A small-town rivalry that leads to tragedy. But it’s a delightfully funny ride watching events unfold…

The town of Opoual is famous for one thing, well, one person rather — Matthias Ticot, a daring explorer who discovered a miracle algae called spaciruline deep in the Pacific.   But as humanity started to fight over spaciruline because of its healing powers, Ticot ended his life before he could tell anyone where it could be found, putting an end to any conflicts over it.

Firmin Posteur recounted Ticot’s remarkable story in an obscure biography he wrote in the early 20th century.  Many years later the town of Opoual erected a statue in Ticot’s honor becoming a tourist destination.  But then it was discovered that Matthias Ticot never actually existed and that Firmin Posteur’s book was more of a novel than anything else.

This set up a decades-long battle between the citizens of Opoual about whether or not to take down the statue, continuing on to present day where there are two rival families…the Fernals and the Mondhes.

One Saturday morning when the Fernals’ daughter Margaux arrives in the home at their bequest, she finds two dead men, wearing scuba diving suits, in the living room.  Her parents and their dogs and their car are nowhere to be found.  An investigation ensues trying to figure out what happened which serves as the entry point to learn this story of the quirky town of Opoual and the unusual dynamics between the people who live there.

Fabienne Betting was born in Moselle. After studying science, she specialized in medical image processing. She began writing short stories for fun, then wrote her first novel, Bons Baisers de Mesménie (Autrement, 2016; J’ai Lu, 2017), followed by La Théorie des poignées de Main (Les Escales, 2020).