a wonderful offbeat translated French crime novel located in Paris. In 2012 Commissaire Anne Capestan is awaiting her fate, wondering if she will still have a job after her latest fatal shooting incident. Her boss, Buron, tells her she is cleared but she is to have a new role as the head of about 4o officers, all of whom are a rag tag bunch of failures, misfits and troublemakers, that they are unable to sack. The job of the awkward squad is to look into cold cases and try to solve them. Oddly enough, Anne is undaunted by this prospect.

The squad are located in some far flung, ill equipped, and run down office suite with neither the tools for the job or the power. In a difficult start, less than a handful of officers turn up, although it eventually goes up to around 10. It's a varied bunch such as Merlot, who is an alcoholic, Evrard is a compulsive gambler, Torrez is regarded as a malevolent curse as his partners have all had the most terrible misfortune befall them and no-one wants to work with him, Lebreton is gay in a prejudiced and discriminatory police force, and the lonely Rosier has made a fortune from writing about cops. Rosier and Lebreton look into the 1993 murder of Yann Guenon, an unemployed sailor. Anne steps up and partners Torrez to investigate the botched burglary that resulted in the murder of the elderly Marie Sauzelle. Despite the initial judgement of the team as less cold case and more basket case, our oddballs find comfort and support in each other to raise morale despite being mocked, sidelined and disowned by the official police hierarchy. Capestan begins to wonder if there is an ulterior motive in setting their unit up. Their investigations awaken a killer who strikes again as it becomes clear that the cases of Yann Guenon and Marie Sauzelle are both connected with a ferry disaster that took place off the coast of Florida years ago.

The novel is a great read, with a narrative that has terrific humour and heart. Once you start reading, you become gripped by the characters and the predicaments they find themselves in. They redecorate and equip their offices in a way that reflects them, including Rosier's dog, Pilou. It is barely surprising that it becomes more home than their actual homes to them. I am hoping this is the first of the series, I loved it that much. Highly recommended. Thanks to Quercus for an ARC.