SHELL SHOCK – WATTEAUX – Linwood Messina

Information

Author:

Michaëla Watteaux

Date:

Black Lab
January 2025

Author:

Italy: Nord
(exclusive submission)

Additional Info

SHELL SHOCK

Rights Holder: Black Lab
Original Language: French

An original crime novel set in the 1920s as telephone operators are being murdered and disfigured WWI soldiers are the suspects...

In 1925, Jeanne, a young feminist journalist, goes undercover to work at the Gütenberg Telephone Exchange in order to investigate the harsh working conditions of the "telephone girls."

One such telephone operator named Tatiana is brutally murdered, and is found with a mask covering her face; a mask typically worn by a WWI soldier who returned home to France disfigured. This murder resembles the work of a serial killer known the "Halles Butcher," who has been terrorizing women in the capital for months. Is it the same murderer or is a new killer on the loose?

Inspector Paul Varenne, a cocaine and opium addict due to his war injuries, does not believe in the Halles Butcher theory. Suspicions quickly fall on Mangrin, the telephone exchange's security guard. Then, Jeanne is murdered just like Tatiana. It would seem that the operators of the Gütenberg Telephone Exchange are being targeted. Or did Jeanne discover something that nobody was meant to know?

In the Paris of the Roaring Twenties, where artists, writers, and disfigured war veterans mingle, and where women demand social equality, Varenne embarks on a frantic race to catch a killer who shows no signs of stopping, while some seem in no hurry for him solve the case.

Michaëla Watteaux s an author, screenwriter, and director of documentaries and feature films. She has also taught screenwriting and directing.

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